RAYS provides high-quality, integrated behavioral healthcare and prevention services to children, youth and families, to restore hope for a healthier future.

Their vision is for all youth and families in their community to have the resources, support and strength they need to recover from substance abuse, mental health issues and other serious life challenges.

Most RAYS families turn to us for help coping with issues that include:

• Physical and sexual abuse
• Drug addiction
• Grief from the death of a loved one or other loss
• Depression
• Acting out in school
• Dropping out of school or otherwise incomplete education
• Involvement or risk of involvement in crime
• Poverty and lack of resources

Most of their services are free to the client, paid for with various service contracts. Counseling and drug treatment services have sliding-scale fees and most families pay through Medicaid. No family is turned away for not being able to pay.

RAYS is well-respected in its field. They receive referrals from school teachers and counselors, the court system, and Child Protective Services.

Key partnerships:

Renton and Tukwila School Districts. Their therapists and RAYS UP staff work on-site in about half of the Renton schools. Their therapists are in all of the Tukwila schools. This partnership eases the transportation barriers their families face and helps them work toward their clients’ academic success.

University of Washington, Washington State University, Seattle University, Seattle Pacific University, Antioch, and Northwest University. They host social work and counseling interns from these schools. Interns work at RAYS from 6 to 18 months. This partnership enables them to serve more children. It also helps them to mentor students in working with their profession’s most vulnerable families.

Community Agencies. RAYS is part of a network of sister agencies. They do similar work and each focus on a particular region. (e.g. Kent Youth & Family Services, Friends of Youth, Communites in Schools of Renton). They contract with Navos, one of the state’s largest mental health agencies, for Medicaid billing and 24-hour crisis care. RAYS works closely with HealthPoint Community Health Centers as well as with other health services to coordinate primary care and behavioral health services with their clients.