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Jeffrey Fleming is based in Lincoln County and is searching for a few good homes which, it turns out, can make all the difference in whether or not a student facing homelessness in Lincoln County has the ability to graduate from high school. Jeffrey, and his team counterpart, Claire Johnson, work together in Lincoln County on behalf of Second Home to support students in need of stable housing.
Fleming is the Home Provider Coordinator in Lincoln County for the Second Home program and is one of four Home Provider Coordinators on the Second Home team, each assigned to a different county. The goal of a Home Provider Coordinator is to find safe, consistent host home environments for local high schoolers who don’t currently have a stable home environment.
The ideal outcome, Fleming shared, would be to find homes willing to open their doors to carefully vetted teens who are voluntarily in the program and who are:
- Between ages 16 and 21, or 15 and younger if pregnant or parenting
- Enrolled in high school
- Who do not partake in drugs or alcohol
“These are kids who have had to become self-reliant at a relatively young age,” Fleming said. “They are kids who want to be successful and through the Second Home program enter into a home-sharing situation where they work with a professional mediator to put together an agreement about house expectations and guidelines with a volunteer Home Provider.”
The Second Home program, which is overseen by Portland-based non-profit Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon, was established in 2010. Over the last 15 years, the program has focused on building a host home model for students facing homelessness in Washington, Clackamas, East Multnomah and Lincoln counties.
Jeffrey Fleming recognizes the incredible amount of time and effort it takes for people to open their doors to young people who often seem to have unwritten labels attached to them.
“There’s almost like this prejudice that comes with it, like, there must be a reason why they are they are experiencing homelessness,” he said. “Is it drugs? Is it their behavior?” Fleming acknowledged that he can’t necessarily change that perception.
“What I can do is explain that our youth are homeless through no fault of their own,” he said. “These are kids who generally do not have parental influence or guidance in their lives, but they want to succeed, which is why they are involved in our program.”
“Our program depends on home-host providers,” he said. “We have a lot of high schoolers who qualify for help, but finding host homes to provide a stable home base for these students is what really matters right now.”
A Startling Statistic
The number of homeless Lincoln County teens is one of the highest in the state, Woody Crobar, who heads up the Lincoln County School District’s HELP Program, told YachatsNews in a recent interview. His program identified 842 youth last year who met the requisite definition. That’ equals 15 percent of the Lincoln County School District’s enrolled population.
Two-thirds of Lincoln County teenagers classified as facing homelessness are those having to “double-up” in homes occupied by friends or relatives.
Statistics gathered by Second Home to date show that having a home to live in makes a striking difference in whether any particular student heads into the future with a high school diploma in hand.
“Our research shows that if a student is experiencing homelessness, their chances of graduating from high school are, at best, 55 percent, but probably lower,” shared Fleming. For students participating in the Second Home program, there is a graduation rate of 90-100 percent with the benefit of stable housing. Making graduation possible is one of the primary goals of the Second Home program.
Other benefits appeal to both students and hosts participating in the program. For example, students have the opportunity to sign up for SNAP (food stamp) benefits, but often the Host Home Provider food as part of their hosting experience. Stuendents also qualify for the Oregon Health Plan. Any student that participates in the Second Home program for at least six months, will be eligible for a full school scholarship if they attend a state university, college or community college in Oregon.
“What we are really trying to do is raise program awareness and outreach, especially in South County, where we don’t currently have any Host Home Providers,” Fleming said. “But, so far, we believe the more that we can get the word out, the more success we will have.”
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