Following the stories on the transitional housing programs 1 Year 1 Family 1 Home and 90Works, Santa Rosa County youth without a home and/or a stable family environment may find the help they need through Children’s Home Society of Florida. As mentioned in Saturday’s article on 90Works, Dr. Karen Barber, Bridges out of Poverty said in 2013 there were 1,806 homeless youth in Santa Rosa County, 115 of those being homeless unaccompanied youth. The statistic this year, she said, is 957 homeless youth with 37 being homeless unaccompanied youth so far. Those numbers, Barber said, are expected to rise.
While Children’s Home Society, and other organizations, serve children needing special care due to medical conditions, homelessness, or abusive situations, a new program through CHS called M-Power aims to help a group of people between children needing a family and adults already with years out in the world under their belts: young adults. M-Power is a transitional living program for young adults ages 16 to 21 who are homeless, at risk for homelessness, or aging out of foster care. The program will aid older teens and young adults still finishing education and moving into independent living.
While the above mentioned programs work with adults on gaining stable independence, Lindsey Cannon, director of program operations with CHS, said, “Teens should be dependent on family.” Cannon said CHS deals with youth experiencing the trauma of needing a family not there.
The M-Power program, Cannon said, works with participants for 18 months providing a safe place to work on completing a GED or high school diploma, or to start a vocational training program. Cannon said the duplexes are in Escambia County but CHS doesn’t recognize county borders when it comes to helping youth in crisis. She also said M-Power may expand its host program to Santa Rosa County.
M-Power is about more than a bed and going to school, though. Cannon said the transitional living program also teaches practical skills like how to shop and wash clothes, skills for independent living normally passed on by parents. According to Cannon, M-Power helps young adults learn financial, housing, health, transportation, legal, and community resource basics.
As new as M-Power is, Cannon said CHS is only recently taking referrals from SRC, and no clients have reached graduation yet.
This article originally appeared on Santa Rosa Press Gazette: Children’s Home Society teaches practical skills with M-Power