Comprehensive Services Program (CSP)
Our Comprehensive Services Program (CSP) also starts our work with youth by providing the home goods needed to help them set up their first apartments. However, in the CSP program we work more closely with each youth, supporting them in working toward their longer term educational, employment, and socio-emotional goals. The youth in this program typically are ages 21-26 and no longer have the support services that were available to them while they were in foster care. Our licensed social workers design a service plan based on each young person’s unique needs and aspirations, investing in our clients to achieve stability and self-sufficiency. We offer ongoing support and connections with effective counseling, education, and job training programs.
On the career front, CLNY assists youth with resume writing and job searches, career counseling, and interview readiness. Many of our youth have gained employment because of these efforts. We assist young people with education needs – helping college youth with tuition issues, internship guidance and enrollment challenges.
For our non-college enrolled youth, we make referrals to appropriate High School Equivalency (HSE) or vocational programs, and help them plan for the future. CLNY provides youth with mental health referrals, financial literacy training, parenting items, nutritional workshops, and classes designed to promote positive self-care. Most importantly, social workers ensure housing stability; since inception over one third of our CSP clients have needed some sort of housing intervention to become or remain stably housed. While the overall statistics on former foster youth rates of homelessness are staggering, as of today, none of our CSP clients have involuntarily lost their apartments.