YOUTH M O V E NATIONAL

Youth MOVE National supports an expansive network of chapters and members. The Youth MOVE Chapter Network is inclusive of over 40 Chapters nationwide, structured at the local and state level and provide recreation and peer networking, community involvement and advocacy, social marketing and awareness building, youth voice development and leadership, personal development and empowerment, and peer services. Youth MOVE chapter members bring valuable lived experience and voice to the table from the following systems, settings, and historically and presently excluded populations: mental health, substance misuse and recovery, juvenile justice, education, child welfare, residential treatment, houseless youth, Native youth, HIV/AIDS, vocational rehabilitation, physical disability, 2SLGBTQIA+, parenting youth, and more. Youth advocates within the Youth MOVE Chapter Network are connected through local programming, statewide advisory and leadership structures, and national-level participation and representation. Chapters are the grassroots, community-built foundation that unites the voices and causes of youth across the nation with Youth MOVE National. Chapters provide brave spaces for youth to convene, share similar experiences, and strategize on systems change.

Youth serving organizations in behavioral health, child welfare, juvenile justice, and other systems are increasingly investing in the development of youth peer delivered services. Youth MOVE National provides leadership, coordination, and resources for those working to establish programming that is inclusive of lived experience, promotes youth leadership skills, values youth and young adults as meaningful partners, and is responsive to youth needs. A major component of these efforts is to support communities in the expansion of the service array to include the development and implementation of youth peer support programming. Through these efforts Youth MOVE National offers training and technical assistance resources that help facilitate community dialogue around critical components needed to assess readiness (both in informal settings and for formalized, billable service delivery), build infrastructure and capacity, and to expand the use of youth peer support as an enhancement to the existing youth-driven programs offerings in local communities. Through the delivery of community specific implementation coaching, and the operation of the Youth MOVE Peer Center, Youth MOVE National is advancing the priorities of the youth peer workforce as identified in the 2018 Youth Peer Support Priority Agenda. Youth MOVE Chapters additionally provide valuable foundations for informal peer support via group meetings, projects, and campaigns, as well as supporting a positive peer environment for youth with lived systems experience. Youth MOVE National provides individualized coaching and consulting to communities and states working to implement youth peer support, including strategic work around curriculum and training, hiring and recruiting, and supervision.