We’re helping vulnerable children, and the SC Legislature just gave us a great assist

For the past 10 years, United Way of the Midlands has increasingly focused resources on helping vulnerable children succeed by supporting tutoring, kindergarten preparation, high-quality child care and social support to families and children experiencing homelessness, with a range of housing assistance from prevention and shelter to permanent housing.

In 2013, we initiated the Youth in Transition movement, for 17- to 24-year-olds who are homeless or vulnerable to homelessness. This includes youth transitioning out of foster care or juvenile or adult justice, runaway youth and unaccompanied youth.

This movement has grown from 12 agencies meeting to discuss service coordination to more than 50 public and private partners and community leaders working together to stop the cycle of youth homelessness and support youth as they work to achieve their life purpose.

Since its initiation, we have seen a dramatic expansion of housing and services, including youth-specific street outreach, 78 new units of housing and shelter beds for youth and the opening of a youth drop-in center.

We’ve also worked with these partners to develop the Midlands Youth Homelessness Plan, which focuses on stable housing, education, employment and permanent connections, all of which set up vulnerable youth for success and self-sufficiency.

While our work has long focused on the stress of poverty, the plan includes the specific role of trauma on health and academics. Research has found that adverse childhood experiences — which include stressful or traumatic events, abuse or neglect, witnessing domestic violence and growing up with family members who abuse alcohol and drugs — can result in risky behaviors, chronic health conditions, lower life potential and early death. For many children, the stress carries over into everyday life, including school, and certainly has an impact on the family.

By training school leaders, agency staff and community partners about the effects of trauma and coaching them through the appropriate response, we hope to mitigate the negative impact of these adverse childhood experiences. Ultimately, we want to see fewer youth who are homeless and more youth who meet their full potential.

We commend the efforts of the Legislature to create a Department of Children’s Advocacy, which will provide independent oversight of state agencies including the departments of Social Services and Health and Human Services and receive and monitor complaints to ensure timely resolution and adequate protection of children. This is an important step toward improving coordination of services for young people. It is through this leadership that we will be able to advance our state’s work to help children and young people develop into successful, healthy and self-sufficient adults.

The State publishes a cross section of the letters we receive from South Carolinians in order to provide a forum for our community and also to allow our community to get a good look at itself, for good or bad. The letters represent the views of the letter writers, not necessarily of The State.

This story was originally published May 28, 2018 at 7:53 AM with the headline "We’re helping vulnerable children, and the SC Legislature just gave us a great assist."