The LSS Social Service Diaries

Nicki Patnaude works in the LSS Oh No Eighteen (ONE) Program in Duluth. The ONE Program is an independent living skills program for youth aged 16-20. ONE provides services in Duluth, Hibbing and Virginia. She has been a group facilitator for the program for three years, and volunteered for the program for three years before becoming a paid staff member.

As part of my current position, I am a supportive adult leader for the Duluth Youth Leadership Council. The council is comprised of young adults who are either currently in foster care or have aged out of placement. The council has been meeting since October 2007. The council works to educate people about what it is like to be in the foster care system, how difficult it can be to leave care at the age of 18, take action to improve the foster care system, and create support and services for other youth in care. The council will eventually complete a variety of projects ranging from making an information packet for youth entering the system to speaking to social workers, county officials, and state legislatures.

It has been a rough start to this council. While I was personally ecstatic to start this group, and recruited a good group of youth who I believed would work to make a positive change, it has not been without its share of problems. The council started pretty small, comprised of only five members. This council is one of three in the state and I was told I should try to boost my numbers in any way possible. When I told my council this, I sent them home with the assignment of bringing a friend to group. By the end of December, the Duluth YLC was up to eight youth.

January brought about training for all three of the Youth Leadership Councils across the state for a weekend in Bloomington. The training was to help the youth develop a group identity as a state, work out a statewide mission statement, and set the standard for other councils in the future. While at the training, I met with the other leaders to discuss some of the difficulties I was having. The youth in the council are supposed to run bi-monthly groups themselves. My role was designed to help point them in the right direction, if need be, but let them make the decisions on their own. However, because most of the youth have participated in other groups with me, it has been hard for them to see me as only a supporter and not as a group facilitator. The advice I received at the training was to leave the table—remove myself from the situation and see if they fly.

Heading home, I was conflicted about whether or not this would really work. I was nervous, but my co-worker and helper for this group assured me it would, most likely, be the best for them to take ownership of this group. Since the training, the council has met twice. Both meetings have been dreadful. Only five members of the council were able to attend the training and were assigned to update the other members at our first meeting. With me not in the room, the youth had a difficult time getting their points across and relaying what happened at the training. The other meeting was equally as tough. Once I left the room, the youth were off-task and did not accomplish much of anything. After the meeting, many members came up to me on an individual basis to discuss concerns they had. While this is part of my role, I also have to encourage the members to confront each other on the issue, hold each other accountable for their actions and decisions.

Going into our next meeting, I am really conflicted. Should I take some control and help the group get on track or should I let them figure it out for themselves? Should youth be paid for the work they actually do or on the basis of attendance but not participation? What am I so afraid of when it comes to this group—the potential failure of the group or the failure as a supportive adult? It hasn’t been an easy transition from the facilitator to the supportive adult for me either. I would like to let them figure it out and make it work for themselves, but I know that the group is becoming increasingly frustrated with one another, and this frustration may lead members to leave the group. Every situation cannot end with a happy ending, however, is it possible that this group cannot work together right now? Might it be the wrong place and wrong time? Either way, our next meeting will surely be interesting.

Lisa Borja is the housing administrative specialist and a case manager for LSS Housing Services in the Twin Cities. She serves as the contact person for those seeking information about housing services or making donations, and also works with housing clients. Lisa is working toward a Masters degree in counseling psychology.

Question: How many social workers does it take to change a light bulb? Answer: Five – one to facilitate the change, one to consult about the change, one to search for bulb resources, one to document the change, and one to report the change to the government.

Ok, so it may not be that funny, but for the purpose of describing what I do at LSS, this “social worker” joke fits just fine. I provide case management and family support services – a kind of social work – for the formerly homeless families in the LSS Rental Subsidy Program (RSP). This program offers 25 families financial assistance that pays 70% of their rent. It is a program like Section 8, but the rent payments are distributed by us. RSP goals are to help families stabilize in themselves in housing and prevent further episodes of homelessness. After a few years, families need to transition into permanent housing by becoming self-sufficient or securing a permanent subsidy.

Because my position is part-time, I usually only have time to be the point of contact when clients need to move, work on goals for transitioning, or need help securing resources like diapers, clothes, furniture or food. Of course, there are times that what I do fits into the “other duties as assigned” category, such as when two of my families wanted to break their leases and move for different reasons. Then there remains that handful of clients that are like characters in a story, elusive and unreachable by phone, email, or letter. I look at their files every now and then and wonder when they’ll materialize – or maybe I should say “if” they materialize.

Other times, I sit at my desk and wonder what I can do for the families in my program that they can’t do for themselves. We’re a strengths-based program, which means I never do something for a family that they are capable of doing themselves. Maybe you noticed in the joke above that none of the five social workers actually changed the bulb? That’s what I think it means to help a family. I may need to make a call or write a letter now and then for referrals or the like, but these families have a lot of life experience. They know how to ride the waves of having and not-having. So the question becomes not, “What can they do?” but rather, “What can’t they do?”   

Which brings me back to, “What can I do?” Fortunately, I have discovered one answer to that. In working with several RSP tenants, there can be so many complicated issues involved. “I took my child to the doctor and I don’t have any money left.” “My property management company hasn’t responded to my calls.” “This neighborhood doesn’t feel safe.” “I can’t pay my bill and they’re going to shut off my water.” For every concern, I should have had at least one answer, right? Well, I didn’t exactly. I had an answer, to be sure, but it was the same one every time: Let me check on that and get back to you.

Which is what I have to do sometimes. Ok, most of the time. Luckily for me, there are a lot of people in my office that know more than I do. Eventually, I found a better answer for every one of these questions. It involved a lot of policy checking and coworker consulting, Internet research and even a visit to the water company. Sometimes, all I can come up with is a suggestion, not a solution, and these families know that a suggestion doesn’t turn your furnace on. You can’t pay a bill with a suggestion.

When all else fails, and there isn’t even a suggestion in sight, I just listen. It is inevitable that clients will sometimes call with concerns that I am unable to help them with, and I will only be able to tell them their concern is valid and let them know I am listening. Most of the time, it hasn’t quite been enough, but I can remember one time when a client called, and I listened, and she did feel better by the end of our conversation. And so did I, not because I “solved” anything, because I didn’t. Maybe we felt better just because I tried.

Nicki Patnaude works in the LSS Oh No Eighteen (ONE) Program in Duluth. The ONE Program is an independent living skills program for youth aged 16-20. ONE provides services in Duluth, Hibbing and Virginia. She has been a group facilitator for the program for three years, and volunteered for the program for three years before becoming a paid staff member.

Wow! Didn’t summer just fly by!  Now we are into fall (or fall-like weather in Duluth at least) and the excitement is building in the Oh No Eighteen (ONE) office.  In my last entry, I discussed a difficult group I was working with.  To make a long story short, my co-facilitator, Amanda, and I worked out the minor problems with behavior and we proceeded to have a great summer getting to know the youth and teaching them the valuable independent living skills they will need to survive when they enter the adult world.  Also this summer, we started and completed a short, condensed version of our normal programming for a group in Carlton County.  We worked with four fabulous youth for three months, again, building the independent living skills for their bright futures.

The month of September has proven to be a month of change for our program.  Not only did both our Cloquet (Carlton County) and Duluth groups graduate, we lost a staff member, hired a new one, and added a new element to our program.  Having just completed her master’s degree in social work, a co-worker needed to make a tough decision about what she was going to do in her future.  Unfortunately, it did not work out in our favor to have her stick around with us.  (Since she may still be reading this, good luck and we miss you!)  Recently, we have hired a new member to our program.  Although she has a lot to learn, she is making great progress in learning about our program and our youth.

I’m still pursuing my bachelor’s degree in social work while I work with LSS.  I am proud to say I survived my junior year in the social work program and have recently started my senior year.  This year, I am to complete an internship in the field.  I did not want to leave my position at LSS to seek an internship because I love what I do and the youth I work with on a daily basis.  Fortunately, our program was selected from the state to add a part-time staff member to create the Duluth Youth Leadership Council (more on what this is will appear later).  As I worked part-time before and needed a part-time internship to go along with my schooling, I was very fortunate to be able to take on the new position in my program and use this towards my internship—a paid internship!  I am looking forward to what this year holds in store for me and am excited to begin the new group in our program.

For my new and improved position, I will be in charge of starting a Youth Leadership Council for the Duluth area.  The council will be comprised of young adults who are either currently in foster care or have aged out of placement.  The council will educate people about what it is like to be in the foster care system, how difficult it can be to leave care at the age of 18, take action to improve the foster care system, and take action to create support and services for other youth in care.  The council can complete a variety of projects ranging from making an information packet for youth entering the system to speaking to social workers, county officials, and state legislatures.  The youth participating will run the bi-monthly group themselves.  Basically, my role will be that of a supportive adult member.  I can help point them in the right direction, if need be, otherwise I will allow them to make the decisions on their own.  Youth will receive a stipend for every meeting they attend.

This position excites me because I will be working to empower the youth to advocate for themselves and improve a system that impacts or impacted their daily lives.  It will not be up to me to explain what it is like in care, rather the youth who are experiencing the system or have in the past.  The group is scheduled to start in the middle of October.  I have been in contact with some great youth who I feel would make the most out of this experience.  I look forward to what they will be planning and will update with their status as soon as it begins.

Through my experiences, I’ve learned that change is inevitable.  It has the potential to be good or bad, depending on how you look at it.  Although the loss of a great co-worker can weigh things down, the hiring of new staff and the addition of new group have helped to make this time of change exciting and fun.  I’m learning a lot about myself and about the youth that I work for.  Though the summer and the month of September have flown by, the excitement I experience with my program and where it is headed has made work very enjoyable.

Lisa Borja is a housing administrative specialist and a case manager for LSS Housing Services in the Twin Cities. She serves as the contact person for those looking for housing services or making donations, and also works with housing clients. Lisa is working toward a Masters degree in counseling psychology.

As someone fairly new and part-time as a family support specialist, I sometimes feel under-qualified to speak about what the position is really like. I’ve seen my coworkers keep up with dozens of families and live amongst piles of client paperwork when they’re not out on home visits throughout the metro area. I’ve heard them spout phone numbers off the top of their heads for various resources.

Those collective years of experience – which always include multiple trips to Century Plaza (Hennepin County emergency and general assistance), as many work hours on the phone as I’ve spent on it in my lifetime, and a national forest’s worth of case notes and Map Quest printouts – contribute a lot to the bigger picture of what it’s really like to support families who use our services.

On the other hand, I do have a kind of luxury of leaning back now and then – figuratively, of course – to study the process of working with a family experiencing homelessness. I remember when I first started and my coworker told me she had “the perfect client” to pass along to me. It was the start of what would likely be a year-long commitment to this ambiguous process of, well, ultimately just trying to be helpful.

I was grateful that this family agreed to switch gears and start working with me. I didn’t know what I could do for them, so I prepared myself to listen a lot. When I met with the family over pizza one night, I heard from the younger of the two daughters that she had straight A’s in school. Her older sister was also doing well in school and loved to draw. The single mom of the family had been through a lot in her 30-something years. From domestic abuse to medical issues and ultimately many losses, here she sat with me over pizza as we started this new working relationship.

Our job together in many ways was quite simple: to figure some things out that might make her family’s life go a little more smoothly. To keep within the structure of the housing program we offer. To wade through an often disjointed and isolated array of resources offered by government agencies, private agencies, non-profits, and even private individuals. Sometimes, I have to ask my client questions about where people go to get what they need. I see the helping relationship as going both ways.

In the business of family support, it seems that what you don’t know can hurt you. It’s a tricky mix of providing a service that you know your client needs (such as housing) and listening for clues as to what else might be helpful. I’m sure many families have a huge variety of needs. Do they need a car? Is the neighborhood they’re applying to live in safe and supportive? Do the kids need someone to talk to? Should I suggest budget counseling? What exactly should I do, and what can I encourage my client and her family to do for themselves?

Even though I’ve been at this for months now, I still worry that I’m missing something.  I rely a lot on the expertise of others and continue to be impressed at how new information pops up all the time. Just this week, I heard about an alternative for families who need help paying utility bills. I’ve already memorized the phone number. Just in case.
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Nicki Patnaude works in the LSS Oh No Eighteen (ONE) Program in Duluth. The ONE Program is an independent living skills program for youth aged 16-20. ONE provides services in Duluth, Hibbing and Virginia. She has been a group facilitator for the program for two years, and volunteered for the program for three years before becoming a paid staff member.

The past two weeks have been crazy!  I work part-time with LSS and I’m also a full-time student pursuing my bachelor’s degree in social work.  Not only do I have to balance it all, so much of what I am learning applies to my daily work, which makes it hard to keep it all straight sometimes!

My program, the ONE Program, is an independent living skills program that facilitates two 20-week sessions per year.  The group of youth who start the group typically end the group together.  Recently, we started a group in April, and have been meeting on Wednesdays since then.  During the early stages of a group, my co-facilitator and two peer facilitators and I work hard establishing healthy relationships with the youth in order to help them have positive relationships with adults.  We feel that it helps them to further understand the skills they learn because it is a safe and fun environment.

Last week, not only did I have three class presentations, but sandwiched in between was group night.  With classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays, Wednesdays have become a great outlet for me in between two long days.  This week was supposed to be especially fun because we were playing “Employment Jeopardy” at group.  We have a particularly interesting group.  A majority of the group are boys, and if any of you know what a group of teenage boys are like, it can present interesting challenges for two female facilitators!

As group started, I knew we were in for an interesting evening.  Our boys (and one female for the evening) came in fired-up that night.  By this, I do not necessarily mean they were excited for our topic, but rather they were ready for a good time, however they were to accomplish this.  Throughout the night, it became apparent that the boys were hyper and not necessarily interested in playing our jeopardy.  During our activities and our breaks, they were antsy, disinterested, and running throughout the meeting space and outside, creating some problems.  Since we focus on respect of themselves, each other, and the environment we meet in, it was clear that some rules were not being followed.

The youth who come into to our groups are considered “at risk.”  They are all currently in long-term care, whether it be a foster home, group home, or residential treatment of some form.  Many of the youth have a form of mental illness, such as ADHD, Autism, Asperger’s Syndrome, Bi-Polar, or OCD.  With the population we serve, the “unruly” behavior I’m describing can be a common problem, particularly toward the end of our summer session, but I think I am just surprised it surfaced so early.

Leaving group, I felt frustrated about how the evening went, but it wasn’t completely surprising because these sorts of issues have been building up progressively since the beginning.  This group of youth has known each other previously, and it creates an certain dynamic in the group experience.  Now, my co-facilitator and I could either be really frustrated and upset about what happened, or we could realize that we need to find a way to manage a large group of hyperactive teenagers.  Getting frustrated wouldn’t make us feel any better, so option two was the path to choose.

This week, we are meeting with our program manager to determine some ways to reach these youth and make the most impact.  Will we split the group into smaller sections in order to manage the chaos that can erupt?  Will we need to start at square one, figure out what the youth want and how we can most effectively meet their needs?  Is there a creative new solution?  No one is sure at this moment, but we know something needs to happen.  Whatever it is, I will let you know soon what we did, and whether it worked!