MHA Receives $400,000 Grant to Expand Youth Peer Advocates Program

BUFFALO, New York – The William R. Kenan, Jr. Charitable Trust has awarded $400,000 to Mental Health Advocates (MHA) for the expansion of the non-profit’s Youth Peer Advocates (YPA) Program. The two- year grant will allow MHA to expand the youth program into five additional schools and four community organizations, hire two more YPAs, and assist with retention efforts.

Youth peer advocates are trained individuals between the ages of 18-30 who self-identify as a person with first-hand experience receiving services in any one of the child-serving systems: mental health, addiction recovery, juvenile justice, child welfare, and special education. YPAs use their own lived experiences to connect with at-risk youth through peer-led support groups, educational trainings, and 1:1 non-crisis support for youth and young adults ages 9-26.

In 2022, MHA’s YPA program provided services to 62 schools and served 6781 students. The YPAs also provide support in four Western New York in-patient mental health facilities that treat youth: Erie County Medical Center, Brylin Hospital, OLV Human Services, and Western New York Children’s Psychiatric Center with support groups and 1:1 peer services.

“Because of their closeness in age, students are able to connect with a YPA in a way someone older may not,” explains Director of Youth Programs Karl Shallowhorn. “The goal is to improve mental health literacy and awareness while helping young people learn the skills needed to handle everyday stress and build positive mental health.”

YPAs are credentialed as New York State Youth Peer Advocates administered by Youth Power of Families Together in NYS.

The post MHA Receives $400,000 Grant to Expand Youth Peer Advocates Program appeared first on Buffalo Healthy Living Magazine.

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President Donald Trump conceded Thursday he may pull his own attorney general nominee rather than give two outgoing Republican senators what they are demanding.

Trump made the admission on Truth Social after the Senate Judiciary Committee postponed a vote on acting Attorney General Todd Blanche's nomination Wednesday night. The vote was canceled when it became clear two Republicans would block it.

Those two senators — Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) and Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) — are leaving Congress at the end of the year.

"Todd Blanche is a STAR, and everyone knows it!" Trump wrote on Truth Social. "He has the potential to go down as one of the Greatest Attorney Generals of All Time."

"I have no objection to temporarily withdrawing Todd's name, if they do not do the right thing, and putting him back after Cornyn and Tillis are out of office," Trump wrote.

Trump also attacked both senators directly, calling them men "whose political careers have been ended by my action" — a reference to his decision not to endorse them. He added that "both Cornyn and Tillis voted for Merrick Garland," invoking former Attorney General Merrick Garland, a name Republicans cite as a symbol of Democratic overreach.

On Capitol Hill Thursday morning, Cornyn told reporters the situation had taken a turn for the worse. Asked whether Blanche could be confirmed before the August recess, he said the odds were against it.

"It's looking doubtful," Cornyn told reporters, according to NBC News congressional reporter Laura Weiss.

Cornyn said talks with Blanche had been "very constructive" and that he believed a deal was close Tuesday night. But by Thursday morning, something had shifted.

"Other people intervening," he said. He told NBC News congressional correspondent Julie Tsirkin he did not know whether the president himself was standing in the way.

At the heart of the standoff is a settlement Trump's Department of Justice reached with the Internal Revenue Service. The deal granted Trump and his family immunity from tax audits and created a nearly $1.8 billion fund to compensate people who said they had been targeted by the government for political reasons.

The fund was later abandoned, but Cornyn wants that abandonment in writing — and wants the audit immunity narrowed so it does not cover future tax filings, according to MS NOW.

"All I want them to do is to confirm what he said in his sworn testimony before the Judiciary Committee, with regard not only to the weaponization fund, but also who is protected from future audits and what agencies of the federal government are bound by the release," Cornyn told reporters, according to CBS News.

The Department of Justice, Cornyn said, had not delivered. "They've simply refused to cooperate," he said, according to The Hill.

As of Thursday morning, Cornyn said he was waiting on a DOJ response to his latest offer and had no meetings or calls scheduled with the White House or the Department of Justice.