The era of COVID has taken its toll on adolescents and their families, adding stress to what is often a challenging time in young lives. Disruptions have ranged from families sharing common space for school and work to job loss, food insecurity and homelessness. Many families who might, under normal circumstances, function fairly cohesively, find themselves struggling.
Cascade Youth & Family Center (CYFC) offers crisis intervention services to kids and their families, including mediation and emergency shelter. Youth in crisis may need a safe place to stay temporarily when asked to leave their home, run away or their family becomes homeless and they cannot stay together. Or, they may benefit from some time and distance from family conflict to allow things to cool down. CYFC has two rooms in their facilities for emergency shelter, but also uses host homes for teens under 16 and others who might be better suited to a family setting.
During their stay in a host home or in emergency shelter, CYFC Basic Center Program staff work with the youth on an individual basis to develop a plan for the future. During this process, youth learn coping skills such as boundary setting, communicating clearly with family members, emotional regulation and de-escalation skills. They learn to advocate for themselves. Families are equipped not only with better communication tools, but also resources to reach out to including a team of case workers who will continue to be available to the family. Youth in CYFC’s host homes are often able to reunite with their families after a conflict is resolved.
Because the need is great, Cascade Youth & Family Center is looking for individuals and families to open their homes to temporarily host youth in crisis. They need people who will provide a loving, non-judgmental, safe environment for these kids. In addition to initial core training, participating host parents are provided with ongoing training in topics such as emotional interviewing, recognizing and responding to trafficked youth and mediation and teen dating violence.
Hosts are paid $45 per night, per child. If you have room in your heart and home to become a host family, please contact CYFC at (phone number) or visit their website cascadeyouthandfamilycenter.org/get-involved/host-home.
Cascade Youth & Family Center is a safe haven for young people in jeopardy: Crisis intervention services include family mediation and emergency shelter. Outreach provides kids living on the street with drop-in hours to shower and have a meal as well as access to other help. Longer-term Transitional Living at the LOFT offers safe and stable housing and helps youth complete their education and develop skills for self-sufficiency. CYFC offers only shelter and programs of its kind within 200 miles.
cascadeyouthandfamilycenter.org
