Youth Service Bureau of St Joseph County

Youth development services provides counseling and social development for children ages 5-14 in the penn-harris-madison school corporation and through community organizations. We help children improve their social skills by clarifying values, promoting positive self-images, and by teaching communication, coping, decision-making and problem solving skills. Youth received social development/life skills classroom training/abuse prevention lessons. 619 Youth were enrolled, 136 state mandated abuse preventions lessons were taught, 8,740 individual counseling sessions were provided along with 2,991 crisis' responded to with 1,116 Youth, as well as 463 small group sessions held with 168 Youth.

Porch light maternity group home program provides apartment-based transitional housing to mothers ages 18-21 who are pregnant or parenting up to two children. Youth are provided case management, therapy, and life skills training needed to obtain self-sufficiency. Sixteen clients participated in this program during this fiscal year and all of them (100%) were employed or in school after entering the program and were exited to safe and stable housing.

Safe station is a temporary emergency shelter for runaway and homeless Youth ages 12-18. Safe station had 73 intakes and provided 66 Youth with safe shelter for a total of 694 bed days. An additional 41 Youth received brief services - were in the shelter for less than 6 hours but had mediation with the therapist and obtained shelter with a relative or were referred for other services. 1,274 volunteer hours were donated to this program, the value of which is not reported in this return.

Young moms sufficiency program provides opportunities for young mothers to overcome the many and complex barriers to self-sufficiency and decrease the possibility of abuse and neglect. It assists women aged 16-24 to identify realistic academic and employment goals, improve the health and nutrition of family members, increase a personal sense of competence and self-esteem, and foster a healthy relationship between fathers and children. 139 families/mothers were served, of whom 87% were educated on the cycle of violence, healthy relationships, age-appropriate discipline, and child development stages. 80% received education on financial literacy. Transitional living program provides apartment-based transitional housing to non-parenting males and females ages 18-21 who are homeless or at-risk of homelessness. Youth are provided case management, therapy, and life skills training needed to obtain self-sufficiency. Fourteen individuals were assisted in this program during an 18 month span. 87% exited to safe and stable housing (two exited overnight without notice or information to staff) 100% of clients were either in school or working. Homeless prevention program is designed to help individuals and families quickly exit homelessness and return to permanent housing. Case management and support services may be provided along with utility and moving expenses. Thirteen (13) clients and families were assisted using esg funding, which includes rapid rehousing and homelessness prevention. Street outreach is an outreach program for Youth aged 21 and under. Street outreach workers provided street-based community outreach in local neighborhoods, community parks, and community centers to provide health/hygiene products, information, on-street assessments, referrals for services, shelter, and housing, as well as crisis intervention. During the last fiscal year, the street outreach program provided 18 clients with case management services and 153 visits to ysbs drop-in center were made by Youth aged 21 and under. Street outreach provided 68 community referrals and 1009 outreach contacts were made. Safe place is affiliated with the national safe place program. There are over 160 teen-friendly locations Youth can go to for help. Clients can text "safe- and their current location to 4help (44357) to locate the nearest safe place location to them. A new safe place site this fiscal year is the ymca o'brian center. Safe place staff reached a total of 8,094 Youth this fiscal year.