Hope Harbor
PROGRAMS
Long-term Preventative Care for At-Risk, Homeless Teens
Hope Harbor is the only long-term, privately funded preventative youth residential program in all of California. Teens who enter our program come from a low-to-moderate income households with family members who struggle with addition, abuse, poverty, incarceration, food insecurity, mental health issues, eating disorders, suicidal thoughts, and low education levels. They have grown up with the examples of their family’s damaging behaviors and do not know another way of living. These teens, ages 12-17, have responded to the role models, challenges, and uncertainty of their childhoods by engaging in the same negative cycles they have witnessed and are beginning to dabble in drugs, alcohol, promiscuity, school truancy, and running away. They are on the precipice of devolving into a life of homelessness, human trafficking, criminalization, addiction, and gang violence, from which it is very hard to escape and overcome. Hope Harbor meets these at-risk teens and their families at this crossroads in their lives where they can choose to continue on a path of destruction or forge a new way that will lead to a brighter future. Hope Harbor intervenes at this critical juncture to restore what is broken and equip teens with new skills and coping mechanisms to build a life of opportunities for themselves.
Program Goals:
1. Identify and Address the Root Causes of Trauma: Evaluate teens for mental and behavioral health diagnoses and provide each teen with weekly individual, family, and crisis counseling from a licensed clinical therapist to address trauma.
2. Equip Teens with Life Skills and Coping Mechanisms: Teach teens healthy living strategies, coping tactics, and life skills.
3. Foster Academic Recovery and Advancement: Provide all teens with an individualized academic plan to close academic gaps and promote academic achievement.
4. Intervene and Educate about Substance Use: Assess teens for substance use disorder and offer prevention, intervention, and recovery programs.
5. Provide Nurturing Home Environment: Stabilize teens in crisis by providing safe shelter, nutritious meals, consistent adult role models, and establishing a routine.
6. Intervene with Family Members to Promote Reunification: Provide resources to family members to make necessary changes at home and foster family reunification, including weekly therapy, parenting classes, A.A., and Celebrate Recovery meetings.
7. Spiritual Introduction and Growth: Foster teens' understanding of and relationships with Jesus Christ through daily prayer and devotions, attending weekly youth group and church services, 1:1 Biblical case management, and Christian-based therapy from our licensed clinical therapist.
Program Outcomes:
1. Improved Mental Health and Coping Mechanisms: Accomplished significant improvement in mental and behavioral health through 100% evaluations and therapy offered.
2. Enhanced Academic Achievement: Closed educational gaps and achieved marked academic advancement through 99% school attendance and1-point GPA increase.
3. Established Positive Living Habits: Stabilized teens out of crisis and equipped them with skills for healthy living through 2,963 days of safe shelter, 8,244 nutritious meals, 468 life skills classes, and 475 1:1 case management sessions with live-in house parents.
4. Achieved Family Reunification: Reunified 90% of teens with their families and placed 10% in a higher level of care.
5. Advanced Spiritual Growth and Development: Fostered teen's spiritual development, resulting in 4 faith decisions and 2 baptisms.
Evaluation
Metrics for all activities are captured for assessment by the Hope Harbor House Parents and therapist on a weekly basis. Weekly evaluation allows for timely program adjustments and intervention as needed. Youth progress is measured and evaluated against the baseline data compiled from intake assessments. All data is captured in a customized database, Mission Tracker, to ensure accuracy and accessibility.
Mental Health Evaluation and Treatment
Homelessness severely affects teens' health and development, including increased hospitalizations, poor health, developmental risk, anxiety, depression, and behavior problems, primarily aggression and attention deficit disorder. According to the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention, teen suicide is the second-leading cause of death for youth ages 10-14. Depression was the most commonly diagnosed and undiagnosed mental illness, highlighting the need for more access to mental health care, services, and treatment for teens. All of these risk factors reveal the need for target prevention and intervention before teens start to harm themselves. Mental Health Evaluation and Treatment: Every teen who comes to Hope Harbor receives a comprehensive Heads-Up Checkup evaluation and psychological testing to diagnose any mental health or behavioral health issues. Teens receive 1:1 case management, medication management if needed, and weekly individual, family, and crisis counseling from a licensed clinical therapist to address these diagnoses, determine the root causes of their trauma, and teach positive coping strategies.
Program Outcomes:
1. Improved Mental Health and Coping Mechanisms: Accomplished significant improvement in mental and behavioral health through 100% of teens being evaluated and treated for mental/behavioral health concerns.
2. Established Positive Living Habits: Stabilized teens out of crises and equipped them with skills for healthy living through 2,963 days of safe shelter, 8,244 nutritious meals, 468 life skills classes, sobriety support services, and house parent modeling and interactions.
3. Achieved Family Reunification: Reunified 90% of teens with their families and placed 10% in a higher level of care.
Individual Academic Planning
Education plays an essential role in preventing homelessness among young people. Youth without a high school diploma are 4.5 times more likely to become homeless than students who complete high school. Education is vital to rising above poverty and pursuing a better life. Homeless teens face various academic challenges, such as frequent school changes, a decline in self-esteem, and difficulties in paying attention and staying focused in class. Without adequate support, homeless teens are at a significant risk. A high-quality education is a means for a homeless teen to break the cycle of poverty and achieve a better future. Individual Academic Planning: Each teen’s academic performance is evaluated and used as a baseline to create an individualized academic plan that can include credit recovery, tutoring, school attendance, and college planning. All teens attend Ednovate’s Legacy College Prep High School in Santa Ana that specializes in working with at-risk teens to achieve high academic achievement, graduate from high school, and gain acceptance into college.
Program Outcomes:
1. Enhanced Academic Achievement: Closed educational gaps and achieved marked academic advancement through 99% school attendance, 1-point GPA increase, and 99% college acceptance rate.
2. Established Positive Living Habits: Stabilized teens out of crises and equipped them with skills for healthy living through 2,963 days of safe shelter, 8,244 nutritious meals, and house parent modeling and interactions.
3. Improved Mental Health and Coping Mechanisms: Accomplished significant improvement in mental and behavioral health through 100% of teens being evaluated and treated for mental and behavioral health concerns.
Sobriety Support Services
Teens struggling with mental health issues may self-medicate with alcohol and drugs. Studies show that homeless youth have significantly higher rates of substance use compared to their stably-housed peers, and Hope Harbor teens reflect this damaging ramification. There is a need for targeted prevention and intervention before teens start to use illicit substances. Hope Harbor addresses the effects of homelessness holistically to ensure that at-risk teens have their physical and emotional needs met so that they do not turn to destructive coping mechanisms. Sobriety Support Services: Teens are tested for substance use throughout their time at Hope Harbor. They receive substance use counseling as necessary and participate in the Juvenile Alcohol and Drug Education (JADE) intervention through California Youth Services, AA meetings, and Celebrate Recovery meetings.
Program Outcomes:
1. Improved Mental Health and Coping Mechanisms: Accomplished significant improvement in mental and behavioral health through 100% of teens being evaluated and treated for mental/behavioral health concerns.
2. Established Positive Living Habits: Stabilized teens out of crises and equipped them with skills for healthy living through 2,963 days of safe shelter, 8,244 nutritious meals, 468 life skills classes, hours of substance use trainings, and house parent modeling and interactions.
3. Achieved Family Reunification: Reunified 90% of teens with their families and placed 10% in a higher level of care.
Healthy Living
Healthy Living: Teens learn how to engage in healthy living and experience the positive role modeling of the Hope Harbor House Parents. In addition, teens gain valuable life skills, including cooking, establishing a routine, financial literacy, and self-esteem building.
Program Outcomes:
1. Improved Mental Health and Coping Mechanisms: Accomplished significant improvement in mental and behavioral health through 100% evaluations and therapy offered.
2. Enhanced Academic Achievement: Closed educational gaps and achieved marked academic advancement through 99% school attendance and 1-point GPA increase.
3. Established Positive Living Habits: Stabilized teens out of crisis and equipped them with skills for healthy living through 2,963 days of safe shelter, 8,244 nutritious meals, 468 life skills classes, sobriety support services, and house parent modeling and interactions.
4. Achieved Family Reunification: Reunified 90% of teens with their families and placed 10% in a higher level of care.
5. Advanced Spiritual Growth and Development: Fostered teen's spiritual development, resulting in 7 faith decisions and 5 baptisms.
CONTACT
Hope Harbor
One Hope Drive
Tustin, CA 92782
Tara Booher
Phone: 714-441-8046