Unaccompanied Homeless Youth Committee Meeting Minutes
January 9, 2018
In attendance: Peter Cofoni, DCF, Rosemary Fiedler, HCC, Lisa Goldsmith, Dial/SELF, Sharon Hall-Smith, Gandara Center, Ann Lentini, Domus, Mena Regan, CHD/DYS, Denise Rivera, FOH/CSO, Pamela Schwartz, Network, Elorie Stevens, DCF
Discussion with Elorie Stevens, DCF Intensive Placement Coordinator, Western RegionSpecial thanks to Elorie for joining us this morning.
Elorie explained her role at DCF: as Intensive Placement Coordinator, she works with area offices to identify placements for young people who need a higher level of care; she coordinates the work around Dually Involved Youth (DIY) – both DCF and DYS involved (meet with DYS weekly); meets with DMH and DDS on a monthly basis.
There are 5 offices in the Western region: 2 in Springfield, 1 in Holyoke, Greenfield and Pittsfield. She shares this job with a counterpart, Jen Coupe. Elorie covers one Springfield office, Holyoke and Greenfield; Jen covers the other Springfield office and Pittsfield.
We provided an overview of our homelessness system for young adults, Coordinated Entry and our goal of ensuring coordination and communication between our systems so that youth in DCF/DYS at risk of homelessness are linked to homelessness prevention programs as early as possible. We all acknowledged the challenge of young people who are transitioning out of the DCF (or any system) not wanting to be involved – and that resistance making homelessness a greater risk.
Elorie offered to allocate one of DCF’s regular region-wide trainings to learning about youth homelessness-related programs. These training dates include DCF, DYS, Juvenile Court and other providers, up to 100 total from across the four counties. We said yes!
We agreed on a date:
Thursday, May 23, 10 am – 12 noon, Kittredge Center, Rm 301/303. We agreed we would brainstorm a title (note: following the meeting we confirmed this title: Homelessness prevention and re-housing services for young adults: how to access the system and what it offers). Elorie will do further planning with her planning group; our committee will continue to talk about how best to organize the training.
In addition to adding Elorie to our committee email list, Elorie will reach out to Justin Lak, the Adolescent Outreach Supervisor for the Western region, and invite him to attend our meetings.
Exciting progress on building our collaboration and huge thanks to Peter for connecting us and Elorie for joining us!
Youth grant update:
Hampden County: a coordinator has been hired for the winter shelter; now hiring direct care staff. Searching for an appropriate location for the shelter. Continuing to fill rapid re-housing slots. Building collaboration with CHD on diversion and prevention work.
Three County: working on staffing and creating good data tracking systems. Lisa Goldsmith is moving from Dial/SELF to a new position as homeless youth services manager at Community Action as of Jan. 28 – she will continue the role of managing this grant.
Youth count: Jan. 30
Hampden County: Working with Impact Center, HCC, ROCA on a couple of outreach events
Three County: working with regional contact person in each county to send out information, and with Eliot Services on outreach
Next meeting date: Wed., 2/13, 9:15 – 10:30 am, Kittredge Center, Room 303, HCC.
