Youth Services
Youth Services fosters the social and emotional well-being of children and youth. Services is the place to turn to for mental health services for children and adolescents in Chicago’s northern suburbs. With a unique, highly engaging blend of activity-based programming, Youth Services offers group and individual services focused on early intervention, prevention, education, support, sexual and gender identity support, health education, and crisis response.
The agency works to ensure that every child grows up happy, healthy, and hopeful. The vision is to be the center of collaborative social-emotional support for children and youth.
Most importantly, Youth Services is proud to have the most generous sliding scale program in the area, with many programs offered free-of-charge. No family is ever turned away based on ability to pay.
The Growing Need
Prior to COVID-19, CDC data found that 1 in 5children had a mental health disorder, but only 20%of those children received care from a mental health provider. During the pandemic, the need intensified even more with mental health-related emergency room visits rising nationally by 24% (aged 5 to 11) and 31% (aged 12 to 17) from 2019 to 2020. At Youth Services, we have experience a more than 30% increase in demand across the board for all services.