A MONTHLY REPORT CARD ON PROGRESS IN IMPROVING YOUTH MENTAL HEALTH IN THE CITY OF ALEXANDRIA

June 28, 2023: The City of Alexandria Children & Youth Community Plan 2025 (CYCP) sets long-term priorities and provides a roadmap to success through community-wide coordination and delivery of services to all city children from birth to 21 years-old and their families. 

CYCP 2025 goals include ensuring that all children, youth and families: 1) are physically safe and healthy 2) are academically successful and career ready and 3) have positive experiences.

Each month, the CYCP highlights set areas of progress through the CYCP Report Card. Here, the CYCP looks at the progress made in promoting youth mental health and wellness. Adults and institutions like schools and governments have a huge role to play in supporting mental health among infants, children, and youth and creating a world where young people thrive. Fortunately, the same things that improve mental health - like building strong relationships with youth and creating safe and affirming environments for them – help prevent a range of bad experiences, like drug use and violence.

See the report cards and find out how the Department of Community and Human Services and other collaborators have worked to increase access to mental health and wellness services, supports, and resources. See data trends that tell us how we are doing in this area, view art work made by youth that expresses their feelings, find mental health resources and how to access services, and learn what local organizations are doing to improve youth mental health.

As a partner in the group comprising the City’s Unified Implementation Team, the Department of Community and Human Services CYCP Coordinator is working with Alexandria City Public Schools and the Alexandria Health Department to align their three respective strategic plans in areas of shared goals. The Team is guided by three principles: 1) trauma-informed approaches to raise awareness of the prevalence of trauma and target root causes 2) racial equity, which aims to correct systems and policies that negatively impact Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) and 3) the use of developmental assets to mitigate adverse childhood experiences. 

Learn more about building a more trauma-informed and resilient community.