Thresholds Outpatient and Intensive Outpatient Services are person-centered, trauma-informed, and evidence-based.
Our model is to bring a comprehensive suite of services to wherever our clients are.
Thresholds provides mental health crisis response in Chicago through two programs – our Living Room and our Mobile Crisis Response Team.
The Thresholds Workforce Development Department offers workshops, conferences and other training opportunities.
Thresholds offers groundbreaking programs for adolescents, young adults, families, young mothers, and their children.
Thresholds offers services designed to integrate mental health, substance use, and primary care treatment.
Our mission is to provide data to support decision-making meant to improve quality of care, optimize health outcomes, and lower costs.
The Centers provide a wide range of mental health and substance use treatment services to their immediate surrounding communities in Ravenswood and McHenry County.
The only program of its kind in Illinois, offering services for persons with mental illnesses who are deaf or hard-of-hearing.
Thresholds’ Peer Success program is operated by consumers – those who have a lived experience of mental illness.
Thresholds is the largest provider of supported housing in Illinois and provides comprehensive services for persons experiencing homelessness.
Thresholds provides clients with the support and services needed to achieve independence to class members of the Williams Consent Decree.
Thresholds offers services to members of the armed forces who are experiencing PTSD, trauma, substance use disorders, and much more.
Thresholds’ Employment Specialists place clients in jobs of their choice to create real economic independence.
The Thresholds Creative Arts Therapy team, made up of a diverse range of trained art therapists, provides our clients tools for wellness.
The transition to adulthood is a challenging time for any young person, but especially so for those with serious mental illnesses. Emerging adults benefit from specialized support from people who truly understand this transitional phase as they navigate new challenges and responsibilities. Emerge was designed as a multidisciplinary team-based program serving young people ages 18 – 26 in the Chicago metropolitan area. Emerge specializes in providing services in a young adult’s natural environment, which could be their home, school, or a favorite local spot.
For questions and intake services, reach out to us at 773.432.6555 or YoungAdult@thresholds.org.
Rooted in the evidence-informed Transition to Independence Process (TIP) Model, Emerge staff are highly skilled in engaging and partnering with young people to support their progress on mental health, and vocational, relational, and independent living goals. A primary focus of Emerge is to increase the natural social support and relational health among young people and their identified family members, friends, romantic partners, and others. To do this, Emerge offers individual and family therapy, and uses creative youth-directed strategies to bring peers together regularly for educational, vocational, social, and cultural events. Importantly, these activities not only foster social skills and connections, but also lead to increased exposure to the arts, cultural awareness, and opportunities for career exploration.
Thresholds has two Emerge teams: Emerge Chicago provides services to young adults on Chicago’s North side, and Emerge West provides services in DuPage County/Western Cook County. Both teams provide multiple in-home, and community therapeutic approaches, skills coaching, peer support, care coordination, IPS Supported Employment, supported education, psychiatry, medication monitoring, mentoring, financial assistance, and goal development and appraisal.
Emerge is a multidisciplinary team that provides an array of evidence-based and informed practices. Nearly all services are provided in the community. Most young people will meet with multiple staff on the team (e.g., the primary therapist, vocational specialist, and psychiatrist).
Emerging adulthood occurs approximately between ages 17 – 27, spanning late adolescence and young adulthood. Emerge does not solely focus on mental health, but instead focuses on all developmental and social determinants of wellness that are important for this age group: friends, romantic relationships, belonging, work, school and career exploration, developing independent living skills and making smart decisions.
To learn more about Emerging Adulthood, check out Jeffrey Arnett’s work or his 2015 TED talk.
Experiences that are co-occurring and unique to emerging adults include:
Recovery is an important theme for people with mental illnesses. It represents the values of improving health and wellness, living a self-directed life and reaching one’s full potential.
Emerge embraces the notion of discovery as key for engaging and supporting young people in reaching their personal goals. Emerge staff frame their work as the act of building self-discovery by learning through experiences, while having the right support recognize what a young person learned about themselves through that experience. Discovery also includes young people and Emerge staff gaining new insights together. Emerge remains curious without making assumptions or assuming the role of expert guide.
Emerge responds to the instability that is common in emerging adulthood by remaining as flexible as possible in where, when, who, and how services are delivered. By remaining flexible, and changing along with young people as they develop new skills, or assisting in a crisis or challenging life situation, Emerge continues to effectively engage young people in their wellness journeys.
Emerge embraces mutuality as an engagement tool. When relevant and appropriate, staff share their transition to adulthood experiences (e.g., managing money, dealing with roommates and family, figuring out career) to validate struggles and provide concrete examples of how to navigate complex and stressful situations that are common in young adulthood. Emerge also hosts a variety of social activities that are tailored to the personal interests of their young people. Emerge embraces fun as a core practice – for participants and staff. Emerge leverages creativity, flexibility, and connections to community resources to develop new opportunities for self and communal learning and growth.
Contact the Thresholds Youth & Young Adult Services at 773.432.6555 or YoungAdult@thresholds.org.
Emerge Chicago is funded by Medicaid, and Emerge West is funded by Medicaid, commercial insurance or private pay.
