Oregon Youth Mental Health Corps (YMHC)
The Youth Mental Health Corps (YMHC) is a collaborative initiative that supports youth mental health in schools and communities while giving young adults on-ramps into behavioral health careers. In partnership with the Schultz Family Foundation, Pinterest, and America Forward, the Youth Mental Health Corps will consist of mental health navigators who are trusted young adults serving in select schools and communities.
YMHC’s goals are to:
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Meet youth where they are: in schools, afterschool programs, community health centers, or youth-centered organizations.
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Offer young people interested in addressing our nation’s youth mental health crisis with an opportunity to provide peer support while obtaining quality training, skills, experience, and credentials to start a career in behavioral health.
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Increase the capacity of schools, community-based organizations, community health clinics, and behavioral health organizations to respond to the growing youth mental health crisis and provide support for the most vulnerable youth.
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Share best practices on healthy social media use, digital safety and wellbeing, and online safety with youth, school and community-based organizational staff, parents/care providers, and community members.
Oregon’s YMHC focuses on three pathways:
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School-based stackable certification/higher education credit pathway
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Community Health Worker state certification
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Peer Support Specialist state certification
Get involved:
Programs participating in the Youth Mental Health Corps initiative are listed below. Interested applicants are encouraged to apply directly through each program’s recruitment links.
To learn more, visit the Youth Mental Health Corps website:
https://www.youthmentalhealthcorps.org/state/oregon-youth-mental-health-corps