Projects
Youth Behavioral Health Sub-Committee
The Center for Excellence is coordinating a Youth Behavioral Health Sub-Committee on workforce. The System of Care Advisory Committee has contracted with the Center to implement HB4151 to research state-issued professional authorization options for current and new behavioral health professions, identify the resources and support needed to maintain a strong youth-centered behavioral health workforce, and focus on behavioral health professions that can improve fair access to behavioral health services as well as the diversity of the workforce to better represent the youth population in Oregon.
Behavioral Health Classroom at Sunset High School
The Center for Excellence secured funding from Cambia Foundation to launch a behavioral health classroom at Sunset High School in Beaverton in the Fall of 2024. The initial program was launched with 15 Sunset students in Fall 2024 and has since expanded into a magnet program that will serve over 60 students from all six Beaverton comprehensive high schools in Fall 2026. Participation goals are to continue growth to 100 first-year students in 2026 and help the 35 second-year students who graduate get ready to enter the workforce with industry credentials and clear pathways to internship and further education opportunities.
Students have taken part in work-based learning and services to the school and broader community, including a work-based learning project in which they learned about trauma-informed architecture and design from professionals at Holst Architecture, which then designed two trauma-informed classrooms for the Behavioral Health program and a Wellness Room that serves the entire Sunset student body. They have also created “Anchor Boxes” to pass out among their peers and community members, which contain mental health resources and activities for those in need.
Next goals include further expansion and inclusion of diverse students from across the Beaverton School District, design and implementation of student internship opportunities in local behavioral health workplaces, and the development of advanced coursework in three capstone courses. Sunset High School hopes to apply for a grant in the next funding cycle to support the expansion and collaboration with nascent high school programs across the Northwest, with higher education partners, and professional behavioral health organizations.
The Partnership Pathway Project
The Child and Family Center for Excellence broke new ground with its recently concluded participation in The Partnership Pathway, a demonstration project conducted by the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI), the technical assistance arm of the international Association of Children’s Residential and Community services (ACRC).
The two-year project evaluated how integrating System of Care principles into residential interventions can improve organizational culture, family and youth engagement, and service quality. It was a public-private partnership between the Center for Excellence, ACRC, ODHS, and five residential programs (St. Mary’s Home for Boys, Madrona Recovery, A Village for One, Parrott Creek Child & Family Services, and Nexus Family Healing: Walden Crossing). The Center served as the lead entity under its contract with ODHS and provided invaluable local system expertise and support for project implementation and dissemination.
The Partnership Pathway centers family and youth voice in implementing quality improvement projects based on System of Care values, such as family-driven and youth-guided care, equitability, and data-driven and outcome-focused practice. Consulting teams, consisting of national BBI program, family peer support, and youth peer support experts, guided the five programs through completing the BBI Self-Assessment Tool (SAT) with staff, youth, families, and partners and using co-design principles to generate improvements. Webinars and collaborative learning sessions provided opportunities for provider staff and leaders to learn from each other’s successes and challenges, including a training on Photovoice that programs used to bolster youth treatment engagement.
The project used a mixed-methods participatory action research design that showed statistically significant improvements across all five programs in family engagement based on pre- and post-project SAT data, as well as enhancements in organizational capacity, collaboration with families and youth, organizational culture, and accountability through Ripple Effects Mapping, a qualitative group participatory evaluation method. The programs received coaching on how to sustain implementation of Photovoice and Ripple Effects Mapping as part of their ongoing quality improvement efforts.
Lived Experience Workforce and Direct Services Pilots
A significant accomplishment this year for the Oregon Child & Family Center for Excellence was the successful development and launch of two innovative workforce training programs designed to strengthen Oregon’s human services system.
Through funding from the Oregon Health Authority, the Center for Excellence created and piloted two comprehensive training models: Direct Youth Services Staff Training and Lived Experience Workforce (LEW) Training. These programs were developed in response to statewide workforce needs identified by providers and the Oregon Health Authority, with a focus on increasing workforce capacity, strengthening professional skills, and supporting organizations in delivering high-quality care.
The Center for Excellence partnered with organizations across Oregon to ensure the trainings reflected real-world practice and met the needs of youth-serving professionals. In-person trainings were hosted in the Portland and Medford regions, complemented by virtual learning opportunities that expanded access across the state. Participants reported increased confidence in understanding trauma and brain development, managing challenging situations, engaging youth more effectively, and strengthening communication within their teams.
Intellectual & Developmental Disabilities (IDD)
In 2024, the Oregon Dual Diagnosis Research project published a report outlining the many barriers that young people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) face when trying to access mental health care. In the summer of 2025, the Center for Excellence partnered with the Oregon Health Authority (OHA) to take this work a step further. The Center interviewed providers, family members, regulators, and youth advocates to investigate the question of why mental health professionals so often report feeling unqualified to treat youth with IDD. Ultimately, two intersecting themes emerged: experience and confidence. One of the project’s recommendations was to expand specialized training and better-equip mental health professionals to meet the needs of young people with IDD.
After interviewing a variety of stakeholders, there was general consensus that relatively few mental health professionals were experienced in assessment, diagnosis, and treatment for youth with IDD—and that those who do get specialized training typically get it through field placements and practicums with organizations that focus on youth with IDD.
The Center considered many different practical approaches to addressing these problems. Some of the interviewees suggested continuing education requirements as a pathway to improve expertise (and by extension, access to services), while others recommended partnering with universities to ensure that IDD content is included in degree program requirements. Still others suggested the development of a novel training curriculum that is designed to leverage providers’ existing knowledge and skills to better-serve youth with IDD.
Homeless Youth Solutions Initiative (HYSI)
The Homeless Youth Solutions Initiative is a collaborative effort between social service providers working together to end youth homelessness in Douglas County.
In 2022, the HYSI team put together a Roadmap to guide their work, and in 2025 the team contracted with the Center for Excellence to update that Roadmap. In the year since, the Center has interviewed stakeholders, researched best practices, and developed a set of performance indicators to help track progress. The final report also included strategic guidance for Douglas County housing service providers to help them navigate an increasingly uncertain funding landscape.
The performance indicators in particular represented an exciting new way to examine housing affordability and insecurity—leveraging program effectiveness data to explore the long-term costs and benefits associated with housing services. The Center is hoping to push this work forward at the state level in the future, with the goal of informing lawmakers and the public about the need for (and potential impacts of) a well-resourced housing safety net for vulnerable families and youth.
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