Child & Family Services helps teens again.

From the TC Record Eagle - 15 September 2014 -

CFS to absorb program
BY SARAH ELMS selms@record-eagle.com | 
Posted: Sunday, September 14, 2014 11:45 pm

TRAVERSE CITY — Child and Family Services of Northwestern Michigan will take on a local effort that provides shelter and support for high school students who are unable to live at home.
Catholic Human Services, Inc., began the Host Homes program 10 years ago and is passing the torch in October.

Marybeth Novak, Catholic Human Services’ prevention programs coordinator, has been at the program’s helm since its inception. She said it targets teens who want to get out of an unstable home life without dropping out of school.

The program places teens in safe homes with adult supervision through graduation. Novak is still totaling the numbers but said at least 170 teens in the five-county area benefited from Host Homes in the last decade.

“We worked with good kids who were coming away from troubled backgrounds and needed that stability and support to get them through high school,” she said.

The program is entirely funded through local grants, but it’s become increasingly difficult for Catholic Human Services to sustain.

Novak is gearing up for retirement in the next year or two, and she wants to make sure Host Homes is in good hands before she leaves.

“Our coffers were getting very, very empty, and it just seemed like a good time all the way around,” she said of the change. “I couldn’t have come up with money to start this year.”

Child and Family Services this year absorbed Third Level Crisis Intervention Center and now works with youth in the foster care system as well as with homeless and runaway youth who stay in the Pete’s Place shelter.

Courtney Russell, who will supervise the Host Homes program at CFS, said it makes sense to add it to the mix.

“It’s a really good fit because we have a whole spectrum of services that are put in place to support the youth in our communities,” she said. “It’s a middle-ground support service to help youth stay in a family environment to support them to continue their educational goals and grow into a healthy adult.”

Russell said CFS officials will continue to apply for local grant funding to support Host Homes, and they may be able to obtain some state funding down the road.

What’s most important to both organizations is that the region’s struggling youth have a safe place to go.


“I can’t thank the people who supported this program since its development enough,” Novak said. “In my professional career, it’s probably the most fulfilling thing I’ve ever done.”

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