March 13, 2015
Help planned for runaways, homeless youths
Cortland County agency officials have developed a county wide plan to make sure there are services available for runaway and homeless youths in the county.
The state Office of Children and Family Services asked the county to provide the plan for runaway and homeless youths in addition to the general plan already submitted by the Cortland County Department of Social Services. The general plan outlines other services provided by the department, such as case management and referrals.
Through a plan focusing particularly on runaway and homeless children, local agencies will ensure these populations get the services they need, providing options for the children and their families to create a positive living environment.
Local agencies hope with the outline of this plan the state OCFS will allocate money so the county can expand these services.
Catholic Charities of Cortland County, the county Social Services Department, county Probation Department, and the county Youth Bureau collaborated on the plan for runaway and homeless youths to figure out a way to provide critical services to them.
Marie Walsh, executive director of Catholic Charities, said Thursday afternoon she applauds the other agencies for seeing homeless kids as an “emerging trend” and a population the county must view as a problem.
“I think it identifies that we have a problem with this in our community,” Walsh said regarding the development of a plan focused on youths. “I think people think we don’t have any homeless youth or runaway youth because it’s off the radar screen.”
For an identified homeless youth, a county agency will explore the young person’s history and family. Some options for the child would be to return home and work out problems with the family or find relatives who could provide shelter.
For the runaway youth services plan, options for the child depend on his or her allegations. If the child refuses to go home, the parents would have to agree to let the child stay in a place they deem is safe.
If a child refuses to go home because they say it is unsafe, an officer will call the county Social Services Department. A Person in Need of Supervision, or PINS, worker will also help determine what would work best for the youth and family.
ReBecca Canzano, executive director of the county Youth Bureau, said Thursday afternoon one of the objectives of the plan is to open up funding streams for runaways and homeless children.
“Every situation needs a different service probably,” Canzano said. “We want to make sure they get the services they need.”
Canzano said this morning that an allocation of grant funds for the plan would not come this year and is not guaranteed. The regional office of the OCFS, however, told Canzano the county has a better chance of receiving money with a plan in place.
Walsh said money dried up in 2010 for the Teen Age Services Act, which loosely defined what a youth at risk was. She also said without funding her agency had to limit services to address only priority cases such as pregnant teens or school dropouts.
“We always had a program here that worked with those kids, we help them get services, we work with them long term,” Walsh said. “A lot of those support services and prevention services that have done a pretty good job here didn’t have any money anymore.”
The Catholic Charities Supportive Transition Education and Prevention Services, or STEPS, program identified28 homeless people age 16 and older out of99 youths referred to the program in 2014.
Any child under 16 years old is not identified but rather referred to the school district’s PINS system.
In the Person In Need of Supervision program, Catholic Charities reported66 percent were from the city of Cortland, 13 percent from Homer, 16 percent from Cincinnatus and 5 percent from other county areas.
Canzano said there is no time frame for the grant award, but the agencies submitted the plan in February, so they hope to hear news about it from the state soon.
If the state approves it, the Office of Children and Family Services funding should open up for this additional part of the agency’s plan.
Canzano also said there is more work to be done such as reaching out to the schools to see how agencies can work with them.
“Problems in youth lead to bigger problems in adults, so we’re really starting to take a look at ... kids showing up homeless,” Walsh said.
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