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Working together toward a vision of long-term, shared funding of county-based shelter services for youth.			NEXT MEETING: Shelter Workshop Tuesday, November 18, 2003 Noon to 4:00 pm Oregon State Library Room 102 Salem, OR Information? E-mail Carol Munch or phone 541-689-9739
Shelter Services Partnership

What are shelter services?

Shelter is the emergency room of the State's system of care for children and youth.

What kinds of kids use shelter?

Shelter is accessed by children and youth of all ages. A current (2000) study (1) examines shelter programs serving adolescents. Of the youth entering shelter:

• 72.2% say they have experienced abuse and/or neglect.
• 51% say they are not living with a parent or guardian.
• 18% say they have no family.
• 40.7% say they do not expect their family to participate in their treatment.
• Of all ethnic groups, Hispanics have the highest level of family participation in treatment (50.9%).
• 63.8% say they are in school.
• 9% say they have been placed in a psychiatric hospital at least once.
• 28.2% are minorities.

The Partnership has agreed on a definition of the target population:

Children and youth of any age who need temporary out-of-home housing for whom another suitable resource is not available. They may include: Alleged or adjudicated delinquent youth that do not need secure custody Runaways, vulnerable street youth, and homeless youth Children and youth in need of assessment and/or planning to determine appropriate services Abused and neglected children

What are Oregon's shelter service needs?

Of the 36 Oregon counties, 18 used a portion of their Juvenile Crime Prevention dollars to address the critical need for adolescent shelter resources, as demonstrated by the following:

• A 1997 survey (2) of 21 counties representing 53% of the state's youth population estimated that 893 youth were placed in detention due to lack of shelter resources.
• A 1998 report (3) determined that between 227 and 339 additional shelter beds are needed for delinquent youth, or 78% to 166% more than currently exist.

Some counties lack adequate assessment, case management, and referral services. Too often the shelter setting does not provide the level of structure needed for high risk youth.

The new juvenile crime prevention funding for shelter needs to be continued, traditional funding sources maintained, and additional federal matching funds leveraged.

Some counties have little or no shelter services for younger children. Their needs include emergency placements, sibling placements, foster homes for special populations, and culturally specific shelter programs.

Community mobilization, training, and technical assistance are needed to help individual counties use new and existing resources to develop a coordinated and integrated continuum of community-based shelter services.

What has the Partnership done so far?

The Partnership has been working toward building a continuum of community-based shelter services. Significant progress has been made in these areas:

• Shelter model. The Partnership has developed a model (attached) which speaks to responsibilities of the state and community partners. It describes a process for the continued administration of shelter services at the local middle management level. It proposes a community-based and operated system of shelter services tailored to the needs of the local area. It is a recommended "blueprint" of a service system that is intended to provide for flexibility at the county level.
• Leveraged funding. The Partnership has begun to leverage resources by taking advantage of existing funding streams including local, federal, and state dollars and/or redirecting current resources. The Partnership is working with counties to expand these funding opportunities.
• Community mobilization. The Partnership has begun work with four Department of Human Services prototype counties for service integration (Polk, Jackson, Coos, Baker) to test the shelter partnership model.
• Data collection. The Partnership has completed Phase 1 of data collection involving 1,684 children and youth who entered 28 shelter programs that primarily serve children and youth ages 12-18. Analysis of this data will identify characteristics of this population (report forthcoming; visit website for updates), and the information will assist the Partnership in identifying the types and scope of services needed. As noted below, additional research is needed to understand shelter needs of the population served who are under 12.

What kind of support does the Partnership need?

The Partnership is continuing to develop strategies to make a continuum of community-based shelter services a reality. Four areas have been identified as needing significant support:

• Funding. A key opportunity for providing new resources is to match existing state and local dollars with Medicaid dollars. In order to determine the potential of this source, the Partnership needs to be able to rely on significant help in both expertise and time commitment.
• Training, technical assistance, and other support for demonstration sites. After the shelter model has been tested in the four DHS service integration counties and refined, the Partnership plans to introduce the model in up to ten county demonstration sites. The new resources that are being leveraged will be most cost-effective if they are implemented using the Partnership's model as a framework for coordinating and delivering a continuum of community-based shelter services.
• Research and evaluation. In order to calculate the costs and benefits of implementing the proposed shelter model, additional data collection and analysis must be conducted to identify the number and characteristics of children and youth needing shelter, as well as gaps and inefficiencies in the current system. Additional research is also needed on shelter programs and populations not included in the initial phase of data collection, to calculate the costs and benefits for implementing the proposed model, and to document and evaluate the model's implementation in up to ten demonstration sites.
• Legislation. The Partnership needs legislative direction and support for the implementation of this model and is requesting that an interim legislative task force be approved.

The Shelter Services Partnership plans to continue gathering information and engaging all Oregon counties to participate in developing comprehensive shelter services planning activities. The Partnership is committed to ensuring that children in crisis find a safe haven in every Oregon community. We are asking agency heads to endorse these activities, promote grant applications written to fund them, and lend support to the establishment of an interim legislative task force. We are asking legislators to endorse these activities and lend support to the establishment of an interim legislative task force.

(1) From a study of 1,684 youth conducted in 2000 by Oregon Alliance of Children's Programs (contact: Janet Arenz, Executive Director, 503-399-9076)
(2) OJDDA Detention/Shelter Survey, February 1997 (OJDDA contact: Barbara Seljan, 541-344-9711).
(3) Daniel C. Smith & Associates, August 1998 (OJDDA contact: Barbara Seljan, 541-344-9711).

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