KidsTLC recently received a grant for $5,000 from the Flo Harris Foundation to support the Street Outreach Services (SOS) Homeless Intervention Program.
KidsTLC’s Street Outreach Services (SOS) program provides transitional aged youth (ages 16-24) as well as homeless, runaway, and at risk youth with a high level of support, as well as connections to other critical community services. SOS reaches out to youth through local school districts’ McKinney Vento liaisons as well as via a 24-hour crisis line and strategic partnerships with other youth serving agencies. Staff engage youth by providing survival aid, transportation, and life skills education with a primary goal to get any youth who needs it into permanent and rapid re-housing, or refer them on to shelter and transitional living programs as appropriate. The program strategically focuses on building trusting relationships with potential clients and providing current clients with wrap around support including case management, educational supports to earn a GED and/or be ready for college, employment support and job readiness training, financial literacy, mental health support, and rapid re-housing. KidsTLC's SOS program is the only program of its kind providing these types of services in Johnson County, Kansas, making it an essential resource for the county.