Mount Sinai CARES (Comprehensive Adolescent Rehabilitation and Education Services) recently received a $1 million grant from The Tow Foundation’s 2025 Innovation Fund. This transformational gift will support care for adolescents with co-occurring mental health and substance use disorders across clinical, school, and community settings.
“The Tow Foundation’s $1 million gift will be truly transformative for CARES, enabling us to significantly expand access to integrated mental health treatment, substance use treatment, and educational services for New York City’s most vulnerable adolescents,” said Shilpa R. Taufique, PhD, Chief of the Division of Psychology at Mount Sinai and Director of CARES.
On Dec. 16, 2025, CARES hosted a ribbon-cutting ceremony to celebrate its relocation to a new, larger space on West 38th Street in Manhattan, an exciting expansion that underscores CARES’ commitment to better serving the community by providing educational and psychiatric support to teenagers throughout New York City. Also, starting in January 2026, CARES will extend its footprint into the suburbs through a new partnership with the Youth Shelter Program of Westchester (YSOW).
Founded in 1990, CARES is a unique partnership among the New York City Department of Education and entities that are now part of Mount Sinai’s Department of Psychiatry and the Addiction Institute of Mount Sinai. The program takes a multidimensional approach to assessing and treating the impact of mental health and substance use on brain development, academic performance, and quality of life.
The Tow Foundation’s 2025 Innovation Fund aims to expand access to the care and support for mental health and well-being that youth need to thrive. Organizations from six states—California, Connecticut, Massachusetts, North Carolina, New York, and Pennsylvania—were eligible to apply. CARES was one of 10 organizations to receive a grant.
“We designed the 2025 Innovation Fund to advance new solutions to unmet mental health challenges faced by young people,” said Frank Tow, chair of the Innovation Fund Committee and board member of The Tow Foundation. “CARES stood out for their creativity, credibility, and commitment to young people.”
The CARES Team
Celebrating the new, expanded space
Attendees admire CARES program participants' work
Dr. Shilpa Taufique, Director of CARES
Presentation at the CARES ribbon cutting
Dr. Taufique said the grant will enable CARES to admit more young people, expand the CARES’ Use Prevention Recovery Intervention Services & Education (UPRISE) initiative at an additional school setting, and support for a more seamless care model that reduces fragmentation to keep young people engaged with both treatment and school. Funds will support staffing, including the addition of a peer advocate provider with lived experiences in mental illness and recovery, as well as clinical and academic programming for parents, families, and caregivers.
“Most importantly,” she added, “this gift will allow CARES to reach more youth at critical moments, stabilize risk, empower families, and change life trajectories.”
The new CARES space on West 38th Street signals the significant commitment of the CARES team and Mount Sinai to the adolescents and families the program serves.
“The new space is a modern, thoughtfully designed environment that sends a clear message: mental health, safety, and recovery deserve the very best conditions in which to heal and grow,” Dr. Taufique said. “This new space expands our capacity, strengthens our integrated model of care, and creates a welcoming home where young people can engage in treatment with dignity, comfort, and hope for their future.”
