WE ARE BUILDING BRIDGES
Building Bridges is a national initiative working to identify and promote best practice and policy that will create strong and closely coordinated partnerships and collaborations between families, youth, advocates, community and residential service providers, and oversight agencies. The overall goal of the work of the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) is for families and youth who receive a residential intervention to realize sustained positive outcomes post-residential discharge, including outcomes such as decreased readmissions to congregate care, improved family relationships and home stability, and successfully living in the community.
Hello BBI friends,
We are in an unprecedented era in our field providing us with many challenges and many opportunities. The strides we have made have had a critical impact towards positive change, however, there is more work to do, more challenges ahead, and new horizons of discovery. Together – we believe our efforts and our partnerships will be the catalyst for change that is necessary as we work to create a system that leads to healing and wholeness for ALL families.
Mark Nickell
Director of Strategic Initiatives
Community and residentially-based treatment and service providers share responsibility with each other, families, and youth to ensure that comprehensive mental health services and supports are available to improve the lives of young people and their families.
The mission of the Building Bridges Initiative is to identify and promote practice and policy initiatives that will create strong and closely coordinated partnerships and collaborations between families, youth, community – and residentially-based treatment and service providers, advocates and policymakers to ensure that comprehensive services and supports are family-driven, youth-guided, strength-based, culturally and linguistically competent, individualized, evidence and practice-informed, and consistent with the research on sustained positive outcomes.
board of directors
With the formalization of the partnership between ACRC and BBI that occurred in 2023, this group has wound down and several of our BBI Board Members have now transitioned to the ACRC Board and are serving in various capacities there.
To view the list of ACRC Board Members, you can visit: https://togetherthevoice.org/who-we-are/board-of-directors/
BBI StAFF
Mark Nickell (NC)
mnickell@togetherthevoice.org
JuRon McMillan (GA)
jmcmillan@togetherthevoice.org
Sarah Edwards (MN)
sedwards@togetherthevoice.org
core team
Lloyd Bullard (GA)
Robert E. Lieberman (OR)
William Martone (CA)
Sherry Peters (PA)
