you're watching LM CC your community TV [Music] hello and welcome to talking points I'm Kay Erickson with the League of Women Voters of south tanka and today we're talking about teens and homelessness we're filming this program from Hope House in Chanhassen it's the only shelter for homeless teens west of 494 pegged aboard president of the League of Women Voters of south talk is with me today and together we're going to be talking with two people who made this shelter a reality Pam Langseth is from open hands Foundation and Richard Coffey is with 180 degrees it's the organization that runs the day-to-day operations of the shelter this is the third in a series of programs focusing on teens in the suburbs we're trying to bring attention to the issues teens are facing and also compiled a list of resources for anybody looking for information or services welcome peg and welcome Pam thanks for having me here today I'm excited to talk to you about the Open Hands foundation an old house my background is in business and doing nonprofit work as well as community work and I was able to join the Open Hands Foundation about seven years ago now and at that time we were trying to figure out what the unmet needs were in our community that we might consider for looking at so we conducted some research met with a lot of different leaders in our community law enforcement leaders school leaders nonprofit leaders medical leaders all different people to find out what unmet needs were there and in that conversation with those people we uncovered the fact that there were three to four kids per high school that will without a place to sleep at night and we thought we need to figure out how we would address that and figure out what to do based upon that so you decided to have a teen shelter so how did how did you sort of go about doing that and how what is and then what's the relationship back to the church you know it's a great question so the Open Hands foundation was founded by was a Community Church in 2003 as an independent 501c3 organization so the goal was that we would partner with the community to meet unmet needs of vulnerable people so when we did this research we uncovered the fact that there were teens that were without shelter and had issues and we had to understand what services did they need what specifically was required we knew that there were long term not a lot but there were long term solutions for them but this emergency window when they first leave their home and they have nowhere to go and no support was what we wanted to address so we talked to organizations said you are doing that work we talked to law enforcement and school people to find out what do they know these kids need we can uncover two things first of all there's an emergency piece that they need which is they need a place to sleep they need food they need a roof over the head and they need caring people that can help them navigate what's going on and then their primary needs which are the things that help them solve or create solutions to address the things that happen in their life that caused them to be out of their home anyway so things like case management Social Work connections to resources in the community that can help them and the goal is that this is that transition point to help them when they're in the midst of a crisis to the point that they have those resources they can really work and get their lives back on track so once you did your research and you figured out that you were gonna do a shelter how did you find go about finding a service provider that could partner with you in order to you know carry out the needs of the foundation well through our research we admit an individual whose name is Dan Farr and at that time Dan was the executive director of the bridge for youth in south Minneapolis which happens to be the closest shelter to this community it's at I think 22nd and Emerson and in our conversations with Dan we talked about what would we need to do what are the things we'd have to work through with the state through the Health Department with the county with the cities what would the services offered and we uncovered that it would take us probably three to four years if we did it ourselves and we quickly asked him would you ever do it with us and Dan said yeah they would and so there was a partnership struck that the open hands foundation could be the piece that would help them accelerate their development work meaning we could help them bring them to contracts with the counties because we knew some of the players we could help bring the health department in the city here because we knew the mayor and he could help us with that different things that we could navigate more quickly than them as well so made a commitment to figure out how to create the funding streams that will create the and help it be sustainable we work together we formed a contract in March of 2015 in a November 1st of 2015 we opened for care for kids can you tell us a little bit about some of the statistics for for youth and their need for a shelter sure so like I said we know if they're about three to four kids per night per high school that are really in this this pickle they they probably have been bouncing around from friend's home to friends home couch hopping as we say but they've kind of lost their ability to stay in their friends houses and so they're really without a place to stay when they get to Hope House what we found is they have tried to come here or have called here three four or five six times because kids in the in the in the south suburbs exhibit this maybe a little bit differently than they do in the city they don't want to be seen they completely want to fit in they want to stay in their community they want to go to high school or they're going to high school and so it's hard to know that they're in this this predicament and it's very hard for them to ask for help because if they do that means somebody knows that they're in this predicament kids that come to the shelter what we find is a hundred percent of them have conflict within their families that is driving the fact that they're out of theirs their home 80% of the time mental illness drives that it might not be the the child or the team that has mental illness it might be mom who suffers from mental illness or dad who does or maybe it's a sibling but what's causing is anxiety and strife within the family system that causes the kid to leave kids that are a part of this also face a couple of things a third of them have been abused either sexually or physically and/or are neglected they tend to self-medicate because that has gone on so we find that about twenty 22 percent are consuming drugs or alcohol to deal with the situations in their lives there's just a lot of things in their lives that makes it difficult for them to be in their homes so are there ways that the community can support Hope House and what might those be that's a great question first thing we'd always say is we need prayer for this this place and for the staff that work here this is a very hard job because these kids are really struggling and they're in a bad place so it's not an easy job to have we look for the kids to do well we pray for them as well but we look for two things key is funding as I said we're trying to create sustainable funding for this space it costs a half a million dollars a year to run this facility and that's because we have two staff members on call or here 24 hours 7 days a week 365 days a year so there's a lot of staff and it goes on and meet with the needs of these kids so people can make donations and that's wonderful people can share the information that Hope House exists if you know somebody that needs help you can call six one two nine zero zero two zero seven seven and reach somebody who can help you you can encourage a kid to come you can encourage a family that might be in the midst of a challenge to maybe suggest that this might be a good resource for help for their family and their kids and then and then we need things that new kids are here they want to do the normal things so to be able to take a kid to a movie or to help them go see their arboretum or maybe go work out somewhere and give cards or passes to those places are very very helpful for the shelter alright if somebody would like to give is there a list of wish list on your website that they can take a look at if there is okay there is and they can visit www.opm.gov/health stood there wonderful this is a partnership with the open hands foundation have Church what's the church's part of this yeah that's that's good Hope House is three partnerships that are coming together to do this Westwick Community Church owns this property in this house and they've provided the house for a dollar a year leasing it to our service partner 180 degrees and the service partner are the people that are the professionals in knowing how to work with the teens they know what to do they have shelters in different places around the state including one called Brittany's place which is for sex trafficked girls teenage girls so we've got lots of expertise in working with teens in different ways and on the open hands foundation our job is really to make sure we paved the way I guess for lack of a better way the word and we're working to create sustainability and long-term funding to keep this shelter in our community as long as we need it so can you tell us a little bit about six that the students have had or the teens have had yeah I can there's a couple stories we had a girl this summer who came in who was just really in huge conflict with her family and stayed here a total of eight nights so not a very long time but during that time as she was admitted to the shelter they uncovered the fact that the strife was between her and her mom and there were just they couldn't communicate so they brought the mom in mom was willing to come in and meet with the staff as well as meet with her daughter and the staff and through that process they were able to create a contract what were they going to agree to what kind of behaviors where they're going to be expectations on on both sides and if those behaviors didn't happen what were the consequences on that behavior so as I said she see here eight nights she went back home and she is still back home our case manager here remains in contact with kids as long as they're willing to be in contact with her and we know that she's successfully staying at home right now so that that contract I guess isn't working very well that follow along is really important too so critical yeah critical you know sometimes kids don't want to be kept in contact with but most of them do one of our best success stories is one who actually was the second young man that stayed in the shelter and he was here when he was 16 years old and stayed here for a short time not a long time at that point but the staff has kept in contact with him throughout time and they've helped him in many many ways what we know about him right now is he's living in Mankato I believe he's got two jobs he's rented his first apartment and he successfully navigated admittance to college and he's going to start college in January at Minnesota State University so he's made he's making it he's really turning his life around and and the staff have been really really supportive every step of the way for him so he can call back and ask questions and they'll be able to help him even though he's not in the shelter anymore that's exactly right that's exactly right we have another young girl came here this summer and I was in the midst of a family where just was not supported at on when she got to the shelter one of the things that happens with every teen who comes is they have a medical evaluation so a nurse or physician come in within 24 hours of arrival and do an evaluation to understand if there are any needs for medications and they make medications they currently need any treatment that's required and in that process they found out that she had one and 18 severely against cavity Laden teeth and so made a connection to a dentist and we're able to get her treated so I mean obviously when you have that in your mouth it's pretty hard to focus on a lot of things so absolutely these you know the connections are really what's important here it's giving teens strategies and connections and relationships that help them really move forward in their life from just places that are really tough that's great and it's wonderful that it's out here in the western suburbs because for kids to go from here to something like something downtown yeah it's very difficult for them to go back and forth to school and keeps their lives much more intact if it's here no that's exactly right it's you know we sit at the corner of 41 and 5 on the northwest corner of that intersection and while it isn't served by the bus or that kind of thing kids have an amazing way of finding this place and you know teachers bring them parents bring them law enforcement bring them they come here will they walk here but it is a needed service and otherwise they would be all the way down at 22nd Emerson and kids want to stay in their community they want to be where their friends and their activities and their work and all the things that they know and love are so we're really grateful for the support the community's given so that we're able to have this present in our community that's great Thank You Pam for being here today it's now time for a short break when we come back we'll be talking to Richard Coffey from 180 degrees and at the end of that conversation we'll be taking a video tour of the shelter [Music] check out LM CC on Facebook be sure to LIKE and friend us so you can keep up with all the happenings or to watch one of your favorite videos [Music] welcome back to talking points I'm Kay Erickson with the League of Women Voters of south tanka and in this segment of the program peg d'abord president of the South town colleague and I will be talking with Richard Coffey who's with 180 degrees it's the organization that runs the day-to-day operations of the shelter welcome Richard thank you so much for being here today can you tell us a little bit about yourself and about 180 degrees for sure thank you for having me I am the program director 480 degrees and 180 degrees consists of a lot of different programs we were started back in 1972 and our first program was a halfway house for individuals coming in and out of prison and since then we have created a section that mostly focuses on youth today our only adult facility is still the halfway house that we originally started but today most of our focus are on youth programs we have a two group homes one in st. cloud and one in Rochester Minnesota we have two shelters one being here a Hope House and the other one we have a Nessy y shelter sexually exploited youth shelter in Saint Paul Minnesota and along with those programs we also have other youth programs that focuses on we have a program called ace which is all children excel and it's a Ramsey County program and it focuses on kids between ages five and ten that have committed an adult light offense and we bring those kids in our program to try to help them kind of turn their lives around and not not create another offense we have programs where we go into the school to have kids with the education as far as finding a job or resume building filling out applications how to dress how to talk and the resume process so we do a lot of different things we have a program called safe that we focus on domestic abuse with women and try to help them out of their situation so they can get to that next level of living in a thunder safe environment to live in so we're involved with a lot of things and it's an awesome company they're very rewarding to work there what are the ages of the kids that are served here at Hope House yes Hope House is an amazing place we serve kids for 14 to 19 and depending on their situation Hope House is an emergency shelter we try to get kids processed in and out within 21 days but kids can stay up to 90 days here so while they are here with us the case manager and the employees here work with the individual to try to help them find their next level of living maybe a more permanent place to live hopefully we can reconnect those individuals back with their families sometimes that's not an option so then it's our job to help find the individual to go to maybe another group home or some type of transitional living so what what kinds of do your up Detroiter children away here we try not to turn kids away although we're not the answer for everything in every situation right so we do turn kids away sometime you know if a kid has a history of violence and and we have some history on that individual we're probably not a good fit for that kid kids that have a history of and currently using drugs we're probably not a good fit for that kid so unfortunately we don't fit everybody but when we do get a call in the kid don't fit our program we try to work with that caseworker or a case manager to try to give them some other options on where they might go and fit in that's really great because I know not you know not every door is the right door so finding the right Doris what you are is very important tell me a little bit about the program and the kinds of things that you do was the they youth come here for sure so within 24 hours we try to make sure we either once our kid get here we try to make sure that they are to either have a physical or that they are scheduled to have a physical it's really important for us to get them seen by a nurse or a doctor just to make sure that they are healthy and they're they're not suffering from any any things that might come up while they're staying here and a lot of kids come with me Kayson these days so we want to make sure that we're connecting right away with their social worker our case managers to understand what their med med situationism because that's a really big deal especially in today's environment in today's society it just seems kids are more and more on medication for different for different reasons and we want to make sure that we continue that and make sure it's getting this derivative properly to the kid we give us some time to settle win to get used to the house used to the other kids out in the house get used to the staff and then depending on the age of the kid you know we do serve eighteen and nineteen year olds which are considered adults in in our great country so we work with those a little differently than we work with the 14 and the 15 year olds for our adults that come here to eighteen and nineteen years we see where they are with their school if they have graduated if if not we try to get them associated with some type of school or some type of GED program and then we work with them to help try to find a job we can help them find some stable income usually we can help them find some stable housing in that and if an individual can create those two things in their life it can provide some stability and therefore the younger kids our first goal with our younger kids is to really try to get them reconnected back with their family that's the first goal now in situations where that's not an option then we have to look at other avenues because again at the end of the day unfortunately we are an emergency shelter and we can't we can't keep individuals here past 90 days what are the things that you would do with some family you know what how would you work with the family and you know tell me reunification is you know the goal then importantly talk about you know therapeutically yes we have our case manager we have our case manager reach out to the family or the Guardian that's on the paperwork of the the client in and try to assess first a relationship with with the family and in the our clients sometimes the relationships are out there and they're intact and sometimes there relationships that they're they're not there sometimes a family don't want the individual back so we set up meetings you know if both Cyrus if both sides are willing we are set up we set up a lunch where the kid can go and meet with the the Guardian and we saw a very small to try to you know to try to work those relationships back into play and we get as much information as we can from the Guardian and what their side of the story is and then of course we the client been an hour in the home here we get information from them as well and then we try to we try to as best as best as we can try to formulate a plan to work that to work the client or the kid back into the home of the Guardian we trying to understand that everyone comes here they come up with some type of a trauma you know it's you know they either they are there they've been homeless they're embarrassed they're hungry they they haven't had a safe place to live you know their friends know they're homeless so it's just an embarrassing thing and we try to help which we try to start by building up that self-esteem and letting them know that there's no there's no one judging you here everybody here is in the same situation as you are so let's just come in and try to create a plan let's just put a case plan together so that we can try to get you to your next level of living so do you use trauma-informed care techniques we use trauma-informed care we're constantly training here with our staff we actually have some training coming up some de-escalation training coming up because these kids they're really good at pushing your buttons and and and getting you can think take things personal so I think it's really important that the staff that goes through training ongoing to keep you fresh and give you some new tools to work with in your toolbox is there any difference between the kids that you see in the city versus the kids that are out here in the suburb no difference everybody has this perception the city kids are different than the kids I think that they're there's no difference I think there's a perception that homelessness is not a problem in the suburbs but it just looks different when you're in the cities you can see the kids walking on the street or you can sleep see them sleeping on the train or you can see them sleeping on the bench or you know gathering with a blanket you can see that in the suburbs it's a little more hidden they may be balancing from couch to couch with a friend's house they may be sleeping in a car they may be sleeping in they may be sneaking in a school sleeping in the school there's an example of a kid sleeping in the school for almost the entire year and one of the suburban schools and no one no one found out about it at the end of the year he was sleeping there the entire year so it just shows up differently and it's it's more visible in the cities but in the suburbs it's just more hidden how many teens are there here in a given night so we have six beds we are for the majority of the time and usually when we're not full it's because two or three kids may have just processed out will mean focuses Carver County we have outreach support here in Carver County we have an outreach employee that works that focuses on Carver County working in the schools building relationships with the prints of all was the teachers the coaches if you go to a basketball game and you see a kid standing in the corridor at the end of the game and there's no one picking him up it might be a reason that no one's picking him up and that kid is gonna stand in that corridor pretend that he has a rider she has a ride because they're embarrassed but that kid may be in the corridor an hour later when everybody else has gone home and he's he or she's just trying to stay warm as long as possible before they get to their car that has a cold backseat and they can't run the heater all night in the cars and I tell people all the time if you see a kid stop and talk if you think a kid is in a situation if it crosses your mind stop and say hi are you okay this is a little bit of a change of subject that the league deals with a lot of policy issues yoga are they things policy changes that would help your work be more effective it would make it easier their zoning changes I mean I don't know exactly what yeah don't think I don't think the zoning change zoning change in a zones will make a difference I think from a policy perspective I you know I just think the more we can as a state the more we can give from a financial perspective I mean volunteering is great volunteering is great having people give back it's great it's important and it's needed it takes funds to run a place like this and then need to be more spaces there need to be more spaces at any given time in Minnesota there's eight to nine three kids that are homeless every night that don't make it to a place of safety and when a kid is on the street within 24 hours when it when a female is on the street within 24 hours they have been approached about having sex with an adult that's older than them within 24 hours doesn't take a long time so providing more opportunities for those individuals to find shelter it's so super important to our state I mean that this you know that you have some relationship with the state and there's some there's some fees that you get from state contracts yes so we're we're funded a couple different ways we we're blessed to have a partner like open hands in Westwood Church it's just an absolute blessing to have them we also are funded through Purdham from the counties we get some Purdham from the counties although that's that's very limited and then we also have a federal grant that's called basic Center and the basic Center grant focuses on kids from 14 until they're 18 they don't focus on kids from 18 and 19 a place like this definitely takes multiple layers of support to stay operational and to be run the correct way so tell us a little bit about you know like the successes that you've had with you know let us know about how cool those makes it working to work worth it makes it so worth it I mean I can go on and on about stories I you know there was a kid that was one in one of our work programs and he was actually working there were three of him and they were actually working in in the in our corporate office our administrative office in in this work program we have here and they were I remember I was on the phone one day and they was running up and down the hallway and they was yelling and screaming and I came out of office like hey you kid not tonight and I got on him pretty hard I you know I one of my thing and they've sitting in the chair and they listening and then you know an hour later someone knock on my door it's one of the kids and I I get a little emotional about this but I had a picture of my three kids on the wall he came in and he said to me he was 16 year old kid and he and and I know he wanted something from me but he didn't know how to ask and he saw the pictures of my kids on the wall he said he said are those your kids and that was his opening he and I said yeah there they are my kid I said but I don't want to talk about then let's talk about you I say tell me your story so I sit down he saw telling me the story and just heart wrenching yeah and he came in my office every single day after that every single day he knocked on my door just searching for information and they worked there the entire summer he went back to school and he called me and he said can you help me find a job because I don't want to be like the people that I'm growing up around it's just it just tugs at your heart because they're people think that the kids we know there's there's a lot of misconception on the kids that we serve and people see them as bad kids or kids that don't want to work or kids that don't that don't have responsibilities and they're not their kids that just haven't know I'm not all of them right now that's some of them they fit that description but the majority of them are kids that have not had the right situation it the support that these individuals need and that they don't get and when they don't get the support they run into people that's gonna take advantage of them and then that creates trauma in their life and it teaches them things that they shouldn't even be knowing about at their age so Hope House is so crucially important to not only the western suburbs but to just the state of Minnesota as are all of our facilities are don't believe the myth that it's not happening in your community right because it is I think that's it that's the one thing we're trying to uncover is that you know what happens in our community here and it may look a little different it looks a little different but it's they're still kids in need that need structure support and guidance to help them make better decisions going forward for sure we've enjoyed this conference I've enjoyed it as well it's wonderful to see all the great things that you're doing and I applaud your efforts or try to make a difference in the kids you serve very rewarding work and you know I think you're gonna take us on a video tour yes yes shelter for sure for sure thank you for doing thank you for thank you for coming out here being with us this is the house and this is the entry when you first come in and you can follow me this way out kind of take you on us on a quick tour this is kind of the kitchen dining area where the desk here some of our youth workers sit here take care of business phone calls come in and their kids and over here is the kitchen all the kids here they have chores they help participate in the cooking and also in the cleaning of the kitchen once all the dinners they never think are done over here is the table where we sat down and we eat together each night after the kids prepare to help prepare the meal we all come here and and we sit down to dinner for dinner each night here and make sure that we come together as a house and just talk about you know the day that each kid has had and have some positive thoughts this area in here is the area where they come and watch you know television played games and just hang out with chill the foosball table piano they listen to music in here there's a lot of board games that they can play play cars there's a lot of books in here that you read they can get on the internet here and go search for jobs or things like that or check in on with their homework at the particular schools that they go to good area for them to come and relax especially after schools or when they're just kind of winding down trying to wind down some from their day we have three bedrooms here here at Hope House with a total about six beds and this is one of the bedrooms this bedroom happened to have three beds in it but you know just like any other bedroom in any other home better than a dresser and no clock that where the kids can store some of their belongings and some of their goods that the kids are responsible for taking care of the room keeping it clean making their beds and making sure that the room is properly clean and taking care thank you for coming and I hope you enjoyed the tour one of the things we've learned about doing this series of programs is that families and youth out in our western suburbs don't have to deal with conflicts alone there are groups and agencies available to help for a list of resources that we've compiled you can refer to the list on the screen you can find out more about Open Hands foundation on their website Open Hands foundation com for more information about 180 degrees their website is 180 degrees org programs like this are just part of league's mission for nearly a hundred years the league has been educating citizens about issues and advocating in our positions at the local state and national levels the league is nonpartisan so we don't support or oppose political parties or candidates or South tanka League of Women Voters is open to the membership of men and women sixteen years of age and older we cover the cities in southwest Hennepin County to find out more about our local leak you can go to our website lwv South taça dot org I'd like to thank the Lake Minnetonka Communications Commission for the opportunity to present this program and thank you for watching [Music] you