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Causes: Group Homes, Human Services
Mission: To heal children, strengthen families, and build community.
Programs: Community based group homes - journeyz program: the journeyz group home program is the organization's founding program and consists of eight, six bed homes in the community designed to help traumatized and exploited children in foster care who have severe emotional and behavior problems heal and develop the skills they need to navigate life's challenges by giving them essential supports and a home in a neighborhood. During 2017, 156 foster children received a home, counseling and support: -100% of children demonstrated improvement in life skills -100% participated in volunteer activities -89% completed a life skill goal -27% were successfully re-unified with relatives or adopted -87% of youth who aged out chose to move to summit trail apartments
chris counseling center: the chris counseling center (ccc) helps people through tough times so that they can feel better and function better. The ccc has a special focus on helping people recover from trauma. Therapists utilize 20 different evidenced based treatment modalities to ensure people receive the individually tailored assistance needed to help them develop the skills required to build personal resiliency and sustain recovery. Over 34% of the certified trauma therapists in the state of georgia work at chris 180 and use their skills to help people confront, recover and heal from past sexual abuse, physical abuse and/or other adverse childhood/life experiences. A partnership with emory university medical school enables psychiatric fellows to further their training at the ccc and partnerships with several local colleges provide supervised internship experiences for masters level clinical interns. Counseling is provided at the chris counseling center in atlanta, ga, at the gwinnett county counseling center satellite location in lawrenceville, ga, in numerous city of atlanta (aps), dekalb county and fulton county public schools, at partner locations, in the community and through telepsychiatry. During 2017, chris 180 expanded its school based counseling services and completed year one of project 180, a school based, trauma informed training and therapy initiative funded through the substance abuse mental health services administration (samhsa), in four aps schools. Results are measured utilizing the strength and difficulties questionnaire. Pre and post tests indicate that the number of students with highest risk decreased by 16% and that risk dropped to negligible levels in 6. 1% of students. Students served in school based counseling demonstrated a 31% increase in school attendance and a 43% decrease in disciplinary referrals. In late 2017 chris 180 was awarded a contract to provide counseling for uninsured children, adolescents and young adults through age 24 who reside in fulton county at four additional locations with services expected to begin on january 1, 2018. During 2017, counseling was provided to 2,505 individuals: -100% received a trauma assessment -68% revealed contributing traumatic events(s) during initial treatment sessions -89% attained a treatment goal -96% of families reported feeling less stress and improvement in family functioning -88% reported that they would recommend the chris counseling center to others
transitionz youth/young adult services: the transitionz program at summit trail apartments helps traumatized homeless youth and youth aging out of foster care become self-sufficient adults through a combination of housing, counseling and support services that include case management, life skills, educational support, financial management, job coaching, and parenting skills. Service components include emergency assistance, emergency/transitional apartments, permanent supportive housing and street outreach: -during 2017, the emergency shelter/transitional living program provided emergency housing, support, individualized counseling, life coaching and parenting skills training for 17 youth, ages 17 - 21. While participating in the program, -93% became employed -71% transitioned to supportive housing at summit trail apartments -100% were safely housed upon leaving the program -86% continued working with their life coach after discharge -during 2017, permanent supportive housing at summit trail apartments was provided for 69 single and parenting young adults with a total of 11 children. The average length of stay in the program was 16. 3 months. While living in the apartments: -89% of young people were working and/or in school -78% maintained employment for 90 days or longer -100% of high school seniors graduated -46% were enrolled in a certification program, technical school or college -52% of youth who entered the program without a high school education, ged or vocational certificate, attained one of these educational goals prior to discharge upon discharge: -70% demonstrated improved knowledge of community resources -80% demonstrated improved money management skills -90% demonstrated improved knowledge regarding managing their personal healthcare needs -100% demonstrated improvement in life skills two-year post discharge outcomes: -97% are safely housed -85% are employed and/or in school four-year + post discharge outcomes: -98% are safely housed -93% are employed and/or in school the emergency assistance program prevents young adults with mental health issues who are up to age 35 (and their families) from becoming homeless and helps those who are already homeless by assisting them in obtaining stable housing and employment while they receive support, counseling, guidance and instruction designed to foster self-sufficiency. During september 2017, modifications were made in the program to reduce street outreach, to increase efforts to prevent homelessness and to expand bridge housing while working to help young adults secure more permanent housing. Partners include the salvation army, quest community development and open doors. During 2017, 88 young adults, 77% of whom had an ace score of four or more, with 17 children received help: -100% became and remain housed -97% are working -21% of those working are also in school street outreach services assisted 1,911 youth. During 2017, support, assistance, resource guides and referrals were provided to 224 homeless youth through face to face meetings and telephone follow up support. An additional 1,687 youth who contacted the program via, email, facebook or telephone seeking housing and assistance were provided assistance, support and guidance as well as resource guides and referrals for help available through chris 180 and other providers. Telephone follow up calls, emails and facebook messages were made to offer additional services and provide on-going support.
keeping families together (kft): kft assists georgia's most vulnerable children and their families in building a plan of support and services to help them establish safety and stability in their homes and strengthen the family unit, enabling them to become stronger and stay together. Utilizing a high fidelity wraparound model, families are helped to navigate multiple systems and community services while receiving prevention, reunification and support services that help them achieve their goals so that, in the future, families and each individual within the family has built a natural support system in the community and has the skills to help themselves. At the end of 2017, chris 180 expanded kft community services to work with incarcerated young adults, including young parents through re-entry programs in dekalb and fulton counties. During 2017, 1,518 individuals received assistance: -safety was ensured for 100% of all children in all families -91% of families were strengthened, avoiding disruption through hospitalization, incarceration or the out-of-home placement of a child -93% of youth classified as designated juvenile felons graduated with no new juvenile charges and remained with their families, avoiding re- incarceration -98% of families reported that they would recommend chris 180 services to others chris adoptions: chris adoptions provides a unique set of trauma informed services and supports to ensure that children in foster care truly have a forever family; because no child should ever have to age out of foster care. In 2013, chris 180 developed a trauma informed foster care adoption model with the goal of reducing - and eliminating - failed adoptions for children in foster care. Gateway foster homes were envisioned and created by chris 180 to support the adoption model and process by providing specialized foster homes for sibling groups who are in foster care, but who are often placed in hotels temporarily, are separated into different foster homes or for whom the separation of siblings can be avoided in the first place. Chris 180 currently operates two gateway foster homes and has successfully facilitated the adoption of two sibling groups as a result of re-unifying siblings in these homes. Three additional gateway foster homes for siblings will be opened as a result of the current capital campaign and will help address placement challenges for siblings. During 2017, 57 individuals were served, 24 prospective parents completed training, 5 children were placed in their adoptive homes and 9 children were engaged in the matching process with prospective families. There have been no adoption disruptions since the program's inception. Chris clubhouse/drop in center: as a result of a service needs assessment and discussion with the state of georgia's department of behavioral health and developmental disabilities (dbhdd), it was jointly decided to respond to the crisis of youth homelessness by converting the clubhouse which helped 15 - 21 year olds to a drop in center serving 16 - 24 year olds during july and august of 2017 to focus on helping more homeless youth and young adults make a safe transition to adulthood by assisting them in meeting their needs for safe housing, counseling, employment and support services. During 2017, the chris clubhouse and the drop in center helped 84 youth. -85% of youth helped in the clubhouse demonstrated improvement in functioning on the cans, a national measure of improvement -21% of youth were referred for housing assessments -16% of youth were successfully linked to stable housing, employment or secured vital records community partnerships: in order to enhance services to populations with need while avoiding duplication of services, chris 180 seeks to leverage our strengths and the strengths of our partners by supporting the creation of partnerships designed to fulfill our missions in the most cost effective, efficient manner. To this end, during 2017 chris 180 maintained mous with almost 50 non-profit and for-profit partners including the atlanta police foundation, the urban league of atlanta, the boys and girls club and four different public school systems in metro atlanta and two federally qualified health centers, mercy care and healing community. As a result, barriers to services were reduced and access to essential trauma informed counseling and other services were increased for children, adults and families as well as for clients of other nonprofits. A partnership with the georgia partnership for telehealth continues to expand services on behalf of our clients. Training partners include the atlanta public schools, dekalb county public schools, court appointed special advocates (casa), united way, new american pathways, and the georgia department of family and children services. Other collaborative partnerships in 2017 included the new hope enterprises, year up, the grady trauma project, our house, open doors, the criminal justice coordinating council, georgia state university, and gwinnett kids net. The chris training institute: the chris training institute provides high quality training with a focus on trauma informed care, child abuse prevention, diversity and inclusion. Training is provided with the intent of exponentially expanding impact in the areas of clinical professional services, human services, child welfare, juvenile justice, and family welfare, while promoting prevention and increasing awareness of the importance of mental health and addiction treatment as wise investments in the future. Training was provided for 754 internal staff participants in addition to individuals in the broader community. During 2017, 1,704 unduplicated external individuals attended trainings. Of these, 924 individuals participated in one to three days of training in trauma stars, chris 180's signature trauma training program, including 449 school personnel. Trauma assessment training was provided for 39 participants and 142 participants were trained in the prevention of child sexual abuse. Training in working with lgbt youth and bullying was provided to 253 individuals. During 2017, youth/adult mental health first aid and many other clinical professional courses such as motivational interviewing, ethics training, dialectical behavioral therapy, play therapy and comprehensive child and family assessment trainings were provided as well. Youth build: the youth build program is funded through a grant with the department of justice. During 2017, 24 young adults, 62% of whom had an ace score of four or more, received help and 81% attained a ged and /or construction certification. A partnership with atlanta habitat and quest community development provided opportunities for in the field construction experience. At promise youth center: the at-promise youth center was opened in august 2017 in partnership with the atlanta police foundation with chris 180 serving as the lead organization coordinating services with three partners - the boys and girls club, the urban league of atlanta and street smart youth project. Chris 180 is the initial point of contact and all services are guided by a chris 180 assessment. While the goal of the center is to serve as a detention/jail diversion and intervention center to help youth and young adults, it has been accessed by a wide range of individuals seeking assistance. At promise has helped 151 youth with therapy, case management services, life skills, ged, workforce development, tutoring, leadership development, substance abuse education and hiv testing. Of the youth served 59% of youth between the ages of 15 and 18 had an ace score of four or more and 67% of the young adults, ages 19 through 25 had an ace score of four or more. In addition, the at-promise center has helped 51 families and young adults who were or are homeless. Since the center opened, over 270 individuals in one of the most distressed and underserved communities in atlanta have received some form of help and assistance.