Health and Wellness Initiatives
The Vega Family Foundation (TVFF) surrounds young people with creative activities to uncover new interests, build healthy minds and bodies, and nurture potential. Scholarships, workplace training, and academic support help youth succeed in high school, prepare for college, and persist through graduation.
Violence Crisis Response, Support Groups and Outreach.
For youth and families in TVFF’s neighborhoods, exposure to violence and trauma is part of growing up. TVFF’s Mental Health Initiative is designed to increase access to mental health care and substance abuse treatment for youth and families impacted by these issues. Our Clinical Wellness teams offer onsite and school-based counseling, family services, art therapy, restorative justice programs and more. Counselors and therapists integrate their sessions with other TVFF initiatives, working to eliminate the stigma often associated with mental health care.
Diabetes Initiative
TVFF is working with youth and families impacted by diabetes. TVFF’s initiative called CONTROL focuses on working with the American Diabetes Association to provide support groups, ongoing training, and resources for those diagnosed with diabetes and family members impacted by it.
Individual and Group Therapy
TVFF’s Mental Health Initiative is designed to increase access to mental health care and substance abuse treatment for young people impacted by violence and trauma and address behavioral and social determinants of health and health disparities for the high need youth we serve in five of Chicago’s most challenged communities..
Community Violence Support Initiatives
TVFF’s CVSI provides crisis intervention, case management, and clinical services to youth and families impacted by violence. Additional services include grief and loss groups for young men and parents whose children have been victims of violence, safety relocations, creation of community healing spaces, and participation in the TVFF Response Corps designed to anticipate and address violent situations before they occur and provide resources and support if necessary.
Elevation Girls 2 Women
Elevation Girls 2 Women (EG2W) is a clinical wellness and mentoring program for female-identified youth who have experienced trauma or may be involved in the justice system. Through both group and individual counseling, participants explore their own identities while embracing their cultures to develop self-esteem, self-efficacy, and social-emotional health. Over the course of a full year, EG2W mentors and therapists provide the support these girls need to resist violence and crime, reclaim their own narratives, become successful and transform their truth.
Growing Family Connections
Engages parents and guardians of gang- and justice-involved youth. Our Intervention and Mental Health Program teams collaborate to provide workshops, including Know Your Teen, Know Your Rights and a workshop with information about the juvenile justice system and court process. Finally, BFC holds social events for families to come together, support, and share their experiences and advice with others experiencing similar issues.