Teens Go Green: Mental Health Life Skills Program

About the Program

Category: Children and Youth (Best in Category)

Year: 2011

One San Diego County mental health program combines proven and innovative practices and activities, including life skills, to help prepare teenagers struggling with serious emotional challenges or mental illnesses for adulthood. The teens engage in community service work, internships, and a vast array of educational experiences that offer knowledge and empowerment. The program has established partnerships with business, law enforcement, college, and other organizations to provide experience beyond their four walls. Through an innovative gardening project, the youth worked with chefs and gardeners to achieve healthy results they can see through the vegetables that grew. This also helped the teens to establish positive relationships with one another. Operated by a contracted service provider, the Clark Adolescent treatment program serves 24 seriously emotionally disturbed adolescents, ages 13 to 18, through an integrated approach that involves family member participation, alcohol and drug abuse counseling, and a focus on individual strengths while developing resilience.