FRIENDS OF YOUTH AGENCY

KING COUNTY, WASHINGTON STATE

 

 

According to the Seattle Human Services Department, on any given night, there are likely 2000 kids between the ages of 12 and 24 in King County without a safe place to sleep.  Youth shelters are serving just over 1,100 at any given time.  Of those, 50% are under 16.  Some of these transient kids no doubt show up in libraries during open hours. Are they likely to approach the non-age-differentiated reference desks for a community referral?  It’s unlikely in my opinion.  How about if they check the library website?  In Seattle they will find no community information at all.  In King County they will find health referrals, but nothing to help with food and shelter.  Hopefully, those kids know how to use Google, because there actually are agencies to help them.  One that reaches throughout the county, and has a good web presence is Friends of Youth.  http://www.friendsofyouth.org/with_flash.asp

 

MISSION

The organization began with the vision of one woman in 1950, and with the support of community churches, and individual members, went from an agency helping to develop new foster homes, to one with its own group home, to one sponsoring many shelters and other youth-oriented services at 20 sites in two counties.  It is interesting that the organization that began in Seattle is now concentrated in communities on the other side of Lake Washington.  Friends of Youth states that its mission is “to develop, provide and advocate services for children, youth, their families and communities that encourage individual growth and promote constructive relationships.”  In 1996, the Council on Accreditation of Services for Families and Children, Inc accredited the agency.  This helps assure clients, referring professionals, and potential donors that the organization meets rigorous standards.

 

PROGRAMS

The Emergency Shelter program provides housing for youth 11-17 for up to 30 days. Individuals are assigned to a specific shelter by a telephone referral service that is available 24/7. While residing at the shelter, teens attend public school and participate in after school and weekend activities provided by the Agency.  Weekly drug and alcohol prevention meetings are part of the package.  Also available is family mediation and counseling, and community referral to address longer-term needs.

 

One program of long-standing is a treatment facility for boys 12-18.  Located on six acres, The Griffin Home provides individualized treatment plans including individual, group and family therapy, treatment for substance abuse and behavioral problems, life skills training, educational services including and on-site school, and recreational therapy for boys who need 24-hour supervision.  Most of the teens are referred by the Division of Child and Family Services or the Juvenile Rehabilitation Administration, but referrals from private physicians and other professionals are also accepted.

 

For older teens, those from 18-23, The Landing provides overnight shelter on Monday through Thursday from 9pm.  It is operated in conjunction with the Bellevue YMCA.  There are also five different locations that provide transitional living for individual young adults, or young mothers and their children.

 

Outreach Services are provided by a six-person van that frequents locations where youths congregate.  The van carries food, clothing, first aid equipment, and hygiene supplies. Team members provide referrals to Friends of Youth and other community services.  The advocacy extends beyond emergency needs to legal referrals and assistance with government bureaucracies.  The van also transports youths to shelters, health clinics, and job interviews.  The agency operates its own free health clinic one night a week..

 

Friends of Youth maintains the foster home development and referral program that was its beginning.  One measure of its success is that 100% of young adults leaving the agencies foster care homes at 18 are either working or in school.

 

With an eye toward prevention, the Agency has opened three teen centers that are free and safe places for young people to have fun with their friends and enjoy games, sports, drama, music, community events and much more.  Referrals to other agency programs are available to teens who need them. 

 

Healthy Start is another prevention program, offering home visits and social activities for parents of young children who are under 24 themselves.  The emphasis is on teaching the young people parenting skills, and helping them access community support and plan for their own future and that of their children.  There are also parenting education classes at agency sites that are not restricted to young parents.

 

The kind of family counseling and support services available to teens in Friends of Youth shelters are also available to families that are still intact, and they are available to families before their children become teenagers.  Families with children 2-18 can obtain help on a sliding fee basis in the areas of  behavior problems, school difficulties, depression and anxiety, ADD and ADHD, sexual or physical abuse, drug and alcohol problems, divorce and remarriage, and illness and death.

 

PARTNERSHIPS

The Agency’s main partners are Hopelink, which is another housing agency, and United Way of King County.  One current project with Hopelink is the renovation of the Avondale Park location.  The partnership is cost-effective and uses the strengths of each agency.  Friends of Youth is also a member of or affiliated with the following organizations: National Network for Youth, Washington State Coalition of Residential Child Care Services, Northwest Network of Runaway and Youth Services, King County Youth and Family Service Network, Eastside Human Services Alliances, Behavioral Health Solutions, Washingto State Coalition for the Homeless, King County Coalition for the Homeless, Chamber of Congresses, UW Executive Directors Association, Executive Alliance, and the Northwest Roundtable for Quality Assurance.

 

FUNDING

For the 2001-2002 year the Audited Operating Budget for Friends of Youth was $7,208,882.

The revenue and support came from:

·        Federal, state, and local fees and grants           $4,481,072      61%

·        United Way                                                            513,594        7%

·        Contributions                                                      1,905,889       26%

·        Fees for Services                                                   230,346         3%

·        Miscellaneous                                                          77,981         1%

 

 The following are the broad categories in which this money was spent:

 

·        Residential Services                                               $2,184303     30%

·        Community Services                                                2,192,884    30%

·        Management and General                                           494,648      7%

·        Fundraising and Community Relations                      356,842      5%

·        Committed by the Board for Capital Purposes        1,980,205     27%

 

PUBLICITY

Friends of Youth publicity campaigns that are aimed particularly at potential clients in the young adult population include radio spots and extensive flyer distribution.  The radio spots are on stations aimed at various segments of the teen audience.  Similar publicity of other agencies in the area also indirectly affects the Agency.  For example, Teen Link, which is part of the Seattle Crisis Clinic, a telephone counseling and referral service, has their own spots, but when teens call, they may very well be referred to a Friends of Youth program.

 

In the schools surrounding the three Teen Centers, activity flyers are distributed to every student.  Other flyers and brochures are prepared that describe some or all Agency programs.  They are distributed to every middle and high school in the two county area.  Teaching, counseling, and health staff are informed in this way, and the schools are encouraged to maintain student-directed bulletin boards that post Friends of Youth flyers and those of other agencies.  Other important points of distribution are the churches in the county that have services aimed at homeless youth. The district surrounding the University of Washington has a large number of these services, and most of the churches and clinics involved maintain bulletin boards of services available.  Other publicity efforts focus on keeping other agencies and professionals likely to deal with at-risk teens informed and reminded of Friends of Youth programs. 

 

The Outreach Van, discussed in the section on Agency Programs is another way that Friends of Youth gets the word out to potential clients.

 

Additional publicity efforts are aimed at keeping the Agency and its individual programs in the media.  These may indeed come to the attention of teens who need, or may later need, Friends of Youth services.  The main purpose of the media campaign, however, is to remain prominent in the public eye and encourage the ever-present need for donations.

    

Finally, the Agency’s website provides access for teens and others seeking information or services.  It is extensive enough to merit a separate discussion below.

    

The job description of the fulltime paid Community Affairs Coordinator will give you an idea of Agency’s viewpoint on the importance of publicity.  This person:

·        Cultivates agency donors and prospects. 

·        Coordinates public relations, writes and disseminates press releases and advocates for agency positions.

·        Manages agency history, press clippings, and publicity.

·        Keeps press kits current and in the hands of local media sources.

·        Arranges press visits, contacts, and responses.

·        Coordinates writing of agency newsletters.

·        Manages collection and up-keep of vignette catalog, photos, and stories.

·        Maintains an organized collection of staff business cards and biographies for grants, and publications.

·        Watches for opportunities and coordinates follow-through of special recognition of donors, volunteers, and staff.

·        Assists with recognition events for staff, volunteers, donors, and Board.

·        Finds opportunities for visibility.

·        Assists with facilitation and planning of Development activities.

·        Promotes the agency to build region-wide name recognition.

 

AGENCY WEBSITE

The agency website is very impressive.  It is colorful with changing photos, graphics, and animation that would surely be attractive to teens who might visit.  Top and side organization and navigation buttons make it easy to find the information you are looking for.  In addition, the site has a search feature.  Young adults looking for assistance, or for the opportunity to volunteer, would be likely to find this agency in a web search.  When I searched Google using the name of any local community or county joined with likely terms like “teen services” or “homeless youth” or “shelters” or multiple other combinations, this site was always in the first page results.  The designer is evidently a master of embedded terms.

  

A homepage link entitled “Need Help?” takes the user to a single page description of sites and services with contact numbers for each.  The 24-hour referral number is also there, although one criticism that I have is that that particular number should be more prominent on the page.  There is more complete information about the various programs, complete with pictures, on other pages of the website.  There are links to success stories that might allow teens in trouble to identify and motivate them to call one of the the phone numbers  

 

The website also fully describes the overall agency and its partnerships, including a history of its development complete with timeline.  Volunteering is strongly encouraged.  There is a volunteer application, a description of orientation processes, and a link to current opportunities.  Another page suggests volunteering possibilities for a business or other group such as adopting a site, a one-time work party, a fundraiser, or providing administrative services to the agency or training services for youth clients.  Part of the changing content is a story about a featured volunteer.

 

Donations are encouraged in their own area complete with a form to make a donation online.  Another area of the website lists last years donors by type and size of gift.  The success stories complete with pictures are another means encouraging donations.  Finally, another homepage link takes the user to a “News” area.  There one can find links to various newspaper articles that have appeared with the last year and focus on the agency, or more likely, one of its programs or sites.  Pdf files of the agency newsletter that is published four times a year are also available from the same page.

    

CONCLUSION

 It would seem that the mission of the Friends of Youth of King County organization is being fulfilled through current and ever-expanding programs.  The Agency is successful in promoting its programs to maintain donations of nearly two million dollars a year.  Over and above this total, many United Way donors designate their contributions for the Agency or one of its programs.  Publicity and website promotion keeps teens, families, and referring agencies informed to the extent that programs are always filled to capacity.  The Agency continues to meet the challenge, by capital expenditures and partnerships that expand offerings.  Local libraries need to join the partnership as well.  At the very least, teens should be able to count on the library website to provide them with links to the services like this that they might need.

 

Young Adult Services
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