---

Return to My Main Resume Page

---

 

DREAMCATHCER BASIC SHELTER PROGRAM

A program of Xanthos, Inc., Alameda, California.

 

OBJECTIVE AND NEED FOR ASSISTANCE

PROJECT GOALS FOR BASIC CENTER PROGRAM

 

· To offer a safe home-like place for youth, protecting them from harm and providing a place where they can feel comfortable discussing with staff and amongst themselves their reasons for being away from home and on the streets. The shelter has eight beds. 150 youth will be served annually in the Youth Shelter.

· To develop, in partnership with the youth, both a needs assessment and individual case plan for each participant that will prevent their future homelessness, help them develop better problem-solving skills and empower them to meet their own physical, emotional and financial needs. 125 youth annually will receive supportive services through the case management component.

· To reunite, whenever possible and appropriate, the youth with their parents, guardians or relatives. To strengthen family relationships and to encourage stable relationships for youth. Annually, 65 youth will reunify with their parents, guardians, or family members through our mental health services component.

· To maintain our collaboration of service providers with the DreamCatcher shelter and its supportive services component as the hub so that a truly effective, youth-oriented system of care provided to resolve the immediate crisis and serve the long-term needs of RHY and their families.

 

PROJECT PURPOSE: This application requests financial assistance to further strengthen the existing DreamCatcher Youth Shelter Program, a Xanthos program in Alameda County, California (Xanthos has received RHY funding for 9 years). DreamCatcher is a locally controlled, community based facility designed to address the immediate needs of runaway and homeless youth and their families. The general purpose of the DreamCatcher Basic Shelter components is to provide runaway and homeless youth with shelter and protection from the dangers of street life and abuse through shelter services that include: three meals/day, outreach, family, individual and group counseling, clothing, medical services, transportation, and the creation of a safe gathering space. The shelter facility also contains a drop-in-center. Both the shelter and drop-in-center activities are built around the desires, enthusiasm, empowerment and involvement of the youth themselves. In doing so, the program will demonstrate that life can be lived successfully without negative 'street values'. Youth are helped to build alternative skills and values through counseling, emotional support, recreation, education and productive activities. This approach is geared toward facilitating family reunification whenever possible, and when not possible, to provide appropriate alternative housing that will meet the youth's needs by providing essential support services. In doing this, DreamCatcher is a model program that prevents chronic and long-term homelessness that empowers young people through direct participation in their own stability.

 

OBJECTIVES

 

Listed below are the objectives set forth by the DreamCatcher Youth Shelter and Street-Based Projects to meet project goals as outlined above. These objectives are discussed in more detail in the Approach section, under Program Services #2, and these project objectives correspond with each of the 15 performance standards.

 

1. Outreach: The DreamCatcher outreach effort conducts comprehensive street and community outreach and education directed at targeted street youth populations in Alameda County, community agencies, youth, and parents. We have an operating successful and unique Street Outreach, Peer Partnership and Youth Support Center project. Outreach workers and peer staff patrol popular street youth areas by foot, educating youth communities on our program services, handing out emergency supplies, hotline #s, providing group work interventions to entrenched street youth populations and transporting and assessing youth for shelter placement. For those entrenched youth not willing to leave street-life, we provide group work interventions to help them develop activities that are enjoyable and emphasize positive values.Outreach efforts conducted are described in the Approach section with a focus on Alameda County’s diverse youth populations.

 

2. Individual Intake Process: DreamCatcher Youth Shelter and its Street Outreach Staff conduct intake interviews on the streets throughout Alameda County. Intake workers are available by pager and cell phone and can arrange shelter placement and assessment 24 hours/day. Xanthos has partnered with a 24/7 youth hotline (See EdenI&R/YouthLink MOU) that contacts DreamCatcher Intake Workers for crisis shelter placements and assessments. The intake form, in Addendum Section, outlines requirements for shelter and how basic background information is gathered on each youth participant.

 

3. Temporary Shelter: Xanthos operates DreamCatcher Youth Shelter, an emergency 8-bed shelter for homeless runaway youth (11-17) in Alameda County. The shelter is centrally located in Alameda County, accessible by all public transportation bus and subway lines, and is in compliance with State and local licensing requirements. Eligible youth can stay in shelter for up to 14 nights. Exceptions are made to allow a longer stay when justified and documented as required by Federal regulation. Three meals, including a sit down community supper, breakfast, and to-go lunch are provided to each sheltered youth. The ratio of staff to youth is 1 to 6 during sleeping and 3 staff to 8 youth during activity hours. Intake workers contact parents and guardians of youth within 24, no more than 72 hours of shelter care and evaluate if youth are dependents of Child Welfare or Probation systems. Under the California Right to Shelter Law, youth may remain in shelter when there is a concern for the safety of the child even if a parent objects.

 

4. Individual and Group Counseling: Individual and group counseling is made available to each youth in shelter on a daily basis. Youth requesting counseling can talk to a counselor by appointment or contact an on-call counselor at any time of the day. Caseworkers initiate individual and family counseling with youth and their families. Caseworkers are trained and experienced at providing family mediation--offered to all interested families and family networks of sheltered youth. Two RHY Mental Health Counselors provide long-term individual and family therapy, advocate for psychological services such as testing, medication, and SSI services. Eighty seven (87%) of youth in shelter receive counseling services each year.

 

5. Family Counseling: Over the past 20 years, Xanthos has developed a model family reunification program addressing the needs of runaway youth and their families in the city of Alameda. We accomplished this by adopting a family systems approach that eschews blame and builds on cultural and family strengths. We see adolescent rebellion as natural and essential to identity formation and parental reaction due concern, misunderstanding, love and frustration. While there is immediate relief for both youth and parents when problems are “resolved” through running away, life-long scars result if there is no real resolution forthcoming. 56% of the families of our youth received counseling and other case management services during the last year as compiled by our RHYMIS data system.

 

6. Service Linkages: The DreamCatcher Youth Shelter maintains established linkages with community agencies throughout Alameda County and the San Francisco Bay Area for provision of services required by youth and their families but which are not provided directly by Xanthos. These linkages focus on providing street youth in our program with direct and fast access to medical, mental health, and educational services.

 

7. Recreational Services: Leaving life on the streets is hard work—confronting one’s issues in counseling; coming to the painful realization that one may have a substance abuse problem; opening up to one’s family; acknowledging and addressing educational deficits and preparing for adult development are challenging for every teenager and even most adults. DreamCatcher Shelter clients are linked with a variety of recreational services provided directly at our drop-in Youth Support Center or through linkages with community resources i.e. YOP Midnight Basketball, YMCA memberships, etc.

 

8. Case Disposition: Completion of our Shelter Program is a milestone for many of our youth clients and often marks the first completion of their teen lives. An informal celebration/graduation dinner is held for all shelter clients moving on to permanent housing solutions, family reunification, or independent living. A more formal case disposition conference is held for all youth who exit shelter services and includes all project staff and peer counselors involved in the case. Gaps in the client’s case plan, need for on-going services, and follow up counseling are discussed as well as continued after-care services. Case Workers are responsible for transporting or arranging transportation of youth who are returning to their families or entering into long-term housing programs and ensuring their safe arrival.

 

9. Aftercare Services: After-care services are provided for sheltered youth for up to 6 months following shelter or supportive services completion. 14 nights of shelter is rarely enough time, even with the most intensive services, to address the underlying issues in the lives of our youth clients and their families. We have taken great care to develop and continue to evolve our After-Care program so future incidents of running away or homelessness can be prevented. After-care services include: weekly After-care peer support groups and dinner, advocacy, mental health and family counseling, and case management services.

 

10. Individual Client Files: Individual client files include an intake form, signed legal, voluntary service consent forms, case worker process notes, services received, needs assessment, individualized case plan and all forms pertaining to confidentiality/consents to release information. All client information is confidential unless a consent to release information form is signed by youth and/or their guardians or requested by the courts. Case files are open to Federal specialist monitoring the program.

 

11. Periodic Reports to the Secretary: Xanthos agrees to provide evaluations, data (RHYMIS ), information regarding activities carried out that were funded by RHY monies, achievements of the projects, and other program reports as scheduled or required by HHS and Administration of Children and Families. All program reports, financial reports, and RHYMIS data reports are submitted in a timely manner.

 

12. Staffing and Staff Development: Project staff reflects the diversity of project youth clients with respect to culture, ethnicity, sexual orientation, language skills, and personal life experiences. Staff bios, job descriptions, and diversity statistics are discussed in the Staff section of this proposal as are training objectives and evaluations of staff. Project staff and peer counselors involved in the DreamCatcher Youth Shelter project meet weekly for four hours to discuss programmatic issues, current cases and case planning goals, policies and regulations, and training issues.

 

13. Youth Participation: Youth are involved in the delivery and design of services through our Peer Partnership Project, Youth Advisory Board, and Street Outreach Project. Youth are involved in ongoing planning efforts by attending development and evaluation retreats and participating in evaluation projects.

 

14. Ongoing Center Planning: Semi-annual retreats evaluate supportive services (counseling, case management, after-care, and outreach), shelter, and Support Center projects and outcomes. Goals, objectives, and activities are evaluated at project staff semi-annual retreats by Xanthos Board of Directors (annually) and the Youth Advisory Council (semi-annually). DreamCatcher services and impact on youth and families will be evaluated by our consultant, Kaiser Permanente and UC Berkeley with funds provided by California Endowment as well as our ongoing consultant and trainer, Al Brown, Dynamic Groups.

 

15. Board of Directors/Advisory Body: Xanthos, Inc is governed by a Board of Directors, composed of a representative cross-section of the community, including youth/students, parents, and other representatives.

 

NEED FOR ASSISTANCE

 

The San Francisco Bay Area is one of the most diverse and desirable places to live in the United States, making it a magnet for runaway and homeless youth. The six-county region includes a mix of affluence, environmental beauty, a mild climate and technological wonders, each interspersed with and supported by centers of progressive ideas and social change. Yet reality too often hits home for the individuals and families who come here looking for something different. The cost of living is near the highest in the United States. There remain noticeable and strong pockets of urban influence, neighborhoods and streets of social decay that often form the true heart of this magnetic pull, especially for those who lack the basics of a good family, employment or a peer network of support.

It is in these areas of Alameda County where runaway or throwaway youth often end up, lulled away from the dangers of life on the City streets of San Francisco. Increasingly the youngest of homeless turn to the downtown blocks of a city like Oakland where transportation hubs connect to San Francisco. This provides the youth with the excitement and freedom to move about during the day while expanding the locations where predators can take advantage of their vulnerability. They seek out friends in the suburbs where a couch becomes a temporary home; or they go to the wonders of a Telegraph Avenue of Berkeley where diversity and devil-may-care attitudes prevail and they can find many kinds of companionship.

 

In many ways they find these areas are equally as dangerous or any more fulfilling than life on the streets of San Francisco. Alameda County and surrounding areas are in fact quite dramatically different from the neighboring City of San Francisco. As recently as 1998, approximately half of the county’s households earned less than $50,000 per year, leaving a significant unequal income distribution (a large number of wealthy and a large number of poor) that results in pockets of populations that are at-risk from a number of factors. minority-impacted schools are plagued by high drop-out rates, high teen pregnancy rates and crime and violence rates that exceed national averages. Learning disabilities and illiteracy rates among youth and adults that exceed 40% and are above the national average.

 

The young people who make use of our DreamCatcher program resemble the 1980s generation where HIV/AIDS, and the resurgence of other transmittable diseases (TB, Chlamydia). Increased drug involvement has gained a foothold in the African American, Latino and, to a lesser extent, Asian/Southeast Asian communities, the population demographics of the targeted area. It is not surprising that our RHYMIS data reveals that during year 2000, 70% of youth involved in our program survived the death of one or both parents, 55% had one or both parents incarcerated, and 34% or more were raised by their grandparents or another similar caregiver.

 

In response to these realities circumstances, Xanthos led the development in 1992 of the East Bay area’s first efforts to house homeless youth . Xanthos started providing services directly through the development of the first local host homes. These homes provided temporary overnight shelter at qualified private residences while youth and their families received family therapy to facilitate family reunification. We found that many of the cases from the area involved youth on the streets who have been thrown out and abandoned by their families, making reunification an unlikely prospect. Following many conversations and focus groups with youth, we learned that a temporary shelter setting rather than foster homes would better meet the needs of local youth, because many did not feel comfortable “invading” private home settings and such placements were particularly uncomfortable for youth that may had a foster home experience in their past. Host homes lacked supportive interaction with peers and counseling staff. As one quote from a recent study of homeless youth indicates:

 

“Even when they understand the problem, well-meaning people may fail to acknowledge that because the homeless youth have experienced a different reality, they will perceive the proposed solutions through different lenses. For example, for many homeless youth in our sample, the freedom of living on the streets is more valuable to them than the opportunity to receive services conditioned on giving up control over their own lives."

 

“Several of the homeless youth interviewed noted that upon arriving in a new city, they will find other homeless youth—not homeless adults or adult service providers—to learn where services are provided and whether these providers can be trusted. For a program of services to be effective, homeless youth will have to want to use the services.”

 

Accordingly, we began to search for a viable temporary shelter alternative (a difficult task with few affordable real estate opportunities in metropolitan areas). In 1998, we succeeded by arranging with a local West Oakland Church to use their auditorium for night shelter, providing the only emergency shelter option in Alameda County and surrounding East Bay region. Eight young people could sleep and receive basic hygienic and nutritional care, though all services were limited to evening hours with a strict requirement that we be out of the facility each morning by 8 am. We maintained this arrangement until December 2000, when it became clear that the program needed a more stable location if it were going to succeed in building upon the trust and faith that the young people were getting from our early start-up efforts.

 

The identification of a Victorian home in downtown Oakland and the creation of the DreamCatcher ideal gave hope and enthusiasm to the project staff and young people. The house we found is centrally located near transportation and areas where street youth congregate . The facility is sufficient in size to provide adequate sleeping arrangements for eight youth (upstairs) and for a downstairs peer support center opening in June 2001 (funded by the California Endowment). At least 300 to 400 young people will use these facilities each year, including sustained case management for shelter residents and others who come by, at least initially, for other forms of help (food, clothing, transportation needs, showers, laundry facilities, and a comprehensive, peer-oriented system of advocacy, counseling and support). Most import, however, is the fact that street youth already trust Xanthos, its programs and its staff.

 

WHO OUR CLIENTS ARE AND THEIR NEED FOR ASSISTANCE

Recent studies on homeless youth in the East Bay region demonstrate that there is a lot we don’t know about these young people that become homeless. Alameda County’s homeless and street youth populations have suffered considerably by the dire lack of resources and sensitive services to this community. Alameda County has a population well over 3,000,000 with pockets of extreme poverty and a skyrocketing cost of living rate. Yet, there are virtually no services for homeless runaway youth and those services that do exist target older youth populations 18-23. Xanthos has pioneered the efforts of Alameda County to respond to younger homeless youth populations over the past 9 years and the DreamCatcher Programs act as the hub of shelter and support services for homeless runaway youth. Most of the statistics below, unless otherwise indicated, are compiled from our own program RHYMIS results spanning the last three years:

 

• THEY ARE POOR: 25-40% of children and youth living in neighborhoods surrounding the Dream Catcher Shelter fall below the poverty line (see Alameda County Public Health Status Report 2000 available at www.co.Alameda.ca.us/publichealth). To meet financial needs, 87% of sheltered youth (RHYMIS reports 1999-2000) report supporting them through criminal activity. Thirty seven (37%) were involved in prostitution. Fifty-seven (57%) disclosed they engage in survival sex behaviors, having sex with adults in exchange for shelter, drugs, and food. In most cases, youth view these behaviors as necessary for living on the streets and in homeless adult communities.

 

• THEY ARE VICTIMS: In addition to “voluntary” survival crimes, 70% of the teens reported they had been victims of crime since leaving home. Of this seventy %, 30% reported that they had been raped, 60% had been assaulted and 40% had been robbed.

 

• THEY SUFFER: Street youth are at extremely high-risk of physical health problems. AIDS is the leading cause of death for men 24-44 in Alameda County and 11-19 year olds comprise the second highest risk group of contracting HIV . Currently Alameda County is experiencing an epidemic in HIV rates among young black men. AIDS is not the only chronic illness street youth show contracting. The Tuberculosis rate in Alameda County is four times as high as the State of California rates. Five percent (5%) of sheltered youth tested positive for TB. Eleven percent (11%) of sheltered youth are surviving on the streets with Sickle Cell Anemia. Other chronic illnesses of sheltered youth include: Cystic Fibrosis, severe asthma, and heart defects. According to our surveys, 80% suffered from one or more of the following: chronic nausea, abdominal pains, gynecological problems, and severe dental problems. The most serious medical problem to which street youth are subject is HIV, though other STD’s (e.g., herpes, gonorrhea, syphilis) are also prevalent and potentially dangerous. Many of the youth we talked to also reported chronic cold or flu symptoms, fatigue, asthma, anxiety, infections and headaches. Simple medical problems go untreated and often result in permanent damage. Only 40% of sheltered youth had medical coverage at intake into services.

 

• THEY SEARCH:. Approximately 25% of the youth engage in unprotected survival sex. Perhaps even more serious, and more common, is the casual sex practiced by most street youth. These youth are adolescents, without parental constraints and in desperate need of temporary substitutes for love and affection.

 

• THEY ESCAPE: Contributing to health problems and high risk sexual activity is the abundant use of alcohol and drugs. It is estimated that 80% of the youth use alcohol and drugs (not including tobacco) and at least half of these are already addicted. As with the prevalence of casual sex, this is hardly surprising. Individuals, whether youth or adults, use drugs and alcohol to dull the experience of emotional and environmental pain and to deal with their depression.

 

• THEY ARE CONFUSED: Kids do not run away from home because of living conditions conducive to healthy psychological development. Youth workers are often amazed at the resiliency of many of these youth and their relative sanity in the face of painful histories, a chaotic present and uncertain futures. Their problems run the gamut from active psychosis (15%), clinical depression (25%), suicide ideation (58%) to anxiety and conduct disorders. Most lack basic interpersonal skills and adaptive habits they have picked up are often counter-productive in any other context than the street. Coping mechanisms such as survival sex behaviors and substance abuse have become the means for dealing with peers and everyday reality.

 

• THEY PLAY: One of the most poignant and distressing characteristics of street youth is their inability to conceive of enjoyable activities rather than the need to hustle for drugs and alcohol just to be able to survive day to day. When given the opportunity, many of the youth show a remarkable ability to enjoy and practice art, drama, writing, reading, the outdoors and sports. It is our impression that the odds of a street kid being creative are actually potentially higher, perhaps because of the depth of emotions they have acquired from their painful experiences and the need to express themselves in unconventional ways.

 

• THEY TRY: Most of the youth served have a long history of academic failure and chronic truancy. Youth without adult guardians or a permanent address face incredible barriers in school districts across the nation. Twenty one 21%) of youth in the Oakland Unified School District in Alameda County drop out of high school compared to the 11% in the State of California. For street youth, during the last year, RHYMIS shows an even higher rate of 36% of youth we served that does not have more than an 8 th grade education. Chronic truancy leaves students failing year after year because they could not make up credits. Eventually, frustration leads them to drop out. A preponderance of the youth we see are suffering from various learning disabilities that have never been diagnosed. Eventually, frustration leads them to drop out of school.

 

WHO THEY ARE AS RUNAWAY/THROWAWAY/HOMELESS

 

We know that once teenagers become homeless or runaway from home, there are different motivations that keep them locked into a homeless lifestyle or actually encourage them to get help. As a result of our experiences serving homeless youth in Alameda County, we have learned there are two types of youth who have adapted to and/or have been seduced by life on the streets: those who adapted and preferred life on the streets; and those who very much wanted to get off the streets. The former tended to be chronic, long-term homeless youth.

 

Following from this, three very different strategies are being employed in DreamCatcher:

 

1) For runaways whose lives are experienced as an unhappy consequence of poverty, life choices and family problems, staff intervenes as quickly as possible before these youth are seduced by the short-term inducements of street life. It is our experience that an immediate assessment of the situation and family contact is essential—before both youth and family adapt to the situation. Staff are aware of the very thin line between effective and attractive services on one hand, and the danger that these services (shelter) may actually foster “co-dependency” on the other. By “co-dependency” we mean that the program unwittingly colludes with the family and youth’s “solution” to the problem of family conflict, which is “out of sight, out of mind.” But as we know, out of sight is never out of mind: neither the youth nor the family ever recovers from this temporary solution. Based on our data over the previous two years, it is clear that the benefits of clinical and cultural expertise in working with the family prove that many families, like runaway and homeless youth, are resilient and quite capable of finding their own solutions to difficult problems. For these youth and families, an immediate emphasis will be placed on the assessment and implementation of family reunification and on-going family therapy services. Approximately 32.5% of youth served in the DreamCatcher Youth Shelter have identified as runaway youth as described above.

 

2) In those cases where family reunification is contraindicated (e.g., long-term, family homelessness, chronic abuse with little chance of modifying family dynamics), alternatives are sought as part of the assessment and case-planning process. Wherever possible, extended family and family friends are brought in as the next best alternative to reunification with the biological family. If these alternatives fail, Xanthos has developed linkages and expertise in locating permanent housing for youth appropriate to developmental levels and individual need (refer to service linkages, MOUs). Approximately 46% of DreamCatcher Youth Shelter clients fall into this category and identify as homeless/street youth who have been homeless for more than 30 nights. Youth who are thrown out of their homes account for 22.5% of Youth Shelter clients. Forty five percent 45% of families of “throwaway” youth will participate in our family counseling program resulting in family reunification.

 

3) For those youth who have been seduced into the short-term advantages and pleasures of street life, our strategy is to begin the process of re-socialization; that is, to provide meaningful alternatives to street life. The ultimate goal will always be family reunification, but for this category of youth, a prerequisite step is the creation of a connection and a bond of trust between the youth and our services. It is important for staff to keep in mind that many of these youth may have a long history of unsatisfactory services imposed on them and thus perceive our initial attempts with suspicion and distrust. In addition to developing quality services that are attractive to youth, our program has overcome youth’s inability to trust adults by recruiting well-trained staff; staff who themselves have experienced homelessness; Xanthos has a culturally and sexually diverse staff; and perhaps—most importantly—they have adopted a community youth development perspective that includes a full integration and involvement of our young clients into the infrastructure of our program.

 

EXISTING SUPPORT SYSTEMS

There are virtually no existing support systems targeting runaway homeless youth in Alameda County. In fact, we are and have been the only shelter program for runaway homeless youth throughout Alameda County. Due to the lack of programs for youth in this area, we have established linkages with youth serving agencies that don’t specifically target runaway homeless youth, but collaborate with our agency in addressing their needs. We have formed vital partnerships with local police departments and Child Welfare agencies (See Letters of Support). Following are the agencies with whom we currently coordinate services:

 

· BOSS Youth House: a transitional housing program for homeless youth 14-17, who can furnish parental consent for housing services.

· Covenant House California: located on Telegraph and 29th, Covenant House provides a service center to at-risk and targeted older homeless youth populations. They focus on employment and vocational services and are open Monday to Fridays from 9am to 5pm. (MOU attached)

· First Place Fund For Youth: Provides transitional housing and apartments to former or emancipated foster care youth, ages 18 to 21. Youths must complete an economic literacy course within 8 to 12 weeks. (MOU attached)

· Legal Services for Children: A lawyer referral service for children; provides guardianship services for runaway youth.

· SMAAC Youth Center: A drop-in center for gay, lesbian, queer, and transgender youth under 24 with a focus on African American youth and “throwaway” queer youth. (MOU attached)

· Suitcase Clinic: Recently opened weekly street youth clinic, open Monday nights in Berkeley at the St. Marks on Bancroft. (MOU attached).

 

Attached in this proposal is a Map indicating the Youth Shelter location in proximity to these organizations and transportation lines (See Map A). Xanthos has formalized additional working relationships with all major school districts, youth employment programs, county agencies involved in approving and authorizing monetary and health care benefits, and medical and food service providers. As the attached letters demonstrate, Xanthos is well positioned to ensure these most vulnerable of young people have a viable option to criminal or juvenile justice programs. Later aspects of this grant will detail how many of these services are working cooperatively to achieve the overall goals and objectives of empowering runaway and homeless youth to find or establish strong families and caring, stable living conditions.

 

AREA TO BE SERVED

 

The Dreamcatcher Youth Basic Center Project serves runaway homeless youth in Alameda County. It is centrally located in the city of Oakland, the largest city in Alameda County, and transportation hub of Alameda County. Attached is a Map indicating the central location of the shelter and its close proximity to popular youth areas. Refer also to the Outreach Services Map that indicates shelter location in proximity to street youth communities and target areas in Alameda County where street outreach is conducted.

 

RESULTS OR BENEFITS EXPECTED

THE NUMBERS WE WILL SERVE AND WHAT THEY CAN EXPECT

 

The following table summarizes quantitative results in terms of number of youth served and units of service. Note that most services will be delivered both to runaway and homeless youth who are provided with shelter and those who are not. For example, a youth and their family may decide during the intake process that the youth can return home, in which case ongoing family counseling services will be provided; or a street youth may participate in recreational activities whether or not they avail themselves of shelter services. Each of these services in described in detail in the table below.

 

SERVICE OBJECTIVE

Outreach Services Hand out materials/talk to all homeless youth identified in target area which describes program, invites youth to participate and encourages alternatives to street life.

 

Intake 200 Identify individualized needs & strengths and develop service plan.

 

Temporary Shelter Provide shelter & services with 8 beds. Average length of stay is 14 nights.

 

Individual/Group/Family Counseling Each sheltered youth served will receive an average of 10 individual, 8 group and 3 family sessions = 3,150 total counseling sessions/year

 

Case Management 200 youth contacted will receive case management services. 150 youth will receive intensive case management services resulting in youth exiting street life through family reunification or long term housing placements.

 

Aftercare & Case Disposition 140 sheltered youth and their families will develop an aftercare plan in conjunction with case management. Post-shelter services include counseling, case management, housing retention, and after-care peer support dinners/groups two times/month. See description in Approach

 

Recreational Services All RHY youth will be offered recreational services and Outside-In experientials to broaden their horizons.

 

Staff Development All project staff and volunteers will participate in two hour-long weekly case conferences, and two hour-long weekly trainings and 4 in-service days/year.

 

Youth Advisory Board/ Board of Directors 16 youth will participate in Youth Advisory Board. 4 youth per year will accompany staff to local and national conferences for program development. Board of Directors meet monthly to evaluate services.

 

Individual Client Files All 300 youth who participate in the program will have a client file. In addition to shelter youth, those who receive Street-Based Outreach, case planning, OutSide-In, counseling, educational, financial, or health services will be tracked using the agency’s database network.

 

Service Linkages 200 youth will be referred to collaborating agencies to address needs.70 youth will be referred by collaborating agencies. See MOUs

 

Youth Partnership Project is involved with staff in all planning, implementation, evaluation, activities and project services Refer to Objectives and Approach for more detailed description of on-going center planning goals and activities.

 

CHANGES IN ATTITUDES, VALUES AND BEHAVIORS

Our capacity to influence the attitudes, values and behavior of street youth is based on case-planning that fully involves the youth and a continuum of relevant services that reflects the needs and strengths developed in the case-planning/assessment process. This process must be individualized and holistic, recognizing that each client is unique and requires a multi-faceted approach that emphasizes assets and strengths. Our experience shows that most of the youth we serve are remarkably resilient, adaptive and creative or they would not survive on the streets very long. These talents and skills are typically undermined by the youth’s feelings of low self-esteem and fatalistic attitude toward past, present and future. Our approach is to treat each young person with as much dignity as they have resilience in an effort to inspire youth to assure that:

 

• Youth will feel more hopeful about their self-worth. Youth will improve self-image.
• Youth will increase life opportunities by making decisions and solving problems.
• Youth will increase their ability to trust in their own adult development by controlling their own life and destiny.

 

Over the past two years of operational shelter, we have moved more than 300 youth beyond the streets into permanent housing. We have been privileged to work in partnership with these resilient young people who inspire each other and staff to grow and change and overcome obstacles that life may present problems youth have upon. Described below are vignettes of DreamCatcher Youth Shelter clients:

 

“Lisa” is a 17-year-old bi-racial girl who is referred to shelter by a teacher at Encinal High School in Alameda. Lisa was thrown out of the home when her mom learned she was pregnant. Lisa’s stepfather answers the phone and states that he “does not care who is taking care of Lisa as long as she does not come his way”. Lisa says she is 2 months pregnant and is not currently covered under an insurance policy. Lisa does not have any identification and says that she is not aware of her mom keeping any documents of that nature at home. She discloses that recently her mom threw her clothes out on the street corner and burned them when Lisa did not come home one night. 7 months later, Lisa is living with her grandmother, employed at a Bank, enrolled in teen parent highschool, and caring for her healthy baby girl.

 

“Brian” is a Caucasian 16-year-old male. Both his parents are dead and he was living with his aunt, who recently lost her home in an eviction and is now in jail. Brian has been staying with friends in an abandoned building on E. 14th Street in Oakland. He dropped out of school because after the eviction, he did not have an address to enroll. He comes to shelter because he says, “ I’m tired and I can’t keep running; there is nowhere to go”. Upon his graduation, Brian is a youth trainer at the local YMCA, lives with his uncle and “new” legal guardian, and attends Street Academy-a local alternative highschool in Oakland. He continues to struggle with drug use, but is attending weekly NA meetings with his uncle and attends the DreamCatcher monthly Aftercare Support group.

 

“Linda” is a 15-year-old Latina girl who has a place to live but she is at-risk of becoming homeless because she identifies as lesbian and her parents are deeply Catholic and Linda thinks they would throw her out of the home if they knew. She discloses that she is in a relationship with a 27-year-old woman who Linda said would take her in to her home if Linda was thrown out. Linda comes to the Center everyday after school. She gets help with her homework and applies to be a Xanthos peer health educator. She participates in the queer youth support group and attends all of the art and health education workshops. Linda wants to be doctor when she grows up.

 

“Amy” has been staying in the shelter for one week. She was dropped off at the center by CPS. She has been in foster care for most of her life but had run away from her group home two months ago and has been on the run since. When she returned to her old group home, they informed her that she had been dropped from the system as she was turning 18 in one month. Amy comes to the shelter one night crying hysterically. She tells the counselor that she has just been raped by 5 men who stay at the Jefferson Hotel down the way. She has a large bruise on the side of her face. The counselor calls the on-call worker and the on-call worker takes Amy to Highland Hospital Sexual Assault Center. Amy is scared to report to the police and her caseworker sets up a time she can report with an advocate from Bay Area Women Against Rape. Amy is currently in the final stages of enrollment into a Job Corps program where she will enlist in a Nursing Assistant Vocational class and is working with her caseworker to plan a special birthday party at the Shelter.

 

Based on Xanthos’s experience with providing runaway services in Alameda County, the impact is substantial for youth and families in the community. Xanthos is launching a comprehensive evaluation and research project to measure outcomes and long-term benefits to youth and their families at the request of the California Endowment Foundation. Kaiser Permanente’s Division of Research and the UC Berkeley School of Public Health have committed to assisting us with this endeavor. The Dream Catcher Youth Shelter overarching goals are to: (1) Effect a change in street youth’s outlook on life and his/her present and future such that there are meaningful and achievable alternatives to life on the streets; and (2) Whenever possible and appropriate to reunite a youth with his/her family, and stabilize and improve family functioning.

 

The following summarizes the changes that we know occur in the lives of the young people who come to DreamCatcher:

 

Ø First and foremost, 300 youth served will develop an understanding of alternatives to street life; that they have other choices; that they are valued as individuals and their lives are worth turning around.

 

Ø 200 youth will receive an individualized case planning interview and case management services.

 

Ø 150 youth receiving case management services will be reunited with their families or be placed into permanent housing.

 

Ø 200 youth will develop healthier lifestyles and acknowledge the importance of physical well being to their overall development. In particular, youth will come to understand the role drugs and alcohol play in their current situation, the danger of HIV, the importance of nutrition and exercise, and how to articulate their feelings to prevent attacks on their bodies.

 

Ø 150 youth will receive educational services and be given the opportunity to choose educational approaches that inspire youth growth and academic success. 65 of these youth who had dropped out of school will be re-enrolled into school programs. 25 youth will be enrolled into GED programs. 75 youth will receive tutoring and literacy services. 45 youth will receive access to special education services to address learning disabilities.

 

Ø Family functioning will be improved and 45 families will acquire the resources to resolve conflict before it escalates into violence and runaway behaviors. Applying a family systems approach to therapy, cooperation of families will be enlisted to re-conceptualize the family as a unit able to create new ways of overcoming conflict and pain that join the family rather than destroy it.

 

Ø Families will develop resources that include both healthier alliances among the adults and the capacity to seek assistance when family members feel they are overwhelmed.

 

Ø 80% to 90% of the participants will learn to develop and implement realistic short and long-term goals.

 

Ø The majority of our participating youth will gain an understanding of the importance of education and begin to develop the discipline and habits to realize that understanding as well as be given the opportunity to choose educational approaches that inspire growth and success.

 

Ø Most of the participants will acquire increased understanding of systems—educational, vocational, social service, health care—and how to access them as ways of decreasing dependence on street values and resources.

 

Ø 200 youth will acquire increased understanding of systems and learn how to advocate for themselves in accessing, brokering, and navigating educational, vocational, social service, and health care agencies and systems.

 

Ø Through the program’s youth development activities, 25 to 50 participants will gain an appreciation of their own powers to develop their aptitudes both as individuals and in association with others, to value their ideas, and to articulate their feelings and thoughts and to move towards becoming mature individuals who are responsible for themselves as well as for others.

 

Ø 1,000 community members will learn about homeless youth issues and resources through our community outreach and education programs. Already, due to our past 3 years of experience, the county, its many agencies and political forces have joined together in recognition that Xanthos is now the major county-wide comprehensive youth-service agency. Xanthos now enjoys the support of the entire community. 20 high schools and 40 community-based agencies will receive presentations by DreamCatcher project staff about homeless issues, street life, and intervention strategies.

 

OUR CRITERIA FOR EVALUATING THE RESULTS

Even though Xanthos has in place an existing data capturing process, we are implementing a three-year evaluation project. It is being developed in conjunction with the Kaiser Permanente Division of Research and the UC Berkeley School of Public Health, under the direction of Annette Aalborg, MPh., Dr.PH. The basic outline of the project is for Dr. Aalborg to work in conjunction with Xanthos’s Management Information Specialist (Mike Myers) and our DreamCatcher program staff to create a quality data-collection process that is fully integrated into Xanthos’ comprehensive data system and corresponds to all technical expectations of RHYMIS, yet one that significantly involves the young people themselves in capturing the information about what happens in their experience. Dr. Aalborg is an expert in adolescent program evaluation and is well known for her methodology for involving youthful participants in the data- and information-gathering process. (See her attached background information.)

 

Year One will focus on testing a variety of healthy development goals, so we have in place the mechanisms needed for judging the overall impact of both the shelter and supportive services components of the DreamCatcher model. (See Evaluation Instrument tool developed by our consultant, Al Brown, MSW, Dynamic Groups that we will initially use). Utilizing qualitative and quantitative measures, we hope to capture a true picture of the impact of the project on the lives of the youth, including the subtle health and wellness factors that are instilled as a result of the model. Dr. Aalborg will oversee the creation of a participatory research model that actively engages the young people themselves in the design of certain survey and open-ended interview techniques. Dr. Aalborg’s association with Kaiser and UC Berkeley will also enable the project to utilize state-of-the-art evaluation tools for capturing the unique and valuable processes involved in the refinement and operation of a shelter program such as DreamCatcher.

 

In the year 2000, Xanthos began the process of designing a new, centralized database system to pull together the data from all of our program sites in the East Bay. These programs include School-Based health clinics, Head Start programs, Mental Health counseling, Drug and Alcohol counseling, Child and Family therapy programs, our collaborative RHY services and the newest addition to the Xanthos family, DreamCatcher. All of our existing programs capture data via a variety of database programs specific to each program and/or its funding sources. While these applications – Clinical Fusion, Therapist Helper, Child Care Plus, and RHYMIS – provide us with good snapshots of our individual programs, Xanthos has had difficulty analyzing service delivery across the entire agency. Our new data system, known as XanDB, will allow us to meet this need. XanDB is based on Microsoft Access 2000 and the Windows 2000 Server platform.

 

PROGRAMMATIC APPROACH:

 

Xanthos, Inc has been operating the DreamCatcher model for three years and been involved with Federal Runaway Homeless youth assistance efforts for nearly 9 years. The proposal for continuation of the DreamCatcher shelter project is based upon moving from an initial host-home model to our recent initiative to move that project from a transitory church-based site into a more permanent facility that allows for adequate shelter and supportive care.

 

YOUTH INVOLVEMENT AND PARTICIPATION PHILOSOPHY AND UNIQUE APPROACHES: Youth involvement (the essence of youth development) and community and family involvement are the cornerstones of DreamCatcher’s philosophy and service delivery system. Our youth involvement approach consists of full integration of youth into planning and implementation of services. It begins at the most basic level—for example, partnership between client and staff in the intake and case-planning process—and proceeds to full youth involvement up to and including youth leadership in the operation of the project and youth activism in creating and maintaining program evaluation. Endowing youth clients with partnership status in planning the services they will receive while they are in the program is only the foundation of our youth development approach. Xanthos recognizes that the value of this approach is in the results: when youth enter our program services, whether contact with our street outreach workers or a first night in our shelter program, they are in a state of crisis. Though we strive to relieve crisis in the most productive way possible, we are also trying to encourage the sense of trust and confidence that the program is theirs to learn and grow into.

 

In fact, the staff and clients of DreamCatcher recognize that the period of crisis that characterizes the youth’s entry into the services can similarly be a time when he or she sets the stage for growth into his/her next part of life. Youth who run away are often searching for some life worth running toward, an adult worth running into, and a worthwhile place to re-plant their roots and grow into young men and women. They have a need for security more so than the average person. Their “problems” and their problematic behaviors are often masking deeper questions they have of the world, especially of the adult world.

Appropriately then, we see our most important task as providers who create a space safe for youth to express and articulate their feelings and ideas. This is accomplished through relationships youth and adults create with one another. Relationships develop over time, a day spent together, a drive around the Bay, cooking a meal together, playing basketball.

 

This philosophy is the guiding principle of our approach. Interventions based on relationships with the child far surpass interventions based on procedures. The DreamCatcher Program is designed to ensure these types of rewarding relationships between staff and youth. Gatherings and activities in the shelter are designed to allow these relationships to emerge. Case Managers accompany and transport youth to all appointments, meet the youth where they are to complete an initial intake, provide family counseling, spend evenings together with youth cooking at the shelter, and most importantly ride out the day to day crisis’ with youth—building a relationship worthy of partnership.

This philosophy derives from practice and experience: the youth we serve experience themselves as powerless and victimized. Even if it were possible to induce our clients to engage in services we designed and implemented—whether educational, health care, recreational—even, if the clients were willing to passively accept those services and receive some benefit from them, the underlying conditions would not be impacted; in fact the feelings of low self-esteem and powerlessness would be confirmed by the very nature of the services themselves. By building relationships with youth, and by allowing youth to build the program around their individual desires and needs, our clients simultaneously design and receive services. The service delivery system itself becomes part of the treatment, leading to feelings of competency, self-awareness and control. Both external and internal environments become a little less hostile and a little more intelligible. And putting philosophy aside and relying instead on a purely pragmatic point of view, the fact is that youth do not passively receive services and benefit from them—it is only when they are engaged that the services are utilized. From the on-set our program has been designed based on youth input, including all decisions from the location of the shelter, name of the program, to color of the walls, and staff hiring. A Youth Advisory & Oversight Council composed of youth who are current or former peer counselor oversees the project, participate in evaluation and make recommendations for program modifications and enhancements. In addition, Xanthos currently has 3 youth representatives advising its Board of Directors.

 

DIVERSITY & CULTURAL SENSITIVITY

We recruit and hire staff that reflect the cultural and sexual diversity of our youth---racial, ethnic, life experience, and sexual orientation. Ongoing staff and peer training involve cultural competency in all areas of diversity. Through the Peer Partnership Project, street youth are encouraged to educate and sensitize staff on street life cultural issues (refer to Outreach).

 

PROGRAM SERVICES

The DreamCatcher Street-Based Outreach Project is designed to complement the efforts of the Basic Shelter project. It has been developed to identify populations of homeless and street youth in Alameda County, form relationships with street youth and their families, and educate as well as develop linkages with agencies that are in contact with homeless, runaway youth: schools, health clinics, community-based agencies, churches, and youth divisions of local police departments. Outreach to families is conducted through our service linkages, community organizations, neighborhood coalitions, local police departments missing child reports, churches, schools, public service announcement and media. There is always one bilingual staff conducting outreach at any given time.

(a.) Outreach activities and street work are organized and implemented by the Outreach Coordinator and the Street Outreach Worker. Outreach workers reflect the ethnic, linguistic, and cultural diversity of the street youth population (please refer to staff biographies). Outreach staff patrol popular areas where street youth congregate during evening hours employing two approaches to engage youth: Individual Outreach and Group Outreach Work.

 

Within the targeted region, there are several diverse populations of street youth that vary considerably from one city to another. Outreach Workers have identified these populations as described below and a Map showing these areas in proximity to the DreamCatcher Shelter and Xanthos Headquarters is attached:

 

· Telegraph Avenue: City of Berkeley: North Alameda County:

 

The Telegraph Avenue area in Berkeley, California is a magnet for runaway, homeless youth similar to Haight Ashbury in San Francisco, a “hippie” community that has remained virtually unchanged since the 1960’s. Street youth populations that congregate and live on the Avenue refer to themselves as “gutter punks”, mostly Caucasian and out-of-state older youth (17-24) who are surviving on the streets with little or no desire to move beyond homelessness and/or who are struggling with severe mental health disorders, such as schizophrenia, psychotic disorders, etc.

 

· Broadway: City of Oakland: Central Alameda County

 

Street youth populations who congregate in the downtown area of Oakland are mostly gay, lesbian, and sexual minority populations who are involved in survival sex, prostitution, and “sex work” activities. Most of them are African-American and Latino/a and have been thrown out of their families or have run away from foster homes in fear of their physical and emotional safety. This is perhaps the most difficult population of homeless youth with whom to work. Many of them are HIV positive and heavy substance abusers. There is only one program (SMAAC-see MOU) for gay and lesbian adolescent populations in Alameda County and despite Oakland’s close proximity to San Francisco the Oakland area is nowhere near as tolerant.

 

Many youth attempt to live in motels along Broadway and MacArthur1 despite the high costs so that they may avoid physical attacks and incidents of adult-on-youth violence and hate crimes. Street Outreach Workers patrol this area by foot and have been successful using a group work approach; i.e. identifying leaders, “parental figures” and concentrating efforts on forming alliances with them. These leaders are not only potential clients, but more importantly become adjuncts to Outreach Workers, working in alliance for the benefit of the group and each of its members. Often these leaders will alert Outreach Workers to particularly young recent runaways or to youth who are discussing suicide plans and in need of immediate adult intervention.

 

· The Market/San Pablo Strip, West Oakland: West Alameda County

 

This population consists mostly of young Latina and African American females prostituting, selling drugs, and working for older sexually exploitive adult men. San Pablo Avenue is referred to as the “Ho Stro”, and is particularly impoverished. This community has been devastated by gun violence associated with the crack cocaine industry. Many of its members are homeless and living with AIDS and other chronic illnesses. Families attempt to live in SRO’s, boarded-up abandoned buildings, shacks, and two or three families may live in an abandoned or burned down apartment on any given night. The health risks to children and youth are extremely high. This area has a TB rate that is four times as high as the state of California and one of the highest rates of communicable diseases among adolescent populations.2 There is an unbelievable gap in services throughout this area with the exception of church efforts to feed hungry families and provide clothing to children. Our approach in this area is to patrol San Pablo Avenue and Market Street in teams of two in order to ensure staff safety. Street Outreach Workers have been successful in providing concrete services to youth working the streets such as: new underwear, socks, pregnancy tests, condoms, and food. More recently we have begun discussions with church leaders in the area who have historical roots and strong relationships with the young women and men whom they have known since their births. Many of these youth are orphans and lack any parental figure other than the symbol and members of the church.

 

As described above, the areas where youth congregate vary immensely from one neighborhood to another and rarely do youth venture outside of their “chosen” neighborhoods. Over the past two years, Street Outreach Workers have developed relationships with prominent adults in the community and who have particularly strong relationships with neighborhood youth and families. These linkages with adults, Church leaders, youth serving agencies, and beat cops are crucial outposts of our presence in these areas. Community and family involvement in homeless runaway youth populations is also developed out of these informal linkages and results in formal collaborations on political levels. Xanthos has partnered with a county-wide youth information and referral network (Youth Link) to ensure youth have access to shelter services 24 hours a day.

 

Our community outreach efforts ensure that community-based organizations are educated about DreamCatcher Shelter as well as other Xanthos programs serving homeless youth communities and families. Xanthos has established relationships with local schools, police departments, youth groups, and health clinics. Staff give presentations to 20 or more schools per year and over 40 community-based organizations. Presentations include education about local homeless youth populations, resources for homeless youth, and prevention and intervention strategies. As part of our Street Outreach Project, informal groups and educational presentations are also conducted on the street and directed at homeless and street youth communities. A DreamCatcher Youth Shelter card and brochures are distributed on the street, in the community, and to staff at youth serving organizations.

 

(b.) INDIVIDUAL INTAKE PROCESS & PLAN TO CONTACT GUARDIANS: The DreamCatcher program encourages and supports runaway/homeless young people to trust the services we offer, to trust our staff and to trust each other in finding solutions to the circumstances in which they live. The Intake process includes:

 

Ø Direct Access to Services: Youth can access direct shelter services 24 hours per day by contacting the shelter directly, paging an Intake worker, and contacting YouthLink (24 hour hotline-See MOU). If shelter is full to capacity, intake workers coordinate alternative placement to ensure safety of child.

 

Ø During an Intake, a client is given written and verbal programmatic information, confidentiality agreements, client rights, and an informal discussion occurs allowing youth to talk about anything they feel comfortable discussing that may help outreach or intake workers to understand their emergency service needs. At the end of the intake interview, youth are asked to sign a form indicating their awareness of client rights and voluntary commitment. We record the required case and demographic information of each youth at this time.

 

Ø During intake, intake workers are trained to assess for program suitability and the level of client crisis, drug involvement, severe mental health diagnosis and any recent hospitalizations. In the event of a medical or psychological crisis, we coordinate appropriate transports to meet emergency needs.

 

Ø Each youth is assigned a primary case worker to coordinate the services; Usually this is the intake worker.

 

Ø Assessment includes the use of Initial Youth Dev. Assessment Tool created by Dynamic Groups, Al Brown MSW.

Caseworkers form intense relationships with youth as they progress toward self-initiated goals by accompanying youth to school orientations, housing orientations, health clinics, benefit centers, etc. Case Workers also spend dinner hours at the shelter, cooking with the youth and spending time informally while observing youth relate to one another.. Youth meet with their caseworkers at least four times per week and have the option of requesting a case review at any time and can do so by paging their caseworker. Youth are free to request a different caseworker and are advised of the grievance procedures and their rights upon intake.

 

(c.) TEMPORARY SHELTER BASIC CENTER COMPLIANCE: The program services and related activities described below are in compliance with the Basic Center Performance Standards. Youth may stay in the shelter for up to 2 weeks or longer with proper justification if their case plans requires additional nights of shelter. Each youth is offered 3 meals/day: sit down community supper at night, breakfast, and a to-go lunch. Street-Based Outreach clients are also offered food regardless of their choice to stay in shelter. The Shelter has an 8-bed capacity. The shelter facility is in compliance with State and local licensing requirements. During the day, youth are given transportation monies to school, drop-in facilities, or appointments with their caseworkers.. During dinner and activity times, the staff to client ratio is 3:8. There is always at least one staff person on-site at the shelter at all times. The shelter provides adequate toilet facilities, showers, and laundry machines. Hygiene packages, lockers, clean clothes and underwear, brushes, and dental supplies are given to each new youth and are re-filled upon need.. When the shelter is full to capacity, case workers coordinate alternative placements.

 

(d.) INDIVIDUAL AND GROUP COUNSELING:

Caseworkers spend a great deal of time with young clients. They are clinically oriented, trained mental health workers and initiate individual and family counseling with youth and their families. Family mediation or counseling sessions are offered to all interested families and family networks of sheltered youth (see below family involvement). Two RHY Mental Health Counselors provides long-term individual counseling services and long-term family therapy, advocate for psychological services such as testing, medication, and SSI services. Two MFT Interns also support the RHY Program by assisting caseworkers in group therapy (2 groups per week) and after-care support dinners and groups (one group per month). The RHY Manager coordinates clinical services and MFT Interns. Sheltered youth have access to mental health counseling and crisis counseling services on a daily basis through scheduled appointments and through the on-call supervisors at the shelter. Group counseling is available to all sheltered youth and generally focuses on specific populations of homeless youth or specific issues such as: Queer Youth Support Group, Teen Parenting Group, After-care Support Group, and Survivor Groups. Sexual Assault prevention groups are also offered both on the street by Outreach Workers and in the shelter by Case Workers.

 

(e.) FAMILY INVOLVEMENT AND COUNSELING: While youth serving agencies generally agree on the importance of youth development and empowerment, the attitude toward the role of the family is much more ambivalent—reflecting a general ambivalence in the culture. On one hand, we extol the virtues of the family, while on the other we tend to blame families for all the problems experienced by our youth. It is of course true that a percentage of the youth who end up on the streets have suffered a lifetime of serious abuse and neglect, making family reunification an inappropriate or unlikely occurrence. But it is also the case that the majority of youth we see come from families who are subject to tremendous economic and social distress: racial prejudice, the difficulties of immigration, the welfare system, an increasingly punitive justice system, the treatment of addicts as criminals, the growing disparity between rich and poor, rising home prices, rapid changes in the economy, growing divorce rates all contribute to family dysfunction. In this context, there is an almost inevitable clash between the struggles of adolescent development and the socio-economic pressures exerted on families.

 

Over the past 20 years, Xanthos has developed a model family reunification program addressing the needs of runaway youth and their families in the city of Alameda. We have accomplished this by adopting a family systems approach that eschews blame and builds on family strengths. We see adolescent rebellion as natural and essential to the formation of identity and parental reaction because of concern, misunderstanding, love and frustration. Upon parental and family contact, case workers conduct a parent/family intake with families of sheltered youth and offer mediation and counseling sessions. If this is done in a non-threatening/blaming way, parents generally accept our offers to help. An effective youth shelter must negotiate a delicate balance between competing with the attraction of street life on one hand while working with youth toward family reunification on the other. Youth workers must guard against the tendency to align themselves with the youth against the parents. The youth development and family involvement approaches complement each other when we understand the emotional and psychological role of the family in the adolescent maturational process. Sooner or later, in one way or another, an individual must come to terms with the most heavily invested emotional figures from his/her upbringing. If we can help our clients with this process, it will have an immeasurable impact on their future relationships.

 

(f.) FORMAL SERVICE LINKAGES: DreamCatcher has formal linkages with the following housing, employment, government, health, and drug and alcohol programs.

ALTERNATIVE AND TRANSITIONAL HOUSING PLACEMENTS:

 

ü Alameda County Child and Families Support: Child Protection Services--Runaway and Homeless youth will be referred to foster care and out-of-home placement in cases of child abuse and neglect, on-going and/or severe. See MOU

ü AMASSI: Transitional housing for gay, lesbian young adults 18-24. See MOU

ü B.O.S.S. Youth House: Transitional housing for homeless youth, ages 14-17 with parental consent. See MOU

ü CASA VINCENTIA: Transitional housing for emancipated pregnant teens or young women ages 18-24. See MOU

ü HOPE PREP: Transitional shelter for males 18-24. See MOU

ü First Place Fund for Youth: Transitional and independent living (apartments) for emancipated foster care youth or youth who age out of foster or group homes. See MOU

ü Job Corps (Treasure Island, San Jose): Long term residential program for low-income youth. Administered by Dept of Labor.

ü Our House: Transitional Housing for young men 18-24. See MOU

 

YOUTH EMPLOYMENT SERVICE LINKAGES:

 

ü Covenant House California: A job training and skills center for at-risk youth located within 1 mile of Shelter and popular gathering center for shelter clients. See MOU

ü Youth Opportunity Project: Comprehensive youth employment, cultural, vocational, and GED center within 1 mile of Dream Catcher Youth Shelter program.

 

HEALTH SERVICE/DRUG TREATMENT LINKAGES:

 

ü Suitcase Clinic: A UC Berkeley volunteer operated mobile health clinic providing general medical care and testing services to youth. Hosts a Homeless Youth Clinic one night a week. Xanthos Dream Catcher staff transports youth to clinic upon youth sign-up. See MOU

ü United for Health: Acupuncture, stress management, and detox services for youth. Medical services provided on-site at shelter location beginning in July 2001. See MOU

ü Children’s Hospital Oakland: Drop-In teen clinic open Thursdays. Emergency medical care and treatment to children and youth. Nationally know for its Sickle Cell Anemia Treatment Facility. 3% of shelter youth struggle with sickle cell.

ü SMAAC Youth Center: Provides peer health educators targeting gay and lesbian youth and HIV Positive youth. Provides risk behavior reduction peer services. See MOU

 

DreamCatcher staff members are all mandated child abuse reporters and are required to report all suspicions of child abuse or neglect to local CPS agencies within 72 hours or less. All DreamCatcher staff is trained in reporting procedures and assessing child abuse in runaway teens. They also report sexual assault incidents reported to them by youth clients to CPS, who then may or may not file a police report. Through the DreamCatcher Street Outreach Project, the Youth Shelter has established relationships with Youth Service Divisions of local police departments and work collaboratively with police departments and other law enforcement agencies (refer to letters of support).

 

(g.) RECREATIONAL SERVICES: Both shelter and non-shelter youth are linked to a variety of recreational services provided directly by our program and through linkages with community resources. Bay Area youth programs are fortunate because of the abundance of natural, scientific, artistic and athletic attractions throughout the region. We will provide both generic activities for all youth in the program and individualized services that enhance the specific talents of individual youth. Families too are linked to recreational activities: most of the families we serve have been so beaten down by the struggles of everyday life that they have forgotten how to have fun together. In addition, youth are connected with YMCA or YWCA memberships.

 

(h.) CASE DISPOSITION: Case Disposition is directly linked to the Individualized Case Plan developed during intake and aftercare services. For youth receiving shelter, an After Care Conference occurs at the conclusion of shelter services to discuss the After Care Plan and review and revise the Individualized Case Plan and schedule after care activities. For youth who are returning home, arrangements are made for daily check-ins to assure the situation is not escalating. If the youth is not returning home, provisions for living arrangements are finalized and transportation arranged. For non-local youth, an agreement will be reached to verify safe arrival to their destination. For participants who did not receive shelter services and shelter youth who have completed aftercare, a Final Case Disposition Conference is held that includes project staff and peer counselors who were involved in the case, parents, youth participants and other community resources that has been involved (e.g., school staff, employer, recreational counselor, therapist). At this meeting we will discuss gaps in the Case Plan, the need for any on-going services and schedule any follow-up conferences. In addition, participants will be asked to evaluate the services. Finally, program graduates are invited to participate in program services as Peer Counselors, tutors or mentors. Parents and/guardians may be asked to participate; for example, by acting as a resource or support system for other parents.

 

(i.) AFTERCARE/CASE MANAGEMENT: Fifteen days of shelter, even combined with the most intensive services, such as counseling and education, is hardly sufficient to cure a youth and her/his family suffering from long histories of conflict and dysfunction. In our experience, it is enough time to stabilize the situation, reunite most youths with their families and begin a journey on a very different path than the one they had been on, but not enough to prevent recidivism. Aftercare is thus as significant as program services while the youth is in shelter. All services are offered to youth and their families for 6 months following shelter, and for youth who are not sheltered, 6 months following intake. Services are extended beyond this period on a case-by-case basis. Program services provided during this period are individual, group and family counseling; and educational, vocational and recreational services. Most importantly, a Case Manager is assigned to each youth/family participant who will remain in contact with the family and coordinate the services—by performing the following functions:

· Remain in weekly contact with the participants and work with them to review, assess and modify Case Plan. In particular, this function includes reviewing short- and long-term goals, and assessing what steps should be taken to achieve them.

· Link participants to other services such as social services, health care, employment.

· Advocate for the participants with other systems.

· Receive evaluation and feedback data from participants on their satisfaction with our services and suggestions for improvement.

· Provide follow-up services for youth who are from out-of-state to ascertain whether they have been linked with local services.

· Manage the case disposition process (see below).

 

(j.) INDIVIDUAL FILES AND DATA COLLECTION: Xanthos’ data-management system, expanded in cooperation with the project’s evaluator and the agency’s MIS consultant, will incorporate a wide-range of health and wellness data, as previously described in the Results and Benefits Section (page 18). In general, however, we are collecting all data required by RHYMIS, including: Basic identifying information (name, age, SS#, ethnicity, family data, address); health and mental health information; counseling records; information on all services rendered; referral data; the Individualized Case Plan; service and disposition dates and notations; follow-up information; evaluation data. Access to the data will be strictly controlled through a series of password protections aligned with the requirements of each staff position. All paper client files will be kept in a locked file cabinet in an office accessible only to staff. Each client’s file will be assigned a code number to conceal identification. Client computer files will be accessible via password that is changed on a regular basis. No information in these files shall be disclosed without the written permission –singed consent to release information form- of the client and his/her parent(s) or legal guardian except to project staff, to the funding agency and its contractor, or to a court involved in the disposition of criminal charges against the youth.

 

(k.) PERIODIC REPORTS TO THE SECRETARY, HHS: Xanthos, Inc agrees to provide documentation of all services rendered for all required reporting periods, including the preparation of an Annual Report. Xanthos’ RHY staff is trained in the RHYMIS system and report required data in a timely manner.

 

(l.) STAFFING AND STAFF DEVELOPMENT

Xanthos operates under an Affirmative Action Plan and actively recruits a diverse body of staff as evidenced in the Staff and Position Data section. The Personnel Dept. maintains a written staffing plan and full resumes on all staff currently employed and will be maintained on all future staff. All employees are evaluated on an annual basis, and volunteers receive regular and consistent supervision and training in project procedures and needed skills. Refer to detailed account in Staff and Staff Position Data section. Volunteers are required to undergo a week training course and must be fingerprinted and cleared through the Criminal Identification Department (CID) prior to contact with clients.

(m.) YOUTH PARTICIPATION: As noted previously in the youth development overview, youth participation is integrated into every phase of the project including program design, client services and program evaluation. A Youth Advisory & Oversight Council composed of youth who are current or former peer counselor oversees the project, participate in evaluation and make recommendations for program modifications and enhancements. In addition, Xanthos currently has 3 Advisory Youth reporting to its Board of Directors and two student/youth members.

 

(n.) ON-GOING CENTER PLANNING: Semi-annual retreats are held each year and consist of project staff, counselors, case workers, peer counselors, volunteers, Youth Advisory Council and Agency Board representatives. During these retreats, DreamCatcher project goals and objectives, crisis counseling, shelter and aftercare services are reviewed and evaluated and measured to see if youth and family needs are being met by DreamCatcher existing services. On-going evaluations are conducted on a monthly basis when monthly statistics are compiled and evaluated by program administrators. The Youth Advisory Board meets quarterly to discuss programmatic concerns and give input into program changes and objectives.

 

(o.) Board of Directors/Advisory Body: Project staff of the DreamCatcher Youth Shelter and peer counselors attend Board of Director meetings semi-annually to present project goals, objectives, activities, and evaluations to Board Members. Xanthos, Inc coordinates an agency retreat annually where adult and youth Board Members and agency staff can meet and discuss yearly objectives and review programs. The Xanthos Board of Directors governs the agency and approves overall goals, objectives, and activities of each project, including DreamCatcher Youth Shelter and Street Outreach Project. A plan of action is detailed below, outlining responsibilities of each staff participant in the DreamCatcher Youth Program project.

 

ACTION PLAN: Action elements removed.

 

 

SPECIFIC RHY POPULATIONS: The DreamCatcher Youth Shelter project serves all runaway homeless youth populations and provides a forum for special needs populations of homeless youth through our mental health component as discussed in the Individual and Group Counseling section of this proposal. These groups include: Queer Youth Support Group, Survivor Groups (youth who have survived the death of one or both parents) and Teen Parents Support Group.

 

INTAKE AND ASSESSMENT AND PERIODIC CASE REVIEW: Refer to Intake section.

 

PLAN TO CONTACT PARENTS, GUARDIANS, LOCAL GOVERNMENT:

Ø PARENTAL CONTACT: In accordance with state law, parents/legal guardians will be contacted within 24 hours and no more than 72 hours for any youth who stays overnight at the shelter. All Youth have the option of being present with caseworker during the call and all youth are given informed consent regarding parental notification. Consent to services will be requested. A Family Intake is arranged as requested and as appropriate.

Ø MISSING PERSON REPORTS/WARRANTS: Street Outreach Workers contact local authorities to check on any missing child reports filed on youth in shelter care within 72 hours for any youth who is staying overnight at the shelter. Upon request we will call the local youth services division or county records office to check for warrants on youth who are DreamCatcher clients.

Ø GOVERNMENT INVOLVEMENT, COUNTY WELFARE, JUVENILE PROBATION: Strategies to involve parents and guardians have been discussed previously. Youth who cannot return home due to the threat of ongoing abuse or neglect will be referred to CPS Child Protective Services for out-of-home-placement. If CPS does not assign the case, DreamCatcher Youth Program provides youth with alternative living options.

Ø FOSTER OR DEPENDENT CARE: Upon suspicion that the youth is a runaway from foster care or is a dependent of the state or court, we will contact county and regional Child Welfare and Dept. Social Services to check dependency/probation status. If youth is declared a ward or dependent, we contact Social Worker or Probation Officer directly to arrange for the safe return of the minor into care. Xanthos staff does not contact police to transport youth as this interferes with reputation of Dream Catcher as a non- police-operated crisis home. When youth clients disclose child abuse occurring in the foster or group home, Xanthos case workers will file a CPS Report and encourage dependent youth to remain in shelter care until a meeting can be held with all parties involved. Caseworkers work closely with Alameda County Social Services and Legal Services for Children to advocate for more appropriate placements or services as needed.

 

PLANS FOR PROVIDING COUNSELING SERVICES: Refer to page in this Counseling Section.

 

COORDINATION WITH SCHOOLS: Homeless and Runaway youth move around a lot, do not have permanent addresses, and have difficulty getting to and from school. Despite the McKinney Act provisions that protect homeless youth from potential discrimination in public schools, caseworkers have found that unaccompanied youth experience extreme difficulty in enrolling and maintaining school standing. In order to prevent academic failure, caseworkers at the DreamCatcher Youth Shelter program work closely with Oakland, Berkeley, and Alameda School Districts throughout Alameda County to advocate for the education of homeless youth. Xanthos has formal linkages with school districts and with Sheila Jordon, the County Superintendent of Schools (see MOU) to address barriers to education faced by homeless youth. Caseworkers assist each sheltered youth in securing immunization records, transcripts, birth certificates, and medical documents required for students to enroll and re-enroll or transfer schools. DreamCatcher Youth Programs include an Educational Empowerment Project that provides tutors, literacy coaches, and special education advocates for youth who are failing academically or at-risk of dropping out. These services are provided after-school at the shelter on an as-needed basis. DreamCatcher offers incentives (new backpacks, etc) to all youth who either re-enroll into a school program after having dropped out or who achieve academic goals set in their case plans.

 

MANAGEMENT WITH YOUTH WHO HAVE RUNAWAY FROM PLACEMENT: Xanthos works collaboratively with Child Protective Services to return youth who run away from foster care placement back to foster or group homes. Also see Letters of Support from Dept. Social Services.

PLANS FOR PROVIDING AFTER-CARE SERVICES: Refer to After-Care section.

STAFF SUPERVISION: Refer to Staff and Staff Development.

 

DATA COLLECTION: Refer to Evaluation and description of XanDB system under the Results and Benefits section.

 

RHYMIS: Xanthos agrees to provide documentation of all services rendered for all required reporting periods, including the preparation of an Annual Report. Xanthos staff is trained in the RHYMIS system and report required data in a timely manner. Data collected and input includes a lengthy Youth Profile on each youth served, types and quantities of services delivered, community education, staffing, training, and funding. Xanthos requested to be part of the pilot group testing of the new RHYMIS Lite system presently under development.

1RESEARCH AND EVALUATION: Xanthos, Inc agrees to cooperate with contractors funded by ACF including any research and evaluation efforts. Refer to on-going research and evaluations under the Results and Benefits section.

 

CONFIDENTIALITY RECORDS: Xanthos data-management system, expanded in cooperation with the project’s evaluator and the agency’s MIS consultant, will incorporate a wide-range of health and wellness data, as previously described in the Results and Benefits Section. Access to the data is strictly controlled through a series of password protections aligned with the requirements of each staff position. All paper client files are kept in a locked file cabinet in an office accessible only to staff. Each client’s file is assigned a code number to conceal identification. Client computer files are only accessible via password that is changed on a regular basis. No information in these files can be disclosed without the written permission of the client and his/her parents or legal guardian except to project staff, to the funding agency and its contractor, or to a court involved in the disposition of criminal charges against the youth.

 

ANNUAL REPORTING TO HHS: Xanthos Inc agrees to submit annual reports that detail how program goals have been met, financial reports, the Xanthos Annual Report, and any progress reports as requested.

 

HOME BASED SERVICES: DreamCatcher Youth Shelter is a shelter-based model. Runaway prevention, mediation, counseling and aftercare services are frequently provided in the family homes.

 

DRUG ABUSE AND PREVENTION SERVICES: Xanthos administers an adolescent out-patient drug and alcohol program that is county-funded and clients of DreamCatcher have access to these services through a referral from Shelter case workers and/or Street Outreach workers.

STREET-BASED SERVICES: Xanthos conducts street outreach and provides street-based services to all youth who have runaway, been thrown out of their families, live on the streets, and are at-risk of becoming homeless. The Street Outreach Project and youth counselors who are trained in our Peer Partnership Project conduct street outreach. Youth counselors are always supervised by one of our Street Outreach Workers and all outreach workers carry cell phones, identification, pagers, and on-call supervisors are informed of their outreach routes each night. An initial Outreach training is conducted with each staff through the peer partnership program. This 20-hour training educates outreach staff on safety, crisis intervention, and other issues related to street work. Refer to detailed account in Outreach section.

 

CURRENT AND ANTICIPATED BARRIERS: There are many barriers to effectively reaching a population that has learned to feel distrust, powerlessness and hopelessness. Recruiting quality staff on limited resources in a geographic location currently experiencing a housing crisis combined with the sharp rise in cost of living has proved to be a barrier in the past despite its recent improvement. Xanthos is continually working to secure additional funding to increase program resources. Xanthos is also working with its other program and administrative support to continuously find the needed resources to ensure that the project can be operational in the manner recommended by the staff and youth who are most informed about the target population.

 

STAFF AND POSITION DATA

 

Because Xanthos, Inc. currently runs a RHY program in Alameda County and the East Bay, several key staff positions are already filled. The Youth and Community Programs Director oversees the implementation of the DreamCatcher Youth Shelter and its services. The RHY Manager/Mental Health Supervisor supervises the House Manager, overnight shelter staff, and mental health clinicians and interns. The Services Coordinator supervises the case management and outreach staff. The Mental Health Clinician and Interns provide individual, group and family counseling. The detailed staffing plan is included in the Budget Narrative and Justification. Staff resumes and job descriptions are included. The Xanthos, Inc. Personnel and Policy Procedures Manual was recently revised to include all relevant federal, state and local employment regulations. The Manual includes an Affirmative Action Plan, sexual harassment procedures, staff disciplinary procedures and a drug/alcohol policy.

Key project staff positions include the following, for which Xanthos maintains position descriptions and up-to-date personnel files on the staff and volunteers participating in each position:

 

NAMES AND BIOS REMOVED.

 

STAFF TRAINING:

· Weekly case conferences conducted by clinical and program staff: reviewing, supervising and planning individual participant progress; weekly staff meetings discussing program issues.

· Bi-weekly staff trainings covering RHY regulations, policies, procedures and specific skill areas. Western States Youth Services Network (WSYSN), our regional training agency and our consultant, Al Brown of Dynamic Groups, will provide many of these trainings. Community based organizations specializing in issues such as substance use, child abuse, HIV Prevention, etc are scheduled to present training at staff meetings on a bi-monthly basis.

· Semi-annual staff and Youth Advisory Council retreats: covering larger programmatic issues, planning for future services and reviewing evaluation materials. Board members and community representatives involved in service collaborations will participate in these events.

· Staff and youth will attend national, regional, and local conferences on youth involvement, runaway homeless youth issues, and cultural competency.

 

Because Xanthos, Inc. currently runs a RHY program in Alameda County, several key staff positions are already filled. The Youth and Community Programs Director oversees the implementation of the DreamCatcher Youth Shelter and its services. The Shelter Manager supervises four overnight youth workers. The case management staff is supervised by a Services Coordinator. The Mental Health Clinician provides individual and family counseling. The detailed staffing plan is included in the Budget Narrative and Justification. Staff resumes and job descriptions are included. The Xanthos, Inc. Personnel and Policy Procedures Manual was recently revised to include all relevant federal, state and local employment regulations. The Manual includes an Affirmative Action Plan, sexual harassment procedures, staff disciplinary procedures and a drug/alcohol policy.

 

ORGANIZATIONAL PROFILE

AGENCY OVERVIEW: Xanthos provides a wide-range of counseling, support and educational assistance to more than 7,000 individuals and families annually in the East Bay with a concentration on the cities of Alameda, Oakland and Berkeley. Among the services we provide are school- and community-based youth drug intervention/prevention programs; Medi-Cal counseling; low-cost family counseling and crisis intervention; homeless and runaway assistance efforts for youth and their families; parent advocacy and case management; the federal Head Start programs for infants and toddlers; and in-school mental and physical health services for Alameda middle- and high-school students and their families. Our most recent program additions include DreamCatcher, and we serve as the fiscal sponsor of Smart Healthy Babies, a home visitation service for newborn babies and their mothers and families.

The goal of all our efforts is to foster positive change in the lives of the individuals and families who need our support as a way of improving the overall health of our community. Communities consist of individuals, and we believe the improved well being of each person creates a ripple effect that enhances the quality of life for everyone.

 

RUNAWAY/HOMELESS EXPERIENCE: Xanthos has been a successful provider of RHY federally funded basic center services for the past 8 years, and of county-funded family reunification services for 24 years. As a Basic Center Grantee, Xanthos has provided outreach, counseling, family reunification, emergency shelter and case management services to over 400 youth and families per year through our federal and county funded runaway and homeless youth services programs. Our Basic Center program has developed model services in three areas in addition to the provision of basic services: emergency shelter, family reunification or alternative permanent placement, street outreach and youth development.

We have previously discussed our success in placing 65% of our youth in permanent housing via family reunification or alternative living situations.

 

The DreamCatcher shelter is full almost every night and youth-to-youth referrals are 60% of our intake. In addition to receiving daily referrals for shelter services from youth serving organizations, schools, and drop-in centers in Alameda county, we are also able to relieve the pressure on the youth crisis shelter in neighboring San Francisco County by having our own facility, an issue we have both been struggling with for several years.

Our Street Outreach Workers are known on the streets, they network with the youth, identify group leaders and peer families and encourage their participation in our services at the level they are willing to initially accept. Workers also are in daily communication with other youth providers in the community and participate in collaborative activities that attract street youth (see MOU attachments). Finally, we know, first hand, the streets in Alameda County are a dangerous place for our youth at night. Many of the young women who have been in our shelter were looking for refuge after being raped on the streets or in hotel rooms with men who had offered them a place to stay. Lots of them have parents who are homeless and on the streets themselves. Many of them are chronic street youth and school drop-outs who have run away from abusive situations at home and, except for occasional brushes with the law, have succeeded in eluding the notice of most service systems. We approach each youth knowing that their individual situation will require solutions that may take time to work through. We are responsible to provide them the support they deserve and the skills they need to reach their full potential and we recognize that it is their strength and motivation that will make the difference in their futures.

 

PROJECT CONTINUANCE: Xanthos is a fiscally strong nonprofit agency with an annual operating budget of approximately $4.8 million. Attached is a copy of our most recent audited financial statement. We have also provided an organizational chart demonstrating how the many services we provide operate together. Xanthos holds approximately 25 major contracts and financial agreements with a number of local, state and federal entities for the provision of services, and generally completes its programmatic obligations without any difficulty. We have licenses for selected program services and sustain our program sites in compliance with all expected health and wellness requirements. A copy of the agency’s IRS determination letter has been included.

 

Xanthos is actively engaged in seeking ways to maintain DreamCatcher once the project is fully operational. We have recently initiated discussions with private funders and with local political leaders, and are investigating ways to enable the project to be supported by fees-for-services, local donations and other types of governmental support. We anticipate that with the completion of this project we will be able to meet basic operational costs through these sources, reducing the need for sustained ACY funding.