INDIAN RIVER COUNTY — Children’s Home Society of Florida Treasure Coast Division (CHS) was recently selected as one of 11 programs in the U.S. to participate in the Federal Evidence Based data evaluation projections with a three-year grant that provides $150,000 a year ($450,000 total) in funding for the organization’s Street Outreach Program.
The grant will strengthen and enhance the shelter and counseling programs that CHS has provided to run-away and homeless youth since 1993 and enable the organization to provide street-based outreach services to a total of 600 youth, or 200 youth a year, ages 16-21.
The Street Outreach Program provides street-based outreach and education, access to emergency shelter, survival aid, individual assessments, treatment and counseling, prevention and education activities, information and referrals, crisis intervention and follow-up support.
The program will use Positive Youth Development to involve youth in developing service and after care plans. Of the 200 youth served each year, 125 will receive residential services and 75 will receive non-residential services. The outcome of these services will be to reunite youth with their families or find safe and appropriate placements. CHS will also involve other community resources to encourage a trusting relationship between youth and service providers.
CHS currently administers four key programs that target adolescents and young adults including: Children In Need of Services/Families in Need of Services (CINS/FINS), Wave C.R.E.S.T. Shelter, Transitional Living Program and Teen Life Choices.
(CINS/FINS) is a program for truant, ungovernable and at-risk youth and their families.
WaveC.R.E.S.T. Shelter serves as the only homeless/runaway shelter for adolescents and young adults (12-17), providing 24/7 staffed emergency shelter for the Safe Place program of the Treasure Coast. The Transitional Living Program (TLP) provides outreach services, case management, life skills training and temporary, safe housing in order to promote independence and prevent homelessness among young adults 18-21. The Youth Transitional Center (YTC), a key component of the TLP, is the only facility of its kind in the Treasure Coast region. YTC staff is on-site 24/7 and on-call 24 hours a day. Teen Life Choices is a St. Lucie County school-based program that teaches teens why and how to avoid sexual involvement, thus helping to prevent teen pregnancy and provides intensive case management and education to pregnant teens.
Information: Visit www.chsfl.org or call 772-344-4020.
