Interventions for Children and Families

HN370 Child Welfare and Family Service

Unit 7 Assignment

Interventions for Children and Families

For this assignment I wanted to focus my topic around homelessness. Honestly, I live in Yarmouth Maine and I can say that if there is suffering its gone unnoticed to me. There is however in the apartment complex that I live in a section 8 area. This area is designed for families that are struggling and are homeless. In my town we come together to help those in need, and I could not be prouder of Yarmouth. Here is why, before COVID-19 children were able to go to school and now they had a safe place to go to eat and be cared about. Once quarantine happened it was unfortunate for the children who relied on school snacks and lunches. So, here is something that I participated in with other individuals in my town. We rented a storage box and we put together bagged snacks and lunches and would have a specific time each day that we would gather and hand out too all individuals who showed up. You see we didn’t think twice we knew we needed to help.

Here in Maine there are a few agencies that I would recommend to those in need. The first being Maine State Housing Authority. Louise Pateraude is the housing specialist and she can be reached at 207-624-5732 or her email at [email protected]. Yarmouth is located in Cumberland County and there are also two other agencies that are useful for those who are homeless. Family Crisis Shelter helps families who are suffering from homelessness and is focused around domestic violence within the families. They are located in Portland Maine and can be reached at 800-537-6066. Lastly on Preble street in Portland there is a shelter for the youth called Joes Kreisler Teen Shelter and they can be reached at 207-775-0026.

The Maine Housing agency is there to help those with low income find affordable homes. This agency provides families with a list of apartments that are available, however the waiting list can be extremely long. I can remember a while ago because I got myself together, I applied, and it took almost a year to hear back and by that time I have already turned my life around.

Family Crisis shelter is there to provide assistance to those individuals who have been affected by domestic violence and need assistance finding new homes for themselves and other family members. This agency does not discriminate with age or race. The services that they give are all free and they offer specialized support services. Another thing that this agency does that I admire, is they work closely with case managers to ensure the proper help and support to those in need,

Finally, the Joe Kreisler Teen Shelter, this agency is a licensed overnight shelter. This place is a safe environment where teens ages 12 to 20 and go a have a place to stay instead of staying outside. This agency also provides services to help individuals get assistance in making a plan to stay off of the streets.

Honestly all of these agencies are a great help to our community, and they allow those who are in need to get a fresh start. It’s important for everyone to be able to have a place they can feel safe. I have great confidence in saying that having different agency’s that focus on different age groups and races is a great way to allow calm atmospheres for all. What I mean by that is sometimes different races don’t get along because they are miss understood and if you are allowing them to all congregate in one faculty that may cause conflict.

I believe that the best intervention to help address the problems in my town, is the fact that we are proactive. We all as a community come together to so our best to defeat the problems before they even occur. Helping those in need is our top priority. However, I do believe that the town I live in can be yippy and stuck up and sometimes I believe that although we are helping these individuals there are some that help because they don’t want to be seen in a town that has poverty or social issues.

Something that doesn’t work is keeping quiet, seeing the problems and not helping causes more harm then good. I think that as a community as long as we continue to do the best, we can to help those in need whether it’s taking them to a shelter or supplying food. We can do our best to lessen the needs and struggles. I have personally been an individual the struggles and I can tell you it’s the worst feeling because you literally feel helpless and you do not have the courage to ask for help so you continue to fall down the wrong path. This is dangerous because then you turn to substances to numb the pain.

Reference Page

Family Crisis Services. (n.d.). Retrieved October 14, 2020, from https://elderabuseprevention.info/family-crisis-services

Joe Kreisler Teen Shelter. (2018, March 26). Retrieved October 14, 2020, from http://changingmaine.org/listing/joe-kreisler-teen-shelter/

MaineHousing Website. (n.d.). Retrieved October 14, 2020, from https://www.mainehousing.org/