Teen shelter adds services to meet growing demand

Daybreak Youth Services Director Kathy Hooks explained it simply:"We're coming home."

The region's only emergency shelter for youths has reopened itsoriginal building on Wayne Avenue as a licensed group home for teenboys, hiring 18 employees.

The agency has invested $290,000 -- all donated by the community -- into renovating the shelter, now known as Alma's Place. The homecan accommodate up to 10 boys who have been referred by localjuvenile courts, youth treatment centers or Children Servicesagencies.

Daybreak CEO Linda Kramer said two factors influenced thedecision to open the group home: Demand kept growing, and the WayneAvenue property never found a buyer.

Daybreak has seen a 110-percent increase in services beingprovided during the last three years and has been running atcapacity for more than two years now. The emergency shelter canaccommodate up to 16 youths, while the independent living program,which has a waiting list, can take in as many as 54.

"The building was costing us money and it was deteriorating; itwas becoming an eyesore for the community," Kramer said. "Meanwhile,our shelter was overflowing. We had a liability, and we wanted tofind a way to turn it into an asset."

Reopening the shelter could only work financially, she realized,if it could become a licensed group home offering services thatcould be paid for by local governments and agencies.

"We're excited about the partnership," said Jim Cole,administrator for Montgomery County Juvenile Court. "Daybreakprovides excellent services for our youth."

Cole said the new shelter meets a need for Montgomery CountyJuvenile Court as well, particularly with young men on probation.

"We see them benefiting from being able to step down into asecure setting rather than dumping them into a neighborhood thatmight not be the best for them," he said.

"This provides them with a transition period, and they're gainingsome life skills," Cole said.

Amy Lee, president of Historic South Park NeighborhoodAssociation, said neighborhood reaction "isn't monolithic, butgenerally Daybreak has been considered a good neighbor, and we hopeit will be a good neighbor again."

Lee said that South Park is a neighborhood that "believes insocial services," but acknowledged that some residents initiallywere worried about the new group home. "Now that it's opened, peopleare happy," she said. "It looks better and it's safer. Before thisit was one more vacant building on Wayne Avenue, with transientssleeping on the porch."

In its original incarnation, the building at 819 Wayne Ave.,between Hickory and Bradford streets, served as the region's onlyemergency shelter for youth from 1975 to 2008, when Daybreak openedits expanded facility at 605 S. Patterson Blvd.

Kramer admitted that she hates the term "group home" and wantsthe residents to think of Alma's Place as home, period.

"We call it home, too," Hooks said. "We are careful not to say,'We're going home,' at the end of the day, as if this weren't ourhome, too."

Alma's Place residents can take advantage of all of Daybreak'sservices at the main campus, only a short distance away --everything from the weekly coffee house to group sessions. Then theyreturn home to the smaller group setting that's so ideal for kidswho need more structure and stability, Kramer said.

"It's like a family," Hooks said.

Social worker Stephanie Kind said that the residents arecarefully supervised, with Internet and computer use strictlymonitored, and a "no-technology period" enforced every day. The boysturn to Hooks and Kind for advice on everything from personalfinances to their prom dates. Recently, for instance, one of theboys wanted to invite a different girl to prom; the women explainedin no uncertain terms what a social disaster that would be.

They're performing the role of parent for kids who might neverhave had an active or involved mother or father.

"They're teenagers, but they're still kids," Kramer said. "If wearen't there for them, they'll become adult criminals or adulthomeless. We want to raise community awareness that these are ourcommunity kids."

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2209 or mccarty@DaytonDailyNews.com.