As we closed this past fiscal year, we celebrated 55 years of providing comprehensive services to Stanislaus County. This year brought meaningful progress and milestones that strengthened our ability to serve children, youth and families.

One of our major accomplishments was the opening of the Youth and Family Behavioral Health Center. This facility expands our capacity to provide mental health counseling and substance use treatment for transitional-age youth and their families—ensuring timely, high-quality care. The new center was made possible through a fully funded grant from the Behavioral Health Continuum Infrastructure Program within the Department of Health Care Services.

Our Behavioral Health Department also demonstrated strong results with the implementation of our new Integrated Mental Health model. By placing a clinician at each contracted school site, students with mild to severe needs can access consistent support without interruption. This model strengthens continuity of care, reduces barriers to services, and deepens collaboration with our school partners.

We made tremendous progress in advancing whole-person care across our services as well. With targeted grant funding, we implemented CalAIM’s Enhanced Care Management (ECM) within the Youth Navigation Center. This expansion allows us to provide intensive, coordinated support for youth experiencing homelessness—helping them navigate housing, health care, education, and stability with a personalized, compassionate approach.

The Youth Navigation Center advances its goal of ending youth homelessness in Stanislaus County. Through strong partnerships, we helped place more young people into permanent housing, including at Jenny’s Place, a City of Modesto housing project. We know that safe, stable housing is the foundation for a young person’s success, allowing them to focus on next steps such as securing employment and continuing their education.

Our Youth Services Department continued to grow in response to the evolving needs of students and school districts. This year, many staff completed Wellness Coach certification, broadening our ability to serve campuses. These coaches are strengthening relationships with administrators and students, reducing stigma around mental health, and equipping youth with tools to manage stress, emotions, and daily challenges. We look forward to building on this momentum in the year ahead.

Our Family Resource Centers continue to provide trusted support and access to services, concrete needs, parent and child education classes to enhance the wellbeing of children and families within those communities.

As always, we appreciate the opportunity to share our work with you. We remain committed to advancing our mission of changing lives and building futures through programs that strengthen and support youth and families. Thank you for your continued trust and partnership.

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