[April 2007] New Management Team Members at YA

PORTLAND (April 25, 2007) — Al Haynes and Sherri Stockwell have taken on expanded roles at Youth Alternatives (YA), a nationally accredited provider of services to children, youth and families throughout Maine, as the leader of the agency’s wraparound initiative and the director of Youth Alternatives’ Girls Transitional Program and Heritage House, respectively.

Haynes To Lead County-Wide Wraparound Implementation

Al Haynes, of Portland, director of Youth Alternatives’ Reardon’s Place has been tapped to oversee implementation of the agency’s ‘Wraparound Maine’ grant. Awarded by the Maine Department of Health and Human Services, the grant will allow YA to coordinate and facilitate high fidelity community-based wraparound services to families throughout Cumberland County, and provide orientation and training to other social-service agencies.

A licensed clinical social worker, Haynes has been the director of Reardon’s Place, Youth Alternatives’ emergency shelter for abused, criminally offending, runaway and homeless adolescent males for the last two years. He will continue in that role in addition to assuming his new duties. Before joining Youth Alternatives, he worked for several years as a clinician at the Longcreek Youth Development Center.

“Al brings the clinical and strategic expertise we need to promote high fidelity wraparound as a family-focused, results-driven approach for helping family members manage and improve their own lives,” said Michael J. Tarpinian, president of Youth Alternatives. “His enthusiasm is contagious, and he will be a tremendous advocate for this new and more inclusive way of working with families and partnering with other social service agencies.”

Stockwell To Direct Residential Programs For Adolescent Girls

Sherri Stockwell will direct Youth Alternatives Heritage House and the agency’s Girls Transitional Program, both of which offer gender-specific treatment to adolescent girls. Heritage House is a transitional residence that provides support, recreation and education to female juvenile offenders ages 14-18, and the agency’s Girls Transitional Program is the state’s only emergency shelter exclusively dedicated to female adolescents.

An Old Orchard Beach resident, Stockwell is a licensed clinical social worker, and she served as the clinical coordinator at Youth Alternatives Reardon’s Place before assuming her new role. Prior to joining Youth Alternatives, she worked as a psychiatric social worker at the Longcreek Youth Development Center and also ran a mentoring program for teens in foster care through the University of Southern Maine’s Muskie School.

“Youth Alternatives prides itself on the quality services and nurturing environment children find in our group homes,” said Tarpinian. “Sherri’s knowledge of gender-specific treatment and commitment to helping girls and their families get back on track will be a tremendous asset to these programs.”

Youth Alternatives, a nonprofit social service agency founded in 1972, advances safe, happy, healthy childhoods and positive family relationships. Through its comprehensive continuum of care, Youth Alternatives creates homes for vulnerable children and youth; supports families in need, conflict or crisis; reaches out to homeless youth; and ensures safety by working to prevent child abuse and neglect. Through its programs, Youth Alternatives serves more than 5,000 children, youth and family members throughout Maine each year. Youth Alternatives relies on the support of our community, individuals, corporations, foundations and community groups.

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