The Cayuga/Seneca Community Action Agency's Take A Step Ahead program, more commonly known as TASA, is a comprehensive Medicaid case management service, available to parenting, pregnant and at-risk youth ages 10-21 who are Medicaid eligible and reside in Cayuga and Seneca counties.

TASA case managers are paired with young adults to help achieve family stability, improve self-esteem and encourage self-sufficiency. Program participants meet with case managers regularly on goals of their own choosing. Some goals may include: preventing an unplanned pregnancy, obtaining employment, completing their education, enhancing parenting skills, budget counseling and securing basic living needs. Case managers also provide ongoing assessment, advocacy, referrals and follow-up to customers.

Julia Wilson, a participant who has been enrolled in the TASA program for more than a year, has worked very hard to get where she is today. Wilson entered the Cayuga/ Seneca Community Action Agency's TASA program when she was 18. Her guidance counselor at Auburn High School referred her to the program to make sure she got as much help and support as she could in order to finish school and continue in her success.

Wilson was a teenage mother who, as a child, had been in foster care, then bounced from family member to family member year after year. When she entered the TASA program, she had been kicked out of a relative's house and was staying with a friend. The worry of never knowing where her or her son, only a year old at the time, would sleep was constant.

However, with the help of her TASA case manager, she stabilized their living situation, secured adequate health care for herself and her son, attended parenting classes and graduated from high school. Additionally, Wilson's case manager helped her sign up for college classes at Cayuga Community College, apply for financial aid and search for and secure employment.

Wilson spent last year as a full-time student at CCC and working part-time in the college's library. In the spring, she ran and was elected to be the secretary for the student government organization at CCC. Furthering her education, Wilson will be attending Wells College this fall. She plans to study history and education. Eventually, she would like to become a high school history teacher.

Currently, Wilson and her TASA case manager are working on some new goals: securing additional employment, obtaining her driver's license, setting up a budge, and finding affordable housing for herself and her son. Wilson is very determined to meet all of the goals she has set for herself. Although her case manager helps her a lot, she is truly working hard to become self-sufficient.

“I don't like to receive services through the county; it is important for me to be able to provide for my son and myself without any public assistance,” she said.

Wilson is just one of the many customers who has benefited from the TASA program over the years. If you wonder whether a youth you are working with would benefit from the TASA program, give the agency a call and talk it over.

The definition of an “at-risk” youth is broad and may include youth who: are already parenting, pregnant or have fathered a child; are sexually active or seeking pregnancy or STD testing; have a sibling who was sexually active, pregnant or fathered a child at a young age; are homeless or face the possibility of being homeless; live in homes where there is substance, physical or sexual abuse; and are involved with social services, the mental health system or the criminal justice system.

Katrina Kaucher is the youth services director at Cayuga/Seneca Community Action Agency. She may be reached at C/SCAA at 252-0038.