Supportive Transitional Housing for Youth
NYEP’s residential based programming is referred to as the Community Living Program (CLP). The CLP operates from a 5 bedroom home in Northwest Reno, Nevada, and to date has served over 30 homeless teen girls, ages 17-21 years old. The CLP provides safe, supervised, daily supportive transitional housing services and skills training to youth residents to ensure program success (self sufficiency/independence). It is not a “Medicaid Home”, a “Foster Home” or a “Group Home”. It is the only program of its kind in the state of Nevada, and only one of a dozen across the United States.
The core purpose of NYEP’s CLP is to assist homeless older teens in becoming independent, self sufficient community contributors. The CLP curriculum and token system, created by NYEP and Dr. Bob Quilitch, empowers residents to acquire concrete skills and knowledge as well as the emotional growth necessary to establish and maintain self sufficient lives within the community. The CLP staff does this by providing as needed training/teaching around success skills, daily accountability and monitoring to ensure residents are practicing newly learned skills and applying them to the daily context of their lives, and finally, consistent daily interaction to provide emotional support, motivation and consequences for desirable and undesirable behaviors. The CLP formal curriculum is used by staff to teach, track, and report daily, weekly and monthly skills training and progress for each youth resident. It is the CLP’s staffs’ intent to help residents not only develop basic daily living skills but the necessary interpersonal skills that will allow them to deal with life in a positive and productive way.
Successful CLP residents will be prepared to realize four milestones for independence: 1) completing education and/or training; 2) increasing their skills and income level-in most cases leading to economical independence; 3) obtaining and remaining in permanent housing and 4) greater self determination,including personal decision making and behavioral skills that will enable teens to avoid future homelessness, unplanned pregnancy and future involvement with the criminal justice system. The CLP staff assists residents with complete transition into adulthood, including followup care for up to 3 months post successful program graduation.
At the CLP, staff teach residents how to meet expectations and needs through being pushed daily to meet obligations and responsibilities. We avoid the band-aid approach and favor an empowerment approach where young people learn the skills necessary to eventually problem solve on their own. The CLP teaches residents how to set goals, attend and participate in meetings, use agendas to guide discussions, the importance of a medial home and proper use of resources. NYEP, through its volunteer partnerships, can provide specialized high school/GED/college tutoring to CLP residents to help ensure success.
NYEP also has a civic engagement and an employment series that is delivered to each CLP resident. The series includes making contact with an opportunity, writing a resume, understanding a job description and expectations, job searching, interview role playing and receiving supervisor feedback. NYEP also assists resident students in identifying and acquiring college funds.
Mental health behavioral services are available to those residents suffering from an Axis I diagnosis. These services are provided by Qualified Mental Health Aides and Qualified Behavioral Aides who are given training, support and over site by a Qualified Mental Health Professional, who is a licensed psychologist.