(WKBN) – In today’s In-Depth segment, we continue the conversation with Desirae Thompson, chief operating officer, and Ashley Frankos, clinical director, from Youth Intensive Services. We’ve talked about some of the programs that are taking place.

To get in contact with the agency, people can call the office at 330-318-3436 or visit their website at www.YouthIntensiveServices.com. The agency is located at 238 South Meridian.

“They can just walk in or if they’re unsure, we can meet them where they need to be met,” Thompson said.

The agency also offers school programming.

“So those schools that we do have contracts with, we have a behavioral team placed in each of those schools and they are there. The school hours are there Monday through Friday, same hours as the school staff, and they’re there providing services to any student that is referred to our program. It could be a mental health counseling, it can be group counseling, it can be therapeutic behavioral services. We really just meet the needs of the client, so it’s really a client-by-client basis,” Frankos said.

“We do a lot of referrals with Oakwood Counseling. She had mentioned Potential Development. We’re starting new services with Growing Kids [Academy]. We’ve noticed a lot of increase from some of the Youngstown City Schools to come in and do groups specifically on trauma for their females. So we work with a lot of different local agencies,” Thompson said.

Their staff is bilingual, which helps with the increased need and the local Spanish-speaking population, which is large.

The agency tries to help children who are dealing with many different social problems.

“I would say the biggest challenge is just ensuring that our staff are well equipped to handle the trauma. So not only for them being educated on trauma-informed care, which we make sure we highly educate our staff on that, but also their own care. So secondary trauma, burnout, how the effects can take on them and what they can do to take care of themselves,” Frankos said.

“Meeting the needs of our families is always our most important aspect of providing services… and making sure that everyone that needs to be a part of that treatment becomes involved. It’s not just a team of professionals — it could be your church pastor, your coach, bringing everyone who’s involved who’s going to be able to make a difference,” Thompson said.

The agency works to surround children with whatever they need to help them to grow.