Albuquerque is continuing a guaranteed basic income pilot program for a small number of at-risk young people, and debuting a program providing therapy to the city’s youth, officials announced Thursday.
City leaders, who announced the two initiatives during a news conference Thursday at the city’s Trauma Recovery Center, said Albuquerque is seeing a disproportionately high number of people struggling with addiction and mental health issues.
Twenty at-risk young people ages 16 to 24 will receive $750 per month as part of the second cohort of the city’s guaranteed basic income pilot program.
The second initiative, through a $600,000 contract with nonprofit Youth Development Inc., will provide cognitive behavioral therapy to the city’s youth.
“If we can help people at this stage, it means they’re not going to be right out on the street costing us more, they’re not going to be in our emergency room costing us more, they’re not going to be in our jail costing us more,” Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller said during the news conference. “So this is the right intervention at the right time.”
The guaranteed basic income, which will be deposited directly into bank accounts in the names of youth selected for the program, will provide financial support for any needs those young people have, possibly including housing or paying for vehicles, spokesperson Jorge Hernández said. The program also provides financial coaching, job training, mentoring, educational support and counseling, among other services.
Youth Development Inc. CEO Robert Chavez added during the news conference that the therapeutic services will help prevent youth violence by addressing the root causes behind young people’s behavioral health challenges.
It was not clear exactly how many youth would be served through the therapeutic services, but officials said the contract guaranteed 12,000 hours of services throughout the year, with sessions typically lasting for one hour each.
The therapy services are “going to allow us to provide an assessment to a young person on the thoughts, on the emotions, on all those things that [explain] why did they act the way they did or took the path they did,” Chavez said. “And by being able to treat those thoughts and being able to help guide them, then that’s going to reduce the violence.”
