Catalyst Center / Childrens Services Foundation

- Thriving Into Adulthood - The Thriving into Adulthood Project aims to reduce the risk of homelessness and increase the capacity of housing and service options for transition aged youth. Through the strength of existing partnerships and the development of new collaborative relationships, we will leverage youth identified supports needed to help them thrive into adulthood. This project is funded by the Conrad Hilton Foundation.- Catalyst to Wellbeing in Community Apprenticeship Program Partnership - The Catalyst Center and Chabot Las Positas Community College District have partnered together to create a Behavioral Health Apprenticeship program that will address the workforce crisis and pipeline issues many students face. We expect to get the initial pilot running by the Fall 2023.- Stuart Foundation - In 2022, the Catalyst Center was awarded a grant from the Stuart Foundation to explore and uncover barriers, challenges, and the enabling conditions for successful systems alignment for coordinated care. This grant was used to support Catalyst and Alliance activities that provided our team an opportunity to gather information on student-centered systems alignment, with a focus on key elements for equitable distribution of funds and services, successful community-schools partnerships, and balancing local-level implementation with overarching systems change.- Casey Family Programs - In 2022, the Catalyst Center partnered with Casey Family Programs to establish the Youth First project a pilot program in which Catalyst and Casey designed and delivered capacity-building training and technical assistance to a cohort of providers seeking to implement Enhanced Care Programs (ECPs). Through Youth First, we developed the ECP Guide that serves as a manual to assist counties and providers with the development and implementation of individualized programs serving foster youth with unmet complex needs to safely and successfully thrive in family and community-based settings.- California Provider Helpline - 1-833-99YOUTH (999-6884) - Through our DHCS partnership, we used our expertise to guide Short Term Residential Treatment Program (STRTP) providers as they navigated new regulations that would result in them being designated as Institutions of Mental Disease (IMD). Through our partnership with CDSS, we delivered technical assistance through our California Provider Helpline, guiding foster care and youth residential care providers with tools, tips, and resources in effort to improve the quality and consistency of care provided to youth within our California systems.

The Catalyst Center is a leading training and technical assistance organization for California providers, leaders, staff, and stakeholders in the child and family service sector. Through partnerships with the California Department of Social Services (CDSS) and the Department of Health Care Services (DHCS), the Catalyst Center hosted trainings that ranged from policy/regulatory updates to innovative practice techniques, such as Client Development with Hip-Hop Music. Within nine months of launching our training platform, our reach has grown to over 2,500 individuals.