La Crosse Area Family Collaborative-
The first few months of the La Crosse Area Family Collaborative are showing promise to help families that live in two neighborhoods that are considered at risk in the city of La Crosse.
The La Crosse County Human Services Department started providing a social worker in community centers in the neighborhoods in January. Other partners in the effort include organizations that often come in contact with troubled families—from school officials and police to non-profit agencies and faith-based groups.
The social workers have helped more than 100 families since January—90 percent of those families are headed by single mothers.
While the program shows promise, it also has surprised in the area of greatest need: transitional housing that can mean the difference between strengthening a family and being homeless.
“I think it would be surprising to many residents how many families are doubled, tripled, quadrupled up within current housing,” said La Crosse County Human Services Director Jason Witt. “And when young children are involved, the different influences that can come in and out of that situation provides some dangers to those kids. We’ve seen housing as a big issue.”
Children can often move between schools because they don’t have a stable place to live which can be disruptive to their education. Student turnover according to Witt is as high as 40 percent in some La Crosse schools.
The goal is to stabilize a family before a situation rises to an emergency, and is a response to a recent 35 percent increase in child protective services cases in La Crosse County, often related to a parent’s substance abuse problem or mental health situation.
Isaac Hoffman is one of the neighborhood social workers whose job is to help families sort through a variety of issues they may be having, and find solutions that will improve their situation. He’s spent a lot of time helping people with housing issues, making sure they don’t find themselves in a situation where they are doubling or tripling up with other families for a place to live.
“I think that’s at the core of this model,” said Hoffman. “Some of these folks are here (in an emergency situation) for reasons, whether that may be they have mental health issues that aren’t being addressed, or maybe they have some substance abuse issues that have resurfaced due to stress. What we’re seeing is that all these folks want to address those issues, but when they don’t know where they are going to be living next week or next month, that’s not a priority for them.”
The goal of the La Crosse Area Family Collaborative in the next couple of years is to monitor the impact the program has on child welfare referrals, juvenile arrests and youth behavior and mental healthcare emergencies. Witt said they are hoping child protective services cases which have been on a meteoric rise will actually drop by 10 percent.
by John Davis
Episode Credits
- John Gaddo Host
- John Davis Producer
- Jason Witt Guest
- Jason Larsen Guest
- Isaac Hoffman Guest
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