Casa Youth Shelter
PROGRAMS
Community Outreach
Casa Youth Shelter provides our community with a variety of crisis-prevention programs and family outreach programs including: violence intervention and prevention programs to students and their families in over twenty middle schools and high schools across six different school districts. In addition, Casa Youth Shelter is a member of the Anaheim Collaboration to Assist Motel Families and pays monthly visits to local motels to provide food, clothing, school supplies and other basic necessities to needy families. Volunteers and staff engage in educational and leisure activities with the young children in these motels. Most importantly, we are there to provide outreach services to the teenagers of these families and inform them that there is a safe place for them to go. One of our main outreach programs is our weekly court accepted Parenting Classes offered onsite designed to encourage effective parenting techniques and to strengthen relationships between family members. We offer a series of parenting instruction in both Spanish and English. In conjunction with the parenting classes, we simultaneously offer Teen Drop-in group counseling sessions. These group sessions are designed to cover the same topics as the coordinating parenting class to provoke more meaningful and relevant discussions with parents and their teenage children.
Casa Youth Shelter does not turn away any youth who seek our shelter care. However, our high-quality shelter and counseling services are made possible by keeping the shelter census at capacity, not exceeding it. Moreover, we believe that we are most effective in helping youth in crisis when we are preventing them from needing our shelter services at all. Therefore we believe that crisis-prevention is as important as direct shelter services.
Residential Shelter Care Program
CYS provides immediate care, emergency shelter, and mental health services to youth ages 12-17 experiencing homelessness, abuse, neglect, and other crises. From our location in Los Alamitos, CA, the CYS Residential Shelter Care program provides approximately 180 adolescents annually with full shelter amenities, including 12 licensed beds, home-cooked nutritious meals, new clothes and shoes, and essential hygiene products. Residents also receive a variety of support services including individual, group, and family counseling; developmental activities including life skills classes, academic tutoring, onsite and offsite recreation, art, drum, and pet therapy; and case management services to assist youth and their families with housing, food, employment, and educational needs. Parents and guardians of residents participate in weekly parenting classes, during and after their child resides with us. Upon exit from the shelter, clients receive aftercare counseling (individual and family) approximately once per week, as well as access to parenting classes, a teen drop-in group, and case management services, for at least three months, and up to one year post-exit. Our clinical team and shelter personnel are specifically trained in strength-based, trauma-informed care, to ensure we are providing the best evidence-based services and appropriately addressing the particular needs of youth who are experiencing, or have experienced, transient instability, and the trauma it creates. Working from the perspective of engaging the full family unit to help the child has been an effective approach to helping youth stabilize their lives, reunifying families, and providing the whole family with tools for crisis mitigation.
(1) Maintain a minimum 75% "Successful or Satisfactory" exit disposition rate, which measures the frequency our clients achieve their individual case plan goals and exit our shelter no longer in crisis.
(2) Maintain a minimum 90% success rate of exiting our residents into safe housing, which measures change in attitudes, increased knowledge, and practice of new behaviors that result in a successful exit to safe and stable housing.
(3) Engage 70% of residents and their families in aftercare counseling services, which measures the number of families who have learned the importance of taking an active role in future crisis mitigation.
(4) Maintain a minimum 90% of youth at exit who report at least one supportive adult in their life as a permanent connection.
(5) Maintain 60% of youth attending or who have graduated from high school or are working on GED after exiting.
Youth Leadership Program
The Youth Leadership Program (YLP) focuses on the communities surrounding the shelter with activities such as: 1. Peer support: YLP members network with local schools to assist in identifying helpful resources for students on their campus. 2. Community Outreach: YLP members help introduce Casa Youth Shelter to the community through speeches, forums, agency days, and literature handouts. The resulting awareness furthers Casa Youth Shelter’s mission to reach out to youth in need and expand our base of involved young people. 3. Prevention Activities: YLP members participate in activities where they can spread awareness on alcohol, tobacco, homelessness, bullying and other concerns. 4. Program Design, Planning and Management: Who can better understand and help direct needed services for youth than members of their own peer group? YLP involves young leaders in the development and implementation of Casa’s programs and services. 5. Special Event Coordination: YLP members participate in Casa Youth Shelter events as well as develop and sponsor their own support activities. 6. Awareness: Casa Youth Shelter often arranges to publicize the shelter’s services in school publications, in order to promote awareness with both students and families. In addition, YLP members often publicize their own community-based events.
The leadership skills acquired in the Youth Leadership Program will enable its members to possess lifelong, valuable skills and experience in advocacy and peer-to-peer outreach.
CONTACT
Casa Youth Shelter
10911 Reagan Street
Los Alamitos, CA 90720
Phone: 562-825-7256