Service offers youth a safe place to land, a safe place to launch

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It is no secret: children need and deserve a safe place to land when they fall, and they need and deserve a safe and stable platform from which to launch into the world of adulthood when the time comes. Especially kids who suffer the effect of trauma and who face significant challenges.

It is these children who can benefit from the services offered by the St. Augustine Youth Services (SAYS) Pre-Independent Living Program (PIL).

Foster care and other forms of out-of-home care are often traumatic on their own, but compound those experiences with failed parental reunification plans and one can only imagine how the affected children feel. These stressors compound when children are nearing the age of 18 years, where adulthood looms large. How will they prepare? Who will teach them the skills they need to simply get by in life? Who will support them? Who will they call for support when things go wrong? Where will they spend holidays?

It is these questions and more that haunt the sleep of children in this situation.

Fortunately, there is a provider in our community who can meet the need for youth who find themselves in this precarious position. That provider is SAYS, a long-time leader in St. John’s County’s provision of high-quality children’s mental health services.

The SAYS Pre-Independent Living home offers not only a safe landing zone for youth who have endured traumas that many of us can only imagine, but also offers the safe platform from which to launch into adult life.

The PIL home provides the most consistent, stable, structured environment that many of the youth have ever known. The positive changes and development that children often demonstrate after entering the PIL home are profound.

While living in the PIL home, youth learn everyday life skills such as meal planning, prepping, cooking and cleaning. They learn personal hygiene skills, receive schooling support and learn to live and work with others in a common space. All in an environment where the children receive therapy, medication management and behavioral supports as needed in a home that has house parents who live on-site.

This model helps to ensure that the care provided is consistent and delivered in a nurturing manner from individuals who are as much like family as possible.

Soon, SAYS will launch a campaign to raise funds for new independent living residences for young adults who are 18 years old or older and require additional supports as they learn to support themselves.

If you would like more information about St. Augustine Youth Services or would like to schedule a tour, contact Tim Decker at timothyd@sayskids.org.