Youth Center of Texas

On March 1, 2020, The Youth Center opened its Sunflower Home Program, an 8-bedroom transitional living program for female identifying survivors of CSEY ages 18-22, and their babies. The Youth Center is actively contributing to fill the gap in providing services to youth aging out of foster care; youth that without a continuum of services are at elevated risk of homelessness, incarceration, revictimization and most likely to engage in survival-sex and substance abuse. Currently, the population served at Youth Center is 50% Hispanic/Latina; 10% Black/African American; 10% White, non-Latina/Caucasion; 30% Multiple races and approximately 19.2 years. Most survivors have also reported one or more history of secondary victimizations including sexual abuse, bullying, child sexual abuse, family violence and hate crimes. In 2023, the program served 114 survivors in Bexar County and provided 1,152 bed nights at the Sunflower Home with an average stay length of 110 days. The Sunflower Home program provides Transitional Living Housing and Day Services in a holistic, individualized and trauma-informed program with services and support provided by case managers trained in Trust-Based Relational Intervention, individual and group therapy by a licensed professional counselor (LPC) certified in Trauma-Focus Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and Dialectical Behavioral Therapy , and Nurturing Parenting Program for survivors who are pregnant and/or have children provided by a certified Case Manager. At the Sunflower Home Program, each survivor is assessed using the CSE-IT (Commercial Sexual Exploitation Identification Tool) screening upon admission into the program. Our program utilizes a relational and strategic framework of services for all Survivors based on Trust-Based Relational Intervention and the Transtheoretical Model of Change. The framework is intended to improve trauma-informed best practices to produce better outcomes for each survivor, promptly identifying and responding to gaps in services and increasing success while building sustainable capacity. Each developing goal is created and evaluated for outcomes quarterly during meetings between survivor and assigned case manager.