MidWay Transitional Living Program

Dear Friends,

Throughout the country, there is an initiative, “Do One Thing”, aimed at helping homeless youth on Valentine’s Day. I am writing to ask you to help save Family’s transitional living program, MidWay, a program which targets homeless youth 16-21 who have no family supports and who are not yet prepared to live on their own. The program serves six adolescents and when necessary three infants in each of two sites, one in Ellenville and one in Kingston. Many of the youth served by this program are struggling with such issue as significant mental health disabilities, substance abuse and involvement in the criminal justice system.

The program has been especially effective in part because it is not a “mental health”, “substance abuse” or “criminal justice” program. You can imagine how hard it would be for a 17-year-old to accept the label of “crazy”, “druggie” or a “criminal” that would come with entering a program which had an official designation. And yet, of the one hundred and eighteen youth served in the last three years, 51% received mental health counseling while in the program, 45% participated in drug treatment or 12-step programs, and 35% addressed their legal issues while in the program. Virtually all of the youth resumed, continued, or completed their education, and gained life and vocational skills while in the program. In fact, half of them had full- or part-time jobs when they left the program.

The reason that the program is in jeopardy is because it lost a federal a grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services of $200,000 per year. The program has successfully competed for this grant since it first opened with the grant in 1992. However, there has not been an increase in funding for transitional living since 1994 (a small increase was voted last year, but was put on hold by the last administration). In past years, there was an annual competition for these transitional living monies. This year, only 28 of these programs were funded in the country, and we were informed that there will not be a new opportunity to seek these funds until 2012 because the Department used up the monies at a faster rate than was originally budgeted, because there is such need. As a result, in order to keep MidWay alive, we will either need to make up $200,000 a year for each of the next four years or convince the federal government that these urgently needed programs must be better funded.

In the spirit of “Do One Thing for Homeless Youth”, I am asking you to e-mail or write one or more of the following legislators and tell them that we cannot lose a generation of homeless adolescents and that the money we will spend to pay for their incarceration, their institutionalization, or to place them in a facility will cost much more than the funds needed to keep these programs alive. To this point, we are getting six applicants for every bed that opens in the program. Given the current economic condition, the likely survival of these homeless youth will be in even more jeopardy than it has been to date. I cannot imagine how many applicants we will have in a year.

Below find a link to the “Do One Thing” initiative and suggested important legislators that should be approached. FAMILY is extremely proud of the accomplishments of the young people who have resided in the MidWay program. By all accounts, the program has been a great success and forms a significant portion of our county’s safety net for young adults.

Thank you for your consideration and help.

Best regards,

Michael Berg
Executive Director
Family of Woodstock
http://www.familyofwoodstockinc.org/