Ucan

Youth development prevention/other includes multiple violence prevention programs in and around north lawndale, riverdale, and roseland as well as safe passage programs to ensure safety for school aged children walking to school. This area also includes workforce development programs that range from summer jobs programs, internship programs, and job skills training.

Ucan's foster parenting program primary goal of foster care is to restore children safely to their families and foster parents play an essential function in helping the child and parents maintain their family bond during the period of separation. If a child cannot return home, foster parents may provide a permanent home. When this happens, the foster parents eventually assume legal responsibility for the child as the guardian or through adoption.

Ucan academy, comprised of two campuses across chicago, is an innovative 1st through 12th grade year-round therapeutic day school. A special education curriculum is used by experienced staff to help students who have experienced difficulties in previous school setting and who benefit from a smaller, more individualized classroom setting. As the largest and one of the most recognized therapeutic day schools in the area, each child enrolled in ucan academy comes to us with a unique set of needs. We used a staff-intense environment for more one-on-one attention. Our students, while coming from diverse and distinct backgrounds, have all experienced difficulties in public or private school settings. Many have become discouraged about learning. We help them to see schooling in a positive light and to reach their highest potential.

Independent living/transitional living - provide youth, young adults and teen parents with the skills necessary to live self-sufficiently, and provide a safe environment for the pregnant and/or parenting clients and their children

Ucan's workforce development career services help families achieve economic and social self-sufficiency. Career services' goal is to offer participants the knowledge, skills and confidence to become successful in the workplace by inspiring, motivating and educating clients to pursue a career path, whether or not they are currently in school. Utilizing career interest inventories and workforce assessments, staff are able to assist participants in identifying their strengths and goals so they are able to make an informed decision while pursuing employment opportunities.

Ucan's teen parenting service network is a statewide network that works exclusively with pregnant and parenting youth in dcfs care and their children. In managing statewide services for pregnant and parenting youth under a single umbrella, ucan provides seamless service to placement providers and pregnant and parenting youth through a continuum of care. Ucan provides a full scope of clinical, training, education and parenting services designed to help young parents coping with the effects of trauma. Ucan starts by meeting youth where they are at, identifying strengths and building from success. Ucan staff members are trained to identify and treat the effects of trauma while enhancing the parenting capacity of youth so that they can be the best parents that they can be.

Ucan's behavioral health services provide outpatient therapy to people who have experienced trauma. Working with youth, adults and families in a variety of settings, ucan's culturally diverse counselors and youth development specialists help consumers address such complex issues as abuse, neglect, behavioral problems, separation and loss. We create individualized treatment plans to meet their needs.