ABSTRACT
As their first and often only contact with the social service system, the youth and their family’s emergency shelter experience may have a great significance. Youth who come to a shelter come because of a variety of traumatic events and crises that have made a placement out of the home imperative. In these days of budget restraint and ever fewer group care facilities, it is only the most dangerous situations that warrant an out-of-home placement, and so the youth who are placed are almost always those with intense needs for structure, support, and protection. The combination of a new and
more stable environment, and the opportunity to look at their lives without pressure give the shelter staff a valuable chance to positively impact the lives of their clients. At the same time, shelter staff are continuously challenged by a constantly changing and diverse population who present with a great range of issues in their lives.
