It has been awhile since I posted, in large part because I have been assisting at our agency with a grant directed at engaging youth through non-residential means. This got me started thinking about the changing face of social services and more specifically how youth shelters are providing programming that does more than simply providing shelter.

As an agency we are engaging a fairly diverse cross-section of 12-23 year olds in our community through several distinct programs.

Shelter House:

• We currently serve 12 - 17 (364 days) in a 24 bed shelter. youth and families are provided case management services leading to service referrals, service coordination, Family Team Meetings, etc.... Last year the 792 youth we served stayed on average 6 days. This is our oldest program but it continues to change with the times. Last year less than 15 of our residents were state contracted placements. The vast majority of our youth that we serve are walk-in or Project Safe Place youth.

Y-NOW

• Is the mentoring component of our agency. While this program has worked through numerous funding streams with different populations historically, they currently serve middles school aged youth with one (or more) parents currently incarcerated. The program matches youth with mentors for a one year commitment.

Outreach

• Deals with raising community awareness of Safe Place. It is similar to what other Safe Place coordinators do nation wide.
• Street Out reach works with young adults in the street. Case management is provided as well as referrals to housing. We currently have limited immediate housing for youth in need as well as agreements with area adult shelters to assist our youth.

Field Release

• When Youth in Louisville commit a non-detainable offense they are brought to our agency, a needs assessment is completed. When the youth's guardian comes to Shelter to pick them up mediation, appropriate referrals, and Shelter are offered. Since this program began in in August of 2005 we have served 1046 youth through this program.

I mention these programs because I would like to share what we are doing locally. More importantly I would love to hear about the other programs being offered by agencies around the country. I know that we are all facing different demographics and regional issues, but I feel like there is much to be learned through the sharing of information...

This week is spring break here in Louisville and we have been lucky enough to be able to expose our kids to some opportunities they otherwise may not be able to enjoy.. Probably the most significant of these being the Ali Center here in Louisville.? In preparation for the trip we have been talking to the kids about topics such as resilience, hope, determination, individuality, tolerance, & success.? Just wanted to share a poem many of you have probably read before that we use a lot with the kids.? For those who have been to the Ali Center you know it was important to Ali also.? It is a poem that became a mantra for him in his life.? I hope that it will have the same inspiration for our youth also.....

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you
But make allowance for their doubting too,
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise: If you can dream--and not make dreams your master,
If you can think--and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools: If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!" If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings--nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much,
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And--which is more--you'll be a Man, my son!

--Rudyard Kipling

It should come as no surprise that as technology continues to evolve that it was only a matter of time until social networking became the new form of outreach for working with RHYA youth. I just wanted to post some initial observations and ask some questions of those who have been outreaching on the net for longer than we have here in Louisville.

Initially when we started to look at the opportunities presented by My Space, Facebook, etc.. many questioned how many of the youth we serve actually have social networking accounts. I can not speak for everywhere, but the answer with our youth was almost all have a My Space and quite a few have Facebook. Locally the majority of our youth access there sites by circumventing fire walls at school and accessing the sites through proxies or by simply going to the library to access their accounts. I would imagine this is the case in more areas than not.

With the knowledge that the vast majority of our youth have accounts and access them regularly, we set forth with the best way to use this constantly evolving medium to the benefit of our agency and much more importantly the youth and families we serve. In addition to allowing youth ways to contact us at their leisure in a confidential way, we are also able to get information out quickly, freely, and in bulk. In other words we can reach more youth with significantly less effort quickly and efficiently.

While our pages are still in the very early stages of development they have already shown promise of fulfilling their purpose. We have now started to ask youth for their email address at intake and are sending them friend requests shortly after discharge as a way for them to stay informed about what is going on at our Shelter and as another way for them to access resources if necessary.

I would be interested in hearing from other agencies about how they have used their pages and what their thoughts are about their effectiveness. I am excited about the opportunities that social networking will have in allowing each of our agencies to inform the public at large and to maintain an open door to the youth we have served...

As always... Keep up the good fight and many blessings for the important work that each of you do....

Here is an example of YMCA Safe Place Services Shelter House's My Space page.... http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=361997946&MyToken=1691274c-c61e-4fa5-b258-2ddea547289f

Here is National Safe Places My Space page with links to other programs accross the country http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=196609327

Finally our agency also allows Facebook users to become a fan and keep up with our efforts locally. (Feel free to become a fan :) ) http://www.facebook.com/pages/YMCA-Safe-Place-Services/9172910679

For the last 7 years the second Thursday of each month has meant one thing for YMCA Safe Place Services Shelter House, the monthly Kentuckiana Childcare Coalition meeting. For our organization this group has proven to be a life saver in recent years. The concept is a simple, take all the area service providers for teens (residential, psych hospitals, out patient counseling, Juvenile Justice, in-home services, CPS, Job Corps, Independent Living, etc..) and put them in the same room for one hour a month to update the others about new developments at their agencies. Additionally these meetings often take on the purpose of networking and helping to identify ways to find services for particularly difficult clients to locate accessible services for locally. I can not begin to do justice to how much these relationships have helped me over the years in serving the clients who have come through our Shelter.

I eluded in a previous post to the fact that Shelter has become a catch all in recent years for a large number of our community's youth who seemingly have nowhere else to access services. There are more youth every year that have serious psychological and behavioral issues who do not reach an acuity to warrant hospitalization or detention. There are also numerous kids who are in homes that are not healthy environments but do not reach the point of justifying removal from child welfare. In all of these instances shelter has become the answer for helping these teens in crisis. Obviously this has led to record numbers of youth being served by our shelter annually. When I started at Safe Place in 2001 we served about 400 kids that year residentially. Last year we served 792 residentially and well over 500 through field release (but that is a future post). Believe me, the only way we have been able to achieve these numbers is through solidifying our relationships with community partners. There is no way that a staff of 4 case managers would ever be able to keep tabs on 800 kids over the course of a year (not to mention those kids who came before) without the collaborative assistance of community partners.

I decided to bring this issue up for a few reasons. First, I remember the struggle we used to have when we as an agency tried to be all things to all people. While noble this is a foolish goal. Our best years have been the last few when we have worked on strengthening the services youth receive while they are here and concentrated on making community relationships to assist youth once they leave our agency. I hope our experience will potentially cause others to explore the benefit of collaborative efforts in their own communities. Second, I wanted to get some feedback from other shelters to see what networking is going on in their areas and what tools they use to stay abreast of the ever changing services being provided in their communities. Finally, I wanted to publically give kudos to all those in my hometown of Louisville fighting the good fight to provide the best possible services to the youth of our community. Obviously funding streams have not exactly been overflowing in recent years, but I feel like collaboration has proven to be effective despite dwindling resources.

As always, keep up the good fight. As for me, I have a meeting to finish getting ready

Just wanted to share with everyone that we just held a press conference with Congressman Yarmuth Ky-D3 to announce that he will be introducing the legislation for the reauthorization of RHYA tomorrow in congress. I am happy beyond words that this important legislation is being introduced and that the ask is being made by my local congressman.

As each of you know there is a growing need nationwide for services for Homeless and Runaway youth. It seems with each passing year each of our agencies are being asked to do more with less and it will be helpful to hopefully receive increased funding allocations at a congressional level. We could argue all day as to why systems are failing America's youth at an alarming rate, but none of us on the front lines can deny that life is certainly not easy for teens in America today. As more and more teens are experiencing turmoil in their family lives at a local level it has felt like we have become a catch-all for our communities deficits when it comes to serving teens.

A youth is beyond the control of their parents but has done nothing to warrant detention, we fill that void.

A Youth has mental health issues but lacks the resources to get treatment, the savvy to navigate the system or the acuity to warrant hospitalization. We fill that void.

A youth is a teen whose mother is being battered but DV centers lack the space to allow families to stay together, we fill that need.

I think you see where I am going with this. Regardless of why other systems are unable to meet the needs of the kids we serve, the reality is that they do. It is important to note that none of the instances listed above are what an "Average American adult" would think of when you say Runaway and Homeless youth. However, I am sure all of you read those examples and said to yourself, "Yes we get those kids too." Funding will only do so much to meet the needs of these youth. It is my hope that all of us are working hard to change the perception our communities harbor toward youth served by RHYA programs. Additionally, it is imperative that all of us do our part to articulate the needs of our communities in real and meaningful ways.

Juvenile detention centers, psychiatric treatment facilities, foster care, congregate care are not a fix all for any community. We all know that most kids, with the appropriate preventative intervention can be steered clear of these facilities. This type of intervention requires a level of resources though that most communities currently lack. What's more, even for those youth served by the above mentioned establishments, they all leave sometime and normally will end up with us after their stays in those facilities. Please take the opportunity created by the announcement of this reauthorization to engage your local media, community partners, etc. about the importance this type of funding makes to the community at large.

Today was certainly a first step. Passage is never a certainty. But I think we can all agree that if any field can celebrate the significance of a positive first step in the right direction, it is ours. Keep up the good fight...

Bill

I would like to start by stating that I am more excited than I can articulate to be a part of this effort. There is no issue that I am more passionate about than the plight of homeless, runaway, & other disconnected youth. When I started in this field I had some personal knowledge of this issue, but I know now that I had know inkling of the scale and complexity of this issue.

I firmly believe that there are several contributing variables that make the youth we work with one of the most misunderstood and marginalized segments of American society. For starters it has been my experience that the term runaway carries several negative connotations with older Americans. Whether it be a simple misperception that by running away youth are refusing to deal with their problems, to a much more serious connotation that street youth are thugs or criminals. Those who work with this population understand that in many instances the only means that many youth have for insuring their personal safety is to leave the abusive environments systems force them to call home. More importantly, without agencies to assist these youth once on the street there are no legal means for a 14 year old to meet their needs while homeless. To a greater extent most disconnected youth are also discounted because they do not vote and therefore are of little political consequence from a politicians perspective.

In the last 7 years I have had the good fortune to work with youth from almost every state in the union and have been from coast to coast to work with youth. If these travels have taught me anything , it would be that kids are kids wherever you go. Homeless youth and wealthy youth have the same basic need and are merely divided by the amount of resources available to them to meet these basic needs. It is due to this basic belief and observation that our agency uses the "Reclaiming Youth at Risk" model made famous by Larry Brendtro, Martin Brokenleg, & Steve VanBrocken. This model uses a strength based approach in helping youth develop in four basic areas: Belonging, Mastery, Independence, & Generosity. For our agency the day we abandoned token economies and decided to move solely to a restorative approach (with learning new skills as the intent of our consequences) being the day our program shifted in a much more productive direction.

On a more personal level I struggled with drug and alcohol abuse at a very early age. Growing up in a rural are of Kentucky there were almost no resources available to youth in my situation within an hour of my home. If it had not been for the generosity of family members and my friend's families I would have spent a lot more time as a child in institutions. It is for this reason that I am conscious of my responsibility as a case manager to the youth I serve, to at minimum, show them the love and respect they deserve.

To each of you in the trenches, administration, fund raising, or just concerned about youth that fall the cracks far too often, I say a heartfelt thank you. Please use this forum as an opportunity to share ideas and to have questions answered. This work is taxing and troubling at times, but is as necessary as any field I can think of. I look forward to learning from all of you.

When I think of youth work I always think of a quotation by Stephen King. I believe it sums up a lot about working with the youth in each of our agencies.

The most important things are the hardest things to say. They are the things you get ashamed of because words diminish your feelings - words shrink things that seem timeless when they are in your head to no more than living size when they are brought out.

And maybe that's the worst I think,

When things stay locked inside.

Not for want of a teller,

but for want of an understanding ear

;

Stephen King