Monroe Harding

The impact of COVID-19 on the Monroe Harding community highlights both immediate and longer-term needs including basics like food and health supplies, virtual education and career readiness training, and ongoing support for youth and families displaced from their jobs or impacted by economic hardship. Our number one priority is the health and well-being of our young people, families, staff, volunteers, and partners. To help prevent the spread of COVID-19 we temporarily closed our offices in March, including our Youth Connections Resource Center and Opportunity Now Reengagement Hub in downtown Nashville. Our offices will remain closed in May. While our physical locations are closed, our staff is working hard to support our families and young people: • Foster Care: We continue to place children with foster parents. Staff are providing resources and guidance virtually to the greatest extent possible. We are licensing and approving new foster families during this time to meet the needs of the Child Welfare System. We have added 5 new families during the last quarter, three of which we began serving during this epidemic. We have also added five new foster youth and assisted four youth to permanency. Our stellar foster parents continue to work tirelessly nurturing and helping our youth to heal. They are feverishly completing training hours virtually to stay current and educated on issues facing youth. • Supportive Housing: Young people remain in desperate need of housing. In the past six weeks, we’ve provided homes to four new youth, while also supporting existing residents as they cope with the stress of job loss or reduced hours, remote learning, mental health, and isolation. • Youth Connections / Opportunity Now Reengagement Hub: We continue to engage our young adults virtually, connecting them to necessary resources and promoting personal safety and self-care. We have supported 114 unique individuals since mid-March.  Clinical Services: Critical emotional and mental health services are primarily being provided virtually. Our community partners have been able to see some of our clients on a limited basis depending on their needs and servids. Through our Youth Connections Resource Center, we have counseled/served 66 unique, new young adults over the past 3 weeks alone, after serving a total of 76 the first 2.5 months of this year prior to the pandemic. Our therapist has attended each virtual Opportunity Passport financial literacy class (3 OP classes in total) and facilitated sessions on coping skills during the pandemic. 25 individuals have received clinical services through those classes.

Cindy experienced physical and emotional abuse from an ex-boyfriend, a couple of miscarriages, and was asked to testify in court after having been a victim of an aggravated robbery. Through VOCA funding, she was provided with free housing and utilities. Since the client was pregnant when she arrived, her time in the program was limited. The VOCA Case Manager worked with her to identify and apply for other housing options to prepare her for the transition. Having a safe place to live and a more stable routine, she was able to obtain and maintain employment. The VOCA therapist worked with the client to develop coping skills to lower anxiety, maintain sobriety, and gain self-confidence. In addition, while waiting for other housing options to become available, the therapist worked with the client and her grandmother to develop a positive relationship and overcome conflict for the grandmother to be a supportive, temporary housing option for her. The client was able to transition to her grandmother's home and had her baby without additional complications. One of the clients was in the foster care system, had experienced sexual and emotional abuse from her parents (both at a young age and within a month of arriving to the program), and mistreatment from other caregivers. Through VOCA funding, Michelle was provided with staff to accompany her for a forensic examination, resources to report the victimization as well as accompaniment, free housing, and utilities. Due to past experiences, she struggled with healthy boundaries and positive relationships with others. Through a trauma-informed care approach and mediations, she was able to develop safe and supportive relationships with VOCA staff, including individual outings with the Skills Coach. The VOCA therapist worked with her on processing her trauma and understanding/managing emotions, coping with depression, and building healthy relationships. VOCA allowed for resources to complete art projects and through these activities, she was able to find a creative and healthy outlet for managing her stress and expressing herself. By having a stable environment, she has been attending college at TSU to be a social worker, without having the additional stressors of rent and a lack of support system around her.

DiNozzo was initially placed with two female foster parents in a Monroe Harding foster home in 2016. He was a shy boy, who did not attempt to make friends, and often felt that others were laughing at him. DiNozzo often said that he would like to be adopted, but he was unable to express what he wanted in an adoptive family. As months went by, DiNozzo began actively participating in therapy sessions weekly, receiving medication evaluations by a psychiatrist monthly, and meeting with his Monroe Harding caseworker regularly. DiNozzo finally found the courage to say, “I want a mother and a father.” Dinozzo said that there were things a male parent could teach him that a female parent could not. He stated that, “different changes only a man can answer questions about or relate to” and “having a father around is something I’ve always wanted, but I’ve never had.” In November 2018, a pre-adoptive family was identified for DiNozzo. When he learned that he was going to join the family, DiNozzo because so excited that he started dancing. DiNozzo called his Monroe Harding case worker to thank her for finding a family for him. After moving in, DiNozzo repeatedly confirmed, “They are everything I want and need in a family.” In eight short months with the family, DiNozzo was able to discontinue his psychotropic medications, be successfully discharged from therapy, join the football team at school, and become a member of the school’s traveling chorus. He even sang a solo at a chorus performance. In July 2019, DiNozzo was adopted by his foster family. DiNozzo smiled proudly at the adoption ceremony, knowing that after 998 days in DCS custody he had finally joined the forever family for which he had hoped and prayed. Mr. and Mrs. Clark said, “DiNozzo has been our son since we met him, but today it’s official.”

Jayden came from a birth home in which the adults around him were abusing drugs and committing crimes. At 11 years of age, when he entered a Monroe Harding foster home, Jayden was wise beyond his years in ‘street smarts.’ By age 13, much had changed in Jayden’s life. He learned the value of teamwork. He became a member of the football team at his middle school. Jayden began to enjoy church services, too. He was reluctant to go to church at first, but the youth pastor became a mentor for him. Jayden grew into the respectful, happy, successful, and confident young man he was meant to be.

Lorena's story is just one example of the impact MH is making. Lorena was 10 when she was adopted from Bogota, Columbia and came to live in the U.S. "I had already experienced and seen stuff that a kid should never have to see or live through." Without healing for the trauma she experienced, Lorena began exhibiting behavioral issues that resulted in foster care placement. She came to YC after dropping out of high school. "I went to Miss Chaney, the teacher at YC, to see if she would help me study for the HiSET. The tests were hard, but Miss Chaney continued to encourage me and I took advantage of her knowledge. I passed the test! I also participate in OP. It's one of the many tools that youth like me have the privilege to take advantage of. It teaches us how to build financial stability and motivates us to save money. I graduated from Cosmetology school in 2017 and I have recently started college at TSU. My goal is to study business and open a salon where I can pay for other youth like me to go to school and train at my salon."