[Music] Lakeland Currents, your public affairs program for north central Minnesota.

Closed captioning is made possible by Bemidji Regional Airport, serving the region with daily flights to Minneapolis-St Paul International Airport.

More information available at bemidjiairport.org Welcome to Lakeland Currents, I'm your host Todd Haugen.

We have a couple of guests with us from Evergreen Youth and Family Services of Bemidji.

The Executive Director is here Ebony Warren, as is a Program Director Caitlin Orgon.

Welcome to Lakeland Currents to you both.

Thanks for having us, Todd.

Thank you.

I have to think that most people in this area at least have heard of Evergreen Youth and Family Services.

What is the organization for, what does it do?

So Evergreen is a private nonprofit organization and we provide wraparound services for youth who are experiencing homelessness, runaways and families who are just, you know, having moments of crisis.

And so we provide a shelter, a 10 bed shelter, that's available for minors 9 to 17.

And then we have a drop-in center also that provides tons of just supportive services from housing support to mental health support, parenting classes, and you know a lot of other things for youth.

You have at least a couple locations in Bemidji, don't you?

Yes.

So we have two locations.

We have the location that's located on Mississippi, near the post office I like to tell people, that's where our shelter is and so, again, we have 10 beds there.

We have youth who come in from various, you know, backgrounds and from a lot of different trauma and things that they've experienced.

And then sometimes we just have parents who need a place for their youth because they're having some struggles with parenting and so that's our one location.

And then we have an additional location, our drop-in center, that's located behind the A&W.

So that is, you know, where we have youth who drop in all throughout the week.

We're open five days a week there and they can get everything from a hot meal for lunch to supportive services to help them to kind of battle some of the challenges they're having.

Does that tend to be like an after school type drop-in program?

No, it's not an after school.

It's kind of a all day program.

Our drop-in center primarily serves young adults, so maybe 18-19 year olds until their 25th birthday.

So it kind of operates as a day shelter for those young adults and it's like Ebony said open 5 days a week and we're having youth come in every day.

And at least in that location people don't stay overnight.

No.

Okay.

Caitlin what does a program director with Evergreen do?

Sure.

I, as a program director at a nonprofit, I wear many different hats.

So I supervise a few different programs right now.

So my main role would be to supervise the staff working in those programs.

So right now I'm supervising a general crime victim services program as well as a safe harbor program, which is specifically for youth who have been sexually exploited or trafficked.

I supervise an independent living skills program, which is for current and former foster youth and our mental health program that has a full-time therapist, a family support specialist and we're looking for a life coach right now.

So every day is different.

I'm really there to support my staff, make sure that we're on track with our work plans and all of our budgets and getting things done and jumping in to help with what's going on in the drop-in and what youth needs as well.

It sounds like the people you work with really cross the gamut of ages, not just kids where people might think Evergreen's mainly working with youth but not necessarily.

Correct.

So agency-wide, you know, we're working with youth 9 and we say youth all the way up to, you know, 24, you know, which are the young adults.

But we are pretty much just kind of almost like a one-stop shop, I think people consider us to be.

And so we just try to make sure that the youth are able to come in, get assessed to see what their needs are, and then we're able to point them to programs and services in-house at Evergreen, which some of them Caitlin mentioned, as well as connect them with other resources, also.

Does Evergreen charge for its services?

No we don't.

So we are very fortunate to be funded by grants as well as from donations that we get from the community as well.

And so we can provide our services free of charge to youth and their families and that is huge because if you have ever even thought of what it would be like to be homeless, you don't have money to pay for mental health therapy, you know, you don't have money to purchase food, you don't have transportation.

So, you know, we want to basically pull down any barriers that exist for the youth and families that need our support and to just give them access to what they need to help them to have hope and a way forward.

In the shelter portion of your operation, can youth that come there and stay for several days, is there a limit to the amount of time that they can stay?

Yes.

So our shelter is a short-term residential, you know, place.

So youth stay, the max is really 21 days with some exceptions, and so we look at it on a case by case basis depending on what the youth needs and what we can provide.

And on average we're probably seeing youth stay around five to six days on average wouldn't you say Caitlin?

Yeah.

Yeah so that's kind of the average length of stay.

That's sort of a difficult, I mean there's lots of difficulties I would think in running a youth shelter and one of them would be that these young people probably or may not want their parents to know where they are, but how do you handle that?

Well, I mean in some cases you do have that because you have runaways which, you know, they may come to us from law enforcement and then in other cases we have youth who are placed with us through the county.

We have parents who actually want their youth to be with us 'cause they know that we're a safe place and we really focus on reunifying youth with their families as long as it is appropriate and safe, you know, for them.

Do you see very many young people that come to you that maybe don't have, as you mentioned earlier, a home or a family or parents to report back to?

We do see some of that.

And a lot of times it's not even that they may not have a parent, but maybe the parent is absent or the guardian is absent because of their own trauma and their own situations that they are facing, so we do do a lot of, you know, kind of back and forth trying to make sure we get in contact with appropriate people.

When I've spoken with people from Evergreen before, Gary Russell comes to mind, Gary often reminded me sometimes it's not the kids that really have a problem, it's parents that need to learn some new parenting techniques.

Do you see that?

I'd like to say yes.

It's not either or it's both and, and so we kind of find ourselves burning the candle at both ends because we are working with the youth and we're trying to make sure that they're safe, they have their basic needs met, they can actually, you know, walk away, you know, with some new tools when they leave our shelter or a drop-in center.

And then also we have our family support specialist there and he works specifically with families who are trying to navigate the sometimes weighty waters of parenting.

And so he works and does sessions with the youth, with the parents, and kind of coaches them up, helps them to create plans to make sure that they can number one, kind of find a place of commonality, where they can begin to grow and to build that relationship, even in spite of the challenges.

But it would seem important to accept that maybe we all need to revise some of the ways we're running our household going into the whole issue.

I would agree.

I mean I think when people come to our our family support specialist, mental health therapist, parents and children alike, you just need to come, you know, with openness, you know, open hands and open hearts really willing to learn, willing to see some of the things maybe that, you know, have been a little off in your perspective.

I'm trying to see the other person's point of view and then being able to express, of course, you know, your own feelings and where you are and then try to find a way forward.

And since we've pretty much covered the fact that some adults need to think about changing their ways, kids, especially adolescents, can decide that everything and anything adults say is wrong and is outrageous and I'm angry and I'm not going to consider anything that any adult tells me.

How do you deal with that sentiment?

I wouldn't say that we see that sentiment very often but really our philosophy at the shelter is to avoid power struggles at all costs.

So we're giving youth choices.

You can participate in your chores and we can help you if you've never done them before and then you can go to the movie with us.

It's your choice if you want to make that to the movie or not.

So it puts the power really back on the kid to be able to make those decisions and we see a lot of success with that.

And the young adults, Caitlin, that come into the drop-in center, what kinds of issues are they dealing with?

Well typically the first time a young person comes to our drop-in they're 19 or 20 years old, often times they don't have a high school diploma or education past high school.

They've never had a bank account, they don't have state ID, they don't have any credit history, rental history, so they're starting young adulthood basically from ground zero.

And being a young adult is hard enough in itself when you have great support and you know which direction you're moving in your life.

So these young adults really rely on us to set the pace maybe or set some goals for themselves to be able to get an ID so they can have a bank account so they can apply for jobs and we can walk through all of those processes with them.

And oftentimes they're doing that without supportive family or positive peers in their lives.

We have lots of youth coming in with a long history of homelessness and we know that homelessness looks different in northern Minnesota.

If you're sleeping outside you're not going to survive most of the year, so we see youth who are living in situations that we would call doubled up, so there's maybe seven or eight people living in a one or two-bedroom home.

We see youth who are living in vehicles through the winter and we're seeing youth who are living in structures that are not meant for human habitation, so maybe a camper or an ice fishing house that doesn't have electricity, doesn't have running water, or maybe like a garden shed that doesn't have any kind of insulation, so they're facing a lot.

Wow that sounds really tough.

Yes.

I mean you wonder how do people get past that.

Can, I mean are, these young adults typically ready to make a change, do the things that might involve some work that would perhaps change their lives?

I think all of our young adults want stabilization, and it takes work to become stabilized in your life, but when you're not used to being in a home with electricity and running water or maybe in an apartment building where you don't know other people who are living there, that is a huge life change and that takes time and it takes support from people like the staff at Evergreen.

But yeah, all of our young people, they want and need the same things as any young adult.

A lot of them want a career in the helping professions, a lot of them want to go to college, they want to have families and be able to support their own families.

And when they come to the drop-in center, that's a center that operates on like a daily basis, as you said earlier, nobody stays overnight.

So they leave there at the end of the day and go back to whatever that situation might be.

For now.

So really our job is to expand their web of supports because no one agency, no one person, can be everything for these youth.

So if we can't house them immediately, which rarely happens, because the demand is so high, we connect them with other resources that maybe can help them.

Or maybe they just need assistance with a deposit for an apartment.

We can do that, too.

So we look at all of the options, everything that they may qualify for, not just through Evergreen but other agencies like BICAP or even county services.

And then we actually, even though we don't have overnight stays at our drop-in center, we do have a housing program on site and so we house youth in apartments and, you know, we have apartments right above our administrative offices.

We have some across the parking lot in a building that we lease as well.

And so if we can't, you know, house them on site, then we look for other options for them.

Obviously you only have so much capacity for that I'm sure.

Yes.

Is the housing that you operate typically full?

Oh yes.

Yes we're pretty much full all the time, but the idea is not for us to house the youth forever.

It is for us to provide them with the basic needs that they need to help them.

To have wraparound services so that they can get skills and tools they can add to their toolbox so they can transition from our transitional living apartments and out into the world of, you know, independent living on their own.

So, you know, we just try to make sure that we're there to help them with those foundational things that they just didn't come to us with.

And a lot of times I think when people think of homelessness, they don't think of youth, number one, and when they think of youth they think that it was always something they did or maybe they always have substance abuse issues or something that they put on themselves.

Definitely that they chose.

Yes that they chose.

And yes, we do see some of that, but a lot of times it's things that they have, you know, experienced through their families, things they have experienced not at the hands of, you know, themselves.

Sure.

And so we just try to, you know, let them know that they're seen, you know, that they're loved, that they're welcomed, and that we can help them to move forward in their life.

So typically if they're staying in housing that's provided by Evergreen they can stay for about how long?

It depends on the program.

So 18 to 24 months is generally the amount of time.

So we were talking about how we're funded.

So we're funded about 70% by grants and so our grants we have different, you know, restrictions and regulations depending on the program.

And so 18 to 24 months for our housing is typically the amount of time they can stay and then we help them to transition.

So the grants that make it possible for Evergreen to operate, are they awarded on an annual basis?

Again, it depends on the grants.

So some of them are multi-year grants, so we may have for two or three years at a time, and so some of them are yearly grants.

Some of our foundation grants that we get those are typically over the course of a year and so we work through those over the year and then we're applying again.

You know right now we're kind of into our grant writing and reporting season, so we are reapplying for grants that we currently have, grants that we feel would be helpful for us and that would not increase our administrative burden too much on our staff.

We look at some of those, too.

Do those grants typically come from foundations or are they from state or federal government or what.

So our grant funding is pretty diverse and so we have funding from the federal government: our transitional living program, our street outreach program, our shelter program, those come from federal government.

And then we have state grants as well.

So the Homeless Youth Act, we get a grant from the state there, and a lot of other things as well.

Our foundation grants come from, you know, foundations that are in northern Minnesota, you know, and other places as well who are interested in the well-being of the community and who care about youth.

And so we find those grants, we apply, and you know we see what happens.

Well thank goodness those grant organizations operate.

It would just seem like kind of a nerve-wracking way to operate.

I mean I would wonder year to year well what if we don't get this or that grant.

Does, I mean are there times when you don't get something you anticipated getting and then you can't operate the same way?

That does happen and that's always something that we're thinking about.

I know I'm thinking about a lot is okay, this grant application was just released and we have to go and have a competitive renewal process again and sometimes the competition is really steep.

We applied for a grant through the state to help with our shelter and it was extremely competitive, there was not enough money.

There was tons of money, you know, that was available, but not enough money for everybody across the state who needed it, so we didn't get awarded that grant.

And so now we're looking at other ways to do things like, you know, renovations and helping with our security system, that's something we need to upgrade, helping with our HVAC system, you know, for our appliances and our kitchen, just all those different things we have to find funding for.

So we do rely on grants pretty heavily and we also are trying to just continue spreading the word, you know, spreading the word about Evergreen, the hope we give youth, the practical things we give them to help them move forward so that the community can see that, you know, our organization is valuable, our youth are important, and you know we need their support, too.

Well Evergreen has operated in Bemidji for a long, long time, right, what since the late 1970s?

Yeah, so we started in 1977, and we started as a shelter and so there was a local priest who saw some, you know as the story goes, saw some kids kind of hanging out and realized that these kids need support, they need a place of connection and they need a place to call home and help, and so the shelter was born.

And then over the years we've added programs like our street outreach program, our transitional living program, our mental health program, our Rock Sober program which helps with sobriety, you know youth who have been dealing with, you know, substance abuse.

It helps with pregnancy, you know, education on, you know, reproductive health, all those different things.

And so we've grown tremendously over the almost 47 years, somewhere in there.

Yeah right, right, been around.

Do we get, I mean, does our society get any better?

I mean folks that do work like you do it might seem like it could get discouraging at times because it seems like the numbers of people that need your services just seem to grow, or do they?

I think number one the work is hard, the work is extremely hard for everyone who is in it, and specifically for people who are on the front lines doing the direct services, who are with the youth, who are seeing their challenges, who are experiencing some of that trauma with them.

And I think what happens is as you see the successes that come out of the work that we do, it makes it worth it.

It makes it, even though it's heartbreaking, rewarding because you can see a youth who comes to us who has dealt with substance abuse and cutting, who's been living in their car, who is now pregnant and doesn't have a home and they somehow find Evergreen and now that youth, true story, is able to share their story and talk about how Evergreen is a place of connection.

Evergreen is the only family they have.

Evergreen is a place that has given them hope and confidence.

So now you have a youth who comes in, who is broken down, who's been traumatized, who's been, you know, probably abused and has abused themselves and now has to bring, you know, life into the world and what do you do if you don't have a place like Evergreen and someone to wrap around you, especially when you don't have, as Caitlin said, those family supports, those supportive friends and positive friends who are going to provoke you to do good and not keep you into some of the bondage that you've been, you know, in all of your life.

You would just hope that as those young people that use Evergreen services get older and presumably raise some kids on their own, you would just hope that those households would function a little better.

I mean that there wouldn't be broken homes and there wouldn't be homelessness and abusive families.

Maybe it's just that we just haven't gotten all the way into the problem that we've had for a long time, so far.

I think part of it is, number one yes, I do think that as we help youth and families that they can have more positive outcomes for the children that they raise.

I do think that is true because of the support that they have.

I also think that, you know, homelessness is a problem that won't be eradicated, but we work as hard as we can as if it will be.

We work as if we will get out there and we will not have not one youth on the street, not one youth couch hopping, not one youth who is having to live in a situation that is traumatic, abuse, being sexually exploited, or at risk of those things.

That's how we live and how we work each day, even though we know that every day we're seeing youth come through our doors who need us, we're constantly seeing this.

But I think as we educate people on the problem a little more and as they become more aware, then we'll get more people who want to help, want to support not just financially but mentoring a youth.

You know, you see a youth who's having a challenge just encouraging a youth, and I think those are ways too that we can help the situation.

Caitlin, how do people find out more about Evergreen and the various programs that are available at your two facilities?

A great start would be our website evergreenyfs.org and there's a description of all of our programs on there and how you can get started, how you can enroll.

Right now we also have an opportunity for parents and youth to enroll in a sexual exploitation prevention curriculum called the Cool Aunt Series, they can access that for free through our website.

They can register and get started.

We also are on social media: Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn.

Soon we will be on Tik Tok, we got to go where the youth are.

Yeah.

Well I'm sure that's true.

And people don't have to make an appointment, obviously, I mean at the drop-in center you can drop in.

Absolutely.

Evidently.

And what about youth that need shelter, do they, are there prior arrangements that need to be made for them to come to stay at the shelter?

I mean we have youth sometimes who are dropped off and we have to figure out, you know, if they can stay.

Primarily we have people who call in and, you know, try to find out hey, you know, do you have availability?

We have to assess the situation to see if we do have all of the tools and the experience that's needed to help the youth because there are some youth that need something like residential treatment for substance abuse or they need to be in a different type of facility, so we're able to assess that.

No matter how they come to us, we can assess that.

And then we can we can let them know if Evergreen is the right place for them or if we need to have them referred somewhere else.

Evergreenyfs.org.

Yes.

Thank you both for coming in for our show today, we sure appreciate it.

Ebony Warren, the Executive Director and Program Director Caitlin Orgon, thank you again.

Thanks Todd.

That's it for this edition of Lakeland Currents.

Thanks for watching.