Скачать или смотреть Making a Difference - AYA Youth Collective

#inclusion #accesstocare #homelessness

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The AYA Youth Collective received $30,000 Community Health Matching grants from the Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan Foundation in 2023, allowing them to immediately implemented impactful services that led to tangible change in their community.

AYA’s drop-in center provides hot meals, laundry services, a computer lab, lockers for storage and more to more than 700 Kent County and West Michigan young people aged 14-24 every year.

AYA CEO and Executive Director Lauren VanKeulen is proud of the comfort provided at the drop-in center and the 90+ housed by the organization since 2012, but over the past couple of years, the organization had a drive to do more in terms of wraparound services it provided to at-risk youth, especially in terms of combatting the rise in homelessness Michigan has seen since the COVID-19 pandemic.

VanKeulen said the top three barriers youth acknowledge when attempting to access care are:
Fear of the system
A prior bad experience
Lack of transportation

AYA is knocking those barriers down and addressing social determinants of health by partnering with a federally qualified health center to launch a telehealth micro suite, on site in Grand Rapids.

BCBSM Foundation funding has also allowed AYA to bring a Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) specialist on site, and grow its crop of on-site therapists.

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, a nonprofit mutual insurance company, is an independent licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association. BCBSM provides and administers health benefits to more than 4.4 million members residing in Michigan in addition to employees of Michigan-headquartered companies who reside outside the state.

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