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Capacity Building

Illinois Collaboration on Youth (ICOY) offers vital training and technical assistance programs for youth service and child welfare providers, community stakeholders, and public agencies and boards. These programs focus on issues affecting children, youth, and families in Illinois, aiming to divert youth from the juvenile justice and child welfare systems and improve behavioral health. Our programs help providers expand operational, financial, and programmatic capabilities with a trauma-informed and race equity lens, helping communities develop a systematic approach to long-term change. We call this broad system of change management and purposeful training "capacity-building".

 We know that strengthening the capacities of community-based providers can lead to a more effective and sustainable system in the service of our state's children and youth.

Professional Development Training:

ICOY provides the following types of professional development training: fee-for-service and DHS-sponsored program provider training. All training is culturally sensitive, developmentally appropriate, trauma-informed, and provides training participants with best-practice knowledge. We also provide Continuing Education Units (CEUs) to qualifying licensed professionals who attend our training events. As a leader in professional development for youth service and child welfare providers, we also have a large network of trainers on various topics that support building thriving communities.

Technical Assistance:

ICOY provides customized fee-for-service and DHS-sponsored technical assistance to communities and youth practitioners to create systems-level change, decrease racial and ethnic disparities in the juvenile justice system, and prevent youth from entering the child welfare and juvenile justice systems. Technical assistance comes in many forms, including policy review and analysis, assessment and review of organizations, programs, and/or systems,  development of action planning, research, resources, and other activities as needed to support high-quality services for children, youth, and families.

Capacity Building Assessment Tool for Organizations (CBAT-O)

The CBAT-O was developed over a decade ago through a Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) capacity-building grant to help agencies become more trauma- informed. In partnership with the Illinois Department of Human Services (IDHS), ICOY conducts the CBAT-O to advance each participating organization’s ability to provide trauma-informed services and improve their ability to serve all youth. Read more about the CBAT-O here.

Attendance Policy for Virtual Trainings

Effective July 1, 2022, ICOY has updated our attendance policy to capture attendance and participation in our trainings as accurately as possible. Please note: failure to follow these guidelines may result in attendees' participation being marked as incomplete and render them ineligible to receive Continuing Education Units (CEUs) or Certificates of Attendance (COAs). Review the complete details of the policy here.

See Where ICOY Builds Capacity

Learn how ICOY can help strengthen your organization’s ability to recognize and respond to trauma.

Learn how ICOY helps youth service agencies and communities decrease youth incarceration and improve reform efforts.

Learn how ICOY strengthens organizations’ ability to ensure youth in destabilized housing situations stay safe, stable and on the path to their full potential.

Learn how ICOY supports the community-based providers serving more than 80% of the children, youth and families in Illinois’ child welfare system.

Learn how ICOY helps youth service agencies and community-based providers enhance opportunities for youth to gain skills, support, and resources to reach their full potential.

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Learn how ICOY works with ACT Now to promote funding opportunities to child and youth-serving organizations across the state