Asian Association Of Utah

Behavioral health services the aau behavioral health program, licensed by the utah department of health and human services (dhhs) is dedicated to providing trauma-informed, culturally responsive, and low-barrier behavioral health care for individuals and families ages 5 and up. Supported by state, local, and private funding, the program's multidisciplinary, highly experienced team utilized evidence-based models to promote recovery from substance use, domestic violence, and various mental health conditions. Direct client services provided include behavioral health evaluation and therapy, medication management, outpatient drug and substance use counseling, domestic violence counseling for both victims and perpetrators, and targeted behavioral case management. Therapy services in the fiscal year ending june 30, 2024, aau served 591 clients located throughout the state through this program. This includes 295 evaluation appointments, over 2500 hours of individual and family therapy sessions, 250 hours of case management, and 156 hours of medication management. Education and training in addition, certified mental health first aid instructors on staff provided both adult and youth focused mental health first aid courses to local providers aimed to teach participants how to recognize the signs and symptoms of a mental health challenge and when to connect an individual with professional support services. A total of 123 individuals were trained, 63 in youth mental health first aid curriculum, and 60 in adult mental health first aid. Organizations trained included aau, catholic community services, west valley city library, utah department of health and human services, cache refugee and immigrant connection, and the inn between. Psychoeducation courses were provided to children at the sunnyvale afterschool program. Pilot programs included 6-week psychoeducation course provision that taught students about emotions, coping, self-care, and well-being. Two 6-course sessions were provided, and 20 students attended trainings.

Human trafficking support (hts) services hts services are funded through multiple federal, state, local, and private grants. Through these grants, we are able to serve all victims of both sex and labor trafficking, of all ages, genders, and immigration statuses statewide. During the year ending june 30, 2024, hts served 900+ survivors of human trafficking across hts programming. Program referrals outreach efforts resulted in 404 new client referrals to the hts program; a 92% increase from the prior fiscal year. The large volume of referrals is addressed through case management, the interim group list and the drop-in center. Case management hts utilizes a comprehensive services model that is trauma-informed, survivor-centered, culturally and linguistically responsive, and addresses 17+ components of victim needs. This fiscal year hts served 279 trafficking survivors, including 156 primary trafficking survivors and 123 secondary survivors in full case management services. Case managers provided 14,236+ service incidents to enrolled survivors. Service categories included emotional support, safety and health; personal advocacy and accompaniment; information and referrals; shelter and housing; education, employment, and life skills; and criminal/civil justice system assistance. Interim group list/crisis services due to the large volume of referrals during the fiscal year, aau also had to utilize an interim group list. Individuals on the interim group list have access to a crisis case manager, emergency services, referrals, and aau's weekly drop-in center, but are not assigned a permanent case manager nor enrolled in full case management services until space on a caseload is available. Aau provided 2,721 crisis services to individuals on the interim group list. Services included crisis case management, information and referrals, legal, safety, medical/dental, education, emotional support, employment, financial assistance, housing assistance/advocacy, interpretation, mental health, basic needs, substance abuse treatment, transportation, among other services. Drop-in center hts runs a weekly drop-in center. The drop-in center, funded through multiple grants, offers multiple services on a walk-in basis. Hts provided 3,205 services to 281 unduplicated individuals through 859 visits to the drop-in center. The services include necessities such as food (ready-made and dry goods), clothing, personal care items, medical screening/ treatment, housing services, daily bus passes, crisis case management, peer support, medicaid application assistance, harm reduction including syringe exchange and safe sex kits, alternative menstrual care, access to bathrooms and safe, temperature-controlled spaces. Aau collaborates with 4 partners agencies weekly to provide these critical services to exploited populations. Housing programming hts housing services address needs across the housing spectrum: emergency shelter, short term rental assistance, transitional housing, and permanent housing. Hts provided transitional housing to 38 survivors, 14 through a master lease contract with the housing authority of salt lake city and provided 384 incidents of rental assistance to survivors in utah, totaling 232,349. Additionally, hts provided 50 incidents of emergency hotel assistance, many of them multiple night stays, totaling 18,688. Economic empowerment this fiscal year, hts has enhanced our economic empowerment services. These services include crisis management, career exploration, financial literacy, educational opportunities, skill building/work readiness, and employment services, among others. Hts provided 1014+ economic empowerment services to survivors in utah. Community engagement increasing the community's capacity to identify and respond to human trafficking is another key focus area of the hts services. This is accomplished through coordinated education, outreach, and strategic partnership activities. This fiscal year hts trained 2001 community members in human trafficking awareness through 59 presentations, reached 1150+ community members through 46 outreach events, and established 214+ new collaborative partners with 39+ formal memorandums of understanding (mous). Statewide task force as the lead victim services partner for the utah trafficking in persons (utip) task force, aau's hts has partnered with the utah attorney general's office since 2015 to co-facilitate the statewide task force. This multi- disciplinary group aims to enhance utah's response to human trafficking through investigation, prosecution, and victim services. Notable projects include co-hosting a statewide human trafficking conference with 520+ attendees, the submission of a new grant application to doj for the continuation of the taskforce grant and participating as key partner in the restructuring of the task force to more closely align with the doj. New funding: this fiscal year hts received six new grants: one new federal grant focused on minor victims of trafficking, one state grant, two local grants focused on housing, and one private grant focused on direct services and housing support.