Young Parent Initiative

Young Parent Initiative (Young Parent), a new pilot project of the Center funded by the New York City Human Resources Administration set to launch in July 2023, will build on and leverage other Family Justice programs to serve young parents ages 18-24 who present with child support issues, often before there is any court involvement. The goal of the pilot will be to address the needs of young parents so that they can provide social and economic supports for their young children and reduce or prevent system involvement. Like the Parent Support Program, Young Parent will work with parents to address barriers to providing support and achieving financial security, but the program will also incorporate expertise in infant mental health and early childhood development via consultation and clinical support from the Strong Starts Court Initiative and connecting parents with services to support the parent-child relationship. Young Parent will provide each parent with a Navigator, who will be a young person with lived experience, to assist them with the child support process and other system involvement by helping them build a service plan that includes employment, mental health, and education supports, as well as relational interventions, co-parenting workshops, and conflict resolution services provided by the Center and other programs in the community.

Young Parent will work collaboratively with other Center programs with overlapping missions and services. Young Parent will be co-located with the RISE Project, a community-based initiative that addresses the intersection of intimate partner violence and gun violence. RISE staff work to increase accountability and shift behaviors through individual counseling and case management and provide gender-based groups focused on preventing violence in intimate relationships. Many RISE participants are young people ages 24 or younger, and many are parents. More than 85% of RISE participants are also involved with the Family Court system. Individual support often focuses on developing healthy co-parenting relationships and helps participants navigate the Family Court system, including child welfare, custody and visitation issues, and the child support process. Young Parent will leverage the expertise of RISE as well as the Center’s Gender and Family Justice National Training and Technical Assistance Department to promote safety and community accountability in working with parents for whom intimate partner violence is an issue—an enormous barrier to the safety and well-being of children.