Somerset Home for Temporarily Displaced Children
Jeffrey Fetzko, ACSW, LSW, CFRE
Vol. 6, No. 2, January 24, 2008
The Executive Director's News is published every two weeks, and is specifically written for the employees, board of trustees and friends of the Somerset Home. This issue and past issues are available on our web site at http://www.somersethome.org/main/pages/employee_newsletter.htm.
Washington DC Advocacy
Each year a delegation of Somerset Home staff attend the National Network for Youth's Symposium and meet with members of congress to discuss the needs of runaway and homeless youth. This tradition has been underway for more than 25 years and this year is no exception.
Past results of these efforts have resulted in the federal Transitional Living program, Street Outreach Program, Educational Vouchers for College Tuition for Youth transitioning from the child welfare system and many other initiatives.
Accomplishments for this past year are as follow:
$10.5 Million Appropriations Increase for Runaway and Homeless Youth Programs --
The President has just signed into law the omnibus appropriations measure that includes a healthy $10.5 million increase for Runaway and Homeless Youth Act programs. Of this increase, $8.3 million is directed to the RHYA consolidated account, which funds the basic center program (Brahma House receives these funds), transitional living program (we are applying for these funds for a new TLP in 2009), and national support activities, raising the total level of the consolidated account to $96.1 million. In addition, $2.2 million of the increase is directed to the street outreach program (Brahma House also receives these funds to fund our STREET SMART street outreach program), raising the total level of the street outreach account to $17.2 million!
These increases are directly related to our collective efforts in Washington and translate into many new funding opportunities for programs throughout the United States including Somerset Home.
The increase for RHYA programs reflects the commitment by a majority of Members of the 110th Congress to re-invest in languishing domestic human needs priorities, including housing, human services, and education. In addition to the RHYA increase, included within the omnibus appropriations measure are increases for other programs of importance to homeless and other disconnected youth, including: $5 million increase for the Education for Homeless Children and Youth program, $9.4 million increase for YouthBuild, $32 million increase for Job Corps, $45 million increase for juvenile justice programs (the bulk of which is directed to youth mentoring), $100 million increase for the 21st Century Community Learning Centers (out-of-school time) program, · $144 million increase for HUD McKinney-Vento homeless assistance programs.
Our job as youth advocates is to bring information to members of congress and request that additional federal resources be directed to RHYA (Runaway and Homeless Youth Act) and other human needs programs.
Lets hope we have as much success this year as we had last year!
Bathroom Renovation Update
Brahma House - Upstairs Kids Bathroom (Finally) Reopened
What started out as a minor problem snowballed into a major reconstruction of the upstairs kids bathroom at Brahma House. Early on Saturday, January 12th the bathroom was finally reopened. The entire bathroom floor had to be rebuilt including floor drains, tile work and a special membrane that keeps the floor tile stable and dry. It was quite a project but now that it is finished, this bathroom should last us many years without a problem.
Passages - Construction Continues
Half of the bathrooms have been completely gutted, rough plumbing completed and the floors rebuilt. Our next phase of construction is to build the "pans" for the floor (so that the floor drains after it is tiled) and begin the tile work. There has been slow but steady progress and remember, once half of the bathrooms are completed we will begin this process all over again on the remaining bathrooms.
Job Opening
Pathways - Independent Living Skills Counselor
Full-Time, Monday-Friday, 12 pm-8pm, BA and Valid Driver’s License Required, If you are interested, please contact Alex Ciccone at 908-526-6686.
As always, thank you all for your continued hard work on behalf of our youth.
