About Northville CARES for Youth

Northville CARES is a collaborative effort of several local City of Northville and Northville Township agencies, organizations, businesses and schools to share resources and programming available to Northville families.

Our Vision

A Community working together to encourage the development of healthy youth.

Our Mission

To engage family, school and community partnerships to strengthen, safeguard and sustain the wellbeing of Northville youth.

Our Purpose

Northville CARES for Youth exists to coordinate a community-driven approach to providing social, emotional, and mental health support to Northville youth. Northville CARES for Youth looks at this issue from a broad perspective to identify gaps, encourage efficiencies, and leverage resources on a community-wide level. Northville CARES for Youth does not implement direct programs and services but serves to promote collective action among community partners to support youth wellbeing by encouraging the following strategies: 

  • Identifying the needs of kids.
  • Creating awareness and promoting programs and services that support these needs and collectively strategizing to respond where there are gaps identified.
  • Generating communication pathways among various community stakeholders.
  • Promoting partnership opportunities among stakeholders.

Conceptual Framework

Wellbeing can be defined in many ways and it is important to examine the concept through a wholistic lens. Northville CARES for Youth has identified four Focus Areas that address a comprehensive approach to youth wellbeing:

  • Mental Health
  • Life Skills & Support
  • Physical Health
  • Personal Safety

Defined as Pillars of Optimal Wellbeing, these core beliefs describe what is necessary for youth to live a life that is happy, healthy, thriving, and fulfilling and to develop to their highest potential.

Engagement Plan

The social, emotional, mental, and physical health needs of Northville youth are diverse, complex, and ever-increasing. While the Northville community is fortunate to have a vast array of resources to support the wellbeing of youth, it is increasingly necessary to respond to these growing needs in a more strategic, coordinated, and collaborative way. It is important to emphasize that Northville CARES does not exist to develop and implement the supports necessary to meet these needs, but to build capacity within the community and to encourage collective action in response to these needs. Northville CARES has developed an Engagement Plan designed to effectively strengthen this community response.

Engagement Plan
Needs Assessment – Northville CARES will conduct research activities and/or utilize existing sources of data to learn about important issues and challenges faced by youth and parents/caregivers to determine effective community response strategies.Outcomes include but are not limited to gaining a clear understanding of:

The issues, challenges, and barriers that youth face that impact their wellbeing.

The type of supports that would be most useful.

The most effective methods of delivery for such supports.
Asset Mapping – Northville CARES will use various methods to collect and analyze information that provides insight into the strengths and resources, as well as the gaps, that exist within the community in providing solutions and support.Outcomes include but are not limited to the identification of:

Current programs, services, events, and curricula that are addressing needs of youth regarding their wellbeing.

Gaps that exist in support for youth and parents/caregivers leaving unmet needs.

Circumstances where there may be an overlap of services among community partners.

Community partners who may be better positioned to respond to unmet needs.
Communication Pathways – Northville CARES will establish and promote formal and informal channels to share information and resources between community partners as well as with youth and families.Outcomes include but are not limited to the development of:

Effective methods for the timely information sharing among youth-serving stakeholders across the community.

Processes for information sharing to reach youth and families to create awareness of various avenues of support services.
Partnership Networking –Northville CARES will promote cooperation and facilitate opportunities for organizations across the community to share information, leverage resources, and form alliances to provide support to youth and families while minimizing duplication of efforts.Outcomes include but are not limited to the advancement of opportunities that:

Foster relationships between youth-serving organizations across the community.

Promote a collaborative approach to respond to community needs.

Provide organizational structure for the engagement plan.

Regularly convene stakeholders across the community to develop, implement, and evaluate the engagement plan.