Prevention Services
YFA, believes that prevention and early intervention services are the most effective means to keep children and families from future involvement in areas such as child welfare, juvenile justice, substance misuse and mental health.
CINS/FINS Community Counseling
Community Counseling is a delinquency prevention program, designed to work with non-adjudicated youth who are truant, ungovernable (that is to “have persistently disobeyed the reasonable and lawful demands of the child’s parents or legal custodian, and to be beyond their control”), runaway, and/or at risk of these behaviors due to family problems, interpersonal problems and/or academic challenges. Services provided to youth and their families include: intake screening; a comprehensive child and family assessment; counseling; case management services that include linking families to community-based services; and aftercare planning. Services are provided in the home or other appropriate location such as the youth’s school. The program serves children and youth age 6-17 years old and their families. Funded by the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice through the Florida Network of Youth and Family Services, eligible families can receive free services to improve their youth’s behaviors.
In order to begin services with your child YFA will need to complete a screening with the parent and/or guardian to determine eligibility and to discuss the underlying issues. Once eligibility is determined a case manager will schedule an intake with the child and parent. When the intake is completed the case manager will begin community counseling/case management services. Case managers typically work with the families for 90 days. Once services have started families can expect one on one counseling sessions with the child, teach conflict resolution skills, learn effective communication, linkage to community resources if needed, truancy statute enforcement, and goal setting techniques. For more information, feel free to email us at familyhelp@yfainc.org. Bilingual services are available. For more information on the CINS/FINS process, please click here.
CINS/FINS Community Counseling
(North)
Serving Pasco, Hernando, Sumter and Citrus Counties
Telephone: 352-634-2764
(South)
Serving Polk, Hardee and Highlands Counties
Telephone: 863-499-2430
SNAP
”Stop Now And Plan”
SNAP® which stands for Stop Now And Plan, is an evidence-based cognitive behavioral model that provides a framework for teaching children struggling with behavior issues, and their parents, effective emotional regulation, self-control and problem-solving skills. Funded by the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice through the Florida Network of Youth and Family Services, the program enhances social and problem solving skills through teaching children, ages 6 - 12, how to regulate their emotions, as well as control their impulses. In addition the program provides parents the tools to enhance their skill in helping their children understand and regulate their emotions.
These strategies are taught through a 90-minute session once a week for 13 weeks in which the parents and the youth will attend coinciding groups. Together, the children will participate in role plays, worksheets, and working together to better practice and understand how their choices effect their consequences.
The primary goal of SNAP is to help children to “stop and plan” before they act, to keep them in school and avoid delinquency and school issues. Dinner, child care for non-participating children and transportation support offered for group evenings.
For more information, feel free to contact us:
Pasco County
Email: PascoSNAP@yfainc.org | Telephone: (727) 234-5398
Polk County
Email: PolkSNAP@yfainc.org | Telephone: (727)-597-9688
CARING SCHOOL COMMUNITY
YFA provides Level I Prevention services to children and families using the nationally recognized Caring Schools Community (CSC) curriculum as well as Safer Smarter Kids and Conscious Discipline in Pasco County Elementary schools. Through our partnership with Pasco County Schools, this Substance Abuse Prevention & Intervention program is part of Florida's comprehensive system to reduce the impact of substance abuse and co-occurring disorders on youth and their families. CSC is funded by the Department of Children & Families (DCF) through Central Florida Behavioral Health Network, with the purpose to provide early intervention services to Pasco County children who are at risk of substance abuse.
Cotee River Elementary School
7515 Plathe Road
New Port Richey, FL 34653
Telephone: 727-774-3000
Fax: 727-774-3091
Gulf Highlands Elementary School
8019 Gulf Highlands Drive
Port Richey, Florida 34668
Telephone: 727-774-7700
Fax: 727-774-7791
James M. Marlowe Elementary School
5642 Cecelia Drive
New Port Richey, Florida 34652
Telephone: 727-774-8600
Fax: 727-774-8691
Northwest Elementary School
7229 Hudson Ave
Hudson, FL 34667
Telephone: 727-774-4700
Fax: 727-774-4791
Richey Elementary
6850 Madison St
New Port Richey, FL 34652
727-774-3500
Sunray Elementary School
4815 Sunray Drive
Holiday, FL 34690
Telephone: 727-774-9100
Fax: 727-744-9191
Community Partnership Schools
Certified by the University of Central Florida as a Community Partnership Schools (CPS), this program involves the forming of a long-term partnership among four core partners — a school district, a university or college, a community-based nonprofit, and a healthcare provider, as well as others. This comprehensive model of a community school leverages the social and institutional capital of the partners, making it possible for the school to offer resources and services that address the needs identified by the community. Inspired by a highly successful model in Orlando, and unlike any other program in the Pasco County school district, our focus is on the immediate and unique long term needs of students and families of the Gulfside Elementary School community. Established through a partnership between the Pasco County school district, Premier Community HealthCare Group, Inc., the University of Central Florida, The Florida Department of Health in Pasco County YMCA of the Suncoast, Metropolitan Ministries and Baycare, the program’s goals are to,
increase academic achievement,
bridge the gap between school and home,
increase student attendance,
increase family engagement,
and provide a safe, positive environment for students and families.
Gulfside Elementary, A Community Partnership School
2329 Anclote Boulevard
Holiday, FL 34691
Telephone: 727-774-6053