Becoming an adult is hard.

And for young people with behavioral health struggles, learning the life skills they need to succeed can be even harder.

The drop in Ashland is a unique youth center focused on providing support and teaching life skills in a nontraditional space.

The drop is a youth center for ages 14 to 25 who suffer or struggle with mental or behavioral health challenges to come and receive services in a nontraditional setting.

Baby boy, we are a drop in center, which means no appointment necessary.

You just walk in.

We have the opportunity for same day services.

So if you come in and you want to see a therapist and you're not in a crisis situation, we can get you an appointment to be seen and open within 24.

Hours to get on this.

As a CSA community support associate, we help build like daily living skills and so it can be anything from buying groceries to cooking those groceries to teaching them financial literacy.

Working on applications, we essentially, wherever we see a need, we try to meet it.

So whatever skill they want to work on, that's what we do.

We provide transportation and schedule to be picked up or you know, we can take them back home if they come in.

We do usually a group which can range from any topic, from skill building to substance abuse prevention, and then they'll have a snack and then we'll have some free time where they get to utilize our engagement tools, which is we have a PlayStation five and and Nintendo Switch.

We have two gaming computers.

One is also set up for you to be able to fill out resumes on or apply for jobs do your schoolwork with.

I absolutely love it.

Our consumers are the best.

They are so appreciative of everything we get to do.

And every day is fun.

Even when we're here, we're always getting to learn new skills and actually gives us a chance to freshen up on the skills and remember how to do it ourselves.

So I always tell consumers, you know, whether it's like coping skills, something like that, you know, we're we're working on them as well.

So it's a great experience for everybody involved.

We're person centered, so they get to decide what that goal is.

And that can be I want to be a better soccer player.

I want to be a better student for an adult.

It could be I want to get my driver's license.

The are the services that we can provide here are so broad and that's why we're nontraditional.

We have the ability to come out here and teach the kids to play soccer if they want to be a better soccer player.

And if this is if there's a service here that they need that we can't provide, we'll take them.

I can think off the top of my head like two or three consumers who when I first met them, weren't comfortable even speaking in a group environment.

And they went from doing that to being able to give a speech too, because we actually, you know, vote and nominate like our president, our vice president, all those things.

And so to see a consumer go from not even comfortable really being here or speaking to speaking in front of a group with authority, I mean, it's just incredible.

But just being able to see people not just reach their potential, but just excel beyond what they ever imagined was possible would just it really gives me a great sense of purpose and fulfillment.

What a great program.

The drop will open an additional location in Montgomery County by the beginning of next year.