TBCC – Trinity Boston Connects

Trinity Boston Counseling Center (TBCC)

cultivating holistic wellness for Boston’s youth workers

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Trinity Boston Counseling Center (TBCC) provides mental health and wellness services to youth workers essential to the health and wellness of youth of color in Boston.

Youth workers served by TBCC are individuals who are employed or volunteer in roles serving youth in Boston, particularly youth of color. Through 18 years of service, we have come to understand the gaps in wellness and mental health care for youth workers. In response, TBCC provides individual and group therapy, and mental health wellness workshops focused on youth workers. Their mental health is essential to the care they provide for youth of color in Boston.

TBCC's history

Founded in 2002, Trinity Boston Counseling Center (TBCC) of Trinity Boston Connects (TBC) served disenfranchised populations by providing a safe and healing space to bring their whole selves, including culture, race, ethnicity, and spirituality, to therapy. It was founded by Rev. Zina Jacque, an ordained Baptist minister and led by Arville Stephen, a member of Trinity Church, who served as clinical director. TBCC began with a mission to extend access for people of color (POC) who needed a place for quality mental health care that was culturally responsive and attended to the whole person with an emphasis in spirituality. We continue to do this with a dedicated focus on the mental health and holistic wellness of Boston youth workers.

our focus

TBCC focuses its services on providing individual therapy, group therapy, consultation and training for youth workers. Youth workers are individuals who spend the bulk of their time (vocational or volunteer) providing services for, mentoring, supporting, and/or teaching youth (ages 0-18).

In our extensive experience with youth, youth workers, and youth serving agencies we have found that youth workers need more support and with increased support they create better outcomes for youth.

Youth worker wellness and resilience is heavily dependent on:

• Self-efficacy: perceived ability to do youth work well

• Opportunities for Professional Development

• Peer support & Collaboration

• Ongoing feedback and outcomes-based evaluation of their impact on youth

• Impact of our therapy with youth workers

TBCC's impact

TBCC clients report improvement in or maintenance of positive coping

88%

I have had a great therapy experience at Trinity. I feel safe and supported. I think it's helped me in my personal life and professional life be more aware of my emotional responses, and when working with children I think that is essential to their success.

Youth Worker Client

model of youth worker wellness

I was growing weary and overwhelmed by the souring relationship between me and my family. I was struggling with the weight of financial troubles. My energy and focus have been about any and everything else, but through my therapy, I've finally started to put a little bit of that focus back on me. I'm a work in progress and it has been such a good feeling.

Therapy has been beneficial to discuss other things going on in my life so that when it is work hours, I can concentrate a bit better on work rather than the other things.

Trinity's partnership with DYS…helps us explore the ways in which trauma and racial and ethnic disparities impact the work that we do with youth committed to DYS. Trinity's expertise in this area has been a great resource to the Metro region and to our youth by providing a safe space for youth and community members to explore the impact of crime.”

For the past fifteen years they [TBCC] have played a critical and transformative role in the success of our work.

… I would not have been able to last as long [at City Year] as I have without the skills and self-knowledge [Clinician] has helped me develop over the course of our sessions.