CEDARS Youth Services

Emergency Services for kids for children and Youth unable to live at home due to neglect, abuse, homelessness, runaway, or other family crises, Cedars provides an individualized array of emergency and supportive housing to protect their safety, promote their healthy growth and development and facilitate their successful transition to permanency. Services are provided through the following programs: foster care, Youth emergency shelter, street outreach, and bridges transitional living. Foster care staff work closely with kids, biological parents, and foster families to build and maintain relationships. Individual families, who are either licensed or child-specific, provide foster care and emergency placements for children, ages birth-18. Permanency is the goal for each child, which may include reunification, adoption, guardianship, or independent living. Respite care, support groups, and extensive training opportunities are also available for children and families, as well as 24- hour support for the foster family and Youth. Cedars pioneers center serves as the only short-term emergency shelter for Youth, ages 12-18, who do not have immediate access to a safe living arrangement in southeast Nebraska. Youth may be referred to the pioneers center because of: family homelessness; hospitalization of a parent; history of abuse, neglect, or domestic violence; interruption of a foster care placement; short-term respite care or as a detention alternative. This program has been in operation since 1947. A variety of levels of care are offered at the pioneers center. Crisis stabilization is a more intensive level of care that involves the support of a Cedars therapist. To prevent Youth from being placed outside the home, Cedars also offers basic center Services to families in the community who are not involved in the child welfare or juvenile justice system. Street outreach Services (sos) offers street-based assistance to runaway, homeless, and at-risk teens, including support, referrals, and crisis intervention. Sos staff focus their efforts on high-risk schools, homeless shelters and on the streets of lincoln to connect with Youth experiencing homelessness. The Youth opportunity center (yoc) is located in downtown lincoln to provide our community's Youth with a safe, welcoming environment where they can have a meal, get basic hygiene items, do their laundry, and obtain other resources. Bridges transitional living program offers safe housing and supportive Services to Youth at-risk for or experiencing homelessness. Bridges provides supervised, community-based apartments and life skills education for Youth, ages 17-24, who have been homeless or are learning independent living skills. Youth may live alone or with a roommate, or with their child(ren) if parenting, with access to 24-hour staff support.

Youth intervention Services: for Youth who are at risk for or who have committed law violations, Cedars provides positive Youth development programs to prevent subsequent law violations and prepare them for successful community living. Programs include community Youth coaching, reception center, and electronic monitoring. Youth and their families enrolled in these Services receive support in the areas of education, employment, recreation, basic living skills, crisis intervention and healthy relationships. Community Youth coaching is a youth-guided, family-driven detention alternative that provides safety and stability through intensive relationship-building and Youth development. A community Youth coach serves as a positive role model, providing advocacy and individualized coaching and support to the Youth as they build critical problem-solving strategies to help interrupt cycles of negative behavior. Reception center offers a safe, community-based facility for probation officers and law enforcement to conduct initial assessments and access expanded intake assessments, as well as support and referrals for Youth and their families. The center operates 24 hours a day, 7 days a week with immediate intervention Services conducted on-site as needed. Electronic monitoring/global positioning system (em/gps) is a time-limited service provided to Youth whose behaviors put themselves or community safety at risk. The service allows for Youth to be monitored when there has been a history of unaccountable time. Gps is utilized for short periods of time to ensure stability with the Youth and provide rehabilitative Services to them.

Family preservation focusing on maintaining positive family and community connections, these prevention and early intervention Services are provided to assist families in remaining intact and to reunify those currently living apart. Focus is placed on parenting skill building, appropriate child and Youth development, and resource networking. Cedars also provides children with early and ongoing developmental opportunities. Extra efforts are made to accommodate low-income families receiving state childcare subsidies and offers scholarships to assist financial need. Services are provided through northbridge early childhood development center, community learning centers, and in family homes. Services include northbridge early childhood development program, community learning centers, ecological in-home family Services, healthy families home visiting, partners in permanency, community response, sixpence, and family support. Cedars northbridge early childhood development center (ecdc) serves children, ages six weeks to six years. Classes are led by educated and experienced teachers and offers the benefit of an early childhood and family therapist. Cedars ecdc is accredited by the council on accreditation (coa). Cedars northbridge ecdc is located at 1533 n. 27th street. Community learning centers (clc) offer on-site before-and-after school childcare for elementary school children, grades k-5, as well as specialized clubs that enhance academic performance. The clc programs also focus on family and community involvement and operate a school and neighborhood advisory committee (snac). Cedars offers clcs at three lincoln public schools: clinton elementary school at 1520 n. 29th street, hartley elementary located at 730 n. 33rd street, and randolph elementary at 1024 s. 37th street. Ecological in-home family Services is an evidence-based program designed to reduce risk of family disruption. This program utilizes in-home visits to build stronger family bonds, improve safety and connect families to community resources. These goals are accomplished through careful assessment and service planning, direct family engagement, implementation of relationship building, stress management and problem-solving strategies. Healthy families home visiting is an evidence-based, nationally recognized home visiting program model designed to work with overburdened families who are at-risk for child abuse and neglect and other adverse childhood experiences. Home visiting is a service provided within the home by highly trained and qualified professionals, including public health nurses and outreach workers. This program provides parents with support to enhance the child-parent relationship. Partners in permanency is a free, confidential resource for parents who have questions regarding their child's behavior, parenting struggles or family permanency concerns. Trained family partners assess immediate safety needs, identify the potential level of a behavioral crisis, make recommendations or referrals to applicable resources, and help families receive appropriate support required for their personal situation. The lincoln community response team supports families that are experiencing crisis by providing them with coaching, clinical mental health resources, education support, and case management. A family crisis may include behavioral or mental health problems, school truancy, law violations or other social factors. As a part of the team, a Cedars family resource partner works with families from several elementary and middle schools to connect with families and provide resources. Sixpence is a home visitation program focused on child development and parenting education for teen parents. Staff work with the families until kids are age 3, preferably for the duration of 18-24 months. Sixpence is provided in collaboration with lincoln public schools. Family support Services provide specialized family partners who work with kids and their parents to help families gain the knowledge, skills and tools they need to successfully achieve their goals. These Services are intended to facilitate parent participation in child-directed interactions, where positive social praise and parent-directed activities are used.

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