Valley Youth House Committee

Independent living - this program provides assistance with education, employment, residential planning, and attainment of life and interpersonal skills for youth between the ages of 16 to 21. This program operates supervised apartments to help develop independent living skills.

Housing programs the rapid rehousing programs for homeless youth and families is a 6 to 24 month program that aims to provide housing stability for youth and families to quickly exit homelessness and return to housing in the community. The supervised independent living programs houses youth, who are in the foster care system, in apartments in the community or in a grouped apartment living settings. Programs are provided in bucks, chester, delaware, lackawanna, lancaster, lehigh, luzerne, montgomery, monroe, northampton, philadelphia, and york. The philadelphia pride program provides short term rental assistant to lgbtq youth experiencing homelessness or housing instability.

Emergency services valley youth house has two emergency youth shelters, five street outreach program and one designated access point drop in center. Vyh's two shelters are located in lehigh and bucks counties and provide 24 hour a day, 365 days a year, walk-in crisis intervention, short-term residency, counseling and life skills education to youth between the ages of 12 and 20 at the lehigh valley shelter and ages 8 to 20 at the bucks county shelter. Five street outreach programs serve allentown, philadelphia county, bucks county, montgomery county, and dauphin county providing emergency supplies (food, hygiene products, camping gear, etc.), counseling and linkages to community resources to ensure youth safety. A team of outreach workers operate from vehicles that are stocked with emergency supplies such as food, clothing, camping gear and hygiene products. Youth are served in at locations in the community where street youth are known to congregate, including malls, parks, along rivers and railroad tracks, and in adult homeless encampments. In philadelphia, vyh has a youth designated access point that assesses and/or supports homeless young people to find housing or other resources in the community.

In-school programming - valley youth house's school based programs provide students with short term counseling services in the school to reduce symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, and generalized anxiety. Masters-level therapists provide assessments, interventions, individual and family counseling and referrals. The vyh youth empowerment program provides school and community-based group or classroom prevention and education services that build decision making and refusal skills for youth leading to the ability to make healthy life choices. Vyh's school based life skills program is an after-school program for york county youth that aims to prevent child welfare involvement by implementing life classes, case management, and community resource connections.

Family based mental health program - this program provides in-home counseling and education services to those families that have an emotionally troubled child. The goal for the programs is to build the family's ability to manage the behavioral and mental health care needs of the children and prevent the need for placing the child in a more restrictive environment.

Camp fowler: the camp is located in orefield, pa. This 43-acre therapeutic camp serves a large and diverse population which includes the broad spectrum of special needs and at risk youth. This handicap accessible facility is equipped with overnight cabins, multi-purpose space, a commercial kitchen, sports fields, an extensive adventure course and a heated pool, and provides therapeutic recreation. Camp fowler is used extensively by valley youth house programs as well as a variety of community groups.

Family intervention program - functional family therapy (fft) is a short-term, evidence-based family therapy model that addresses problematic adolescent behavior that has or may lead to criminal behavior, drug/alcohol use and, as result, poor academic performance. The program uses a variety of techniques to change youth and family communication, interaction, and problem solving leading to reductions in high-risk behaviors that impact educational achievement and other indicators of positive function.

Adolescents and families together this service focuses on child welfare needs and addressing traumas that are crime related. The family preservation program and in-home services programs provide intensive home-based services to families who have a child at imminent risk of out of home placement due to the presence of physical/sexual abuse, neglect, drug and alcohol abuse, serious emotional illness or parent/child conflict, homelessness. Services are provided in lehigh and northampton counties. The trauma focused cognitive behavioral program works with youth and families who are experiencing trauma symptoms related to a crime related trauma/victimization. The goal of this program is to decrease trauma related symptoms that the identified youth experience.