“I’m disappointed” – Workers at Arrowhead Youth and Family Services react to news of closing
Arrowhead Youth and Family Services has been a destination for youth services for almost 80 years, but now it’s set to shut down its residential program next month.
State funding is no longer enough for a local youth services non profit organization to run its full operation. The nonprofit was created to serve at-risk youth with counseling and social services.
“Some of the youth that we have are from DCFS,” Dr. Luis Moreno, CEO for Arrowhead Ranch, said. “Some of these kids are actually homeless. Their foster parents have given them up. Almost every facility in Illinois has been maxed out with the number of beds they have. Even when we try to move a youth, there’s a long waiting period because there are no open beds at other facilities.”
Moreno says he’ll miss all of the kids that have been changed in a positive way by the youth services Arrowhead provided. Even kids that had no one else to turn to. “We have kids that were placed here on an emergency basis because they had no place to live,” Moreno said. “Technically they had to stay at a DCFS office.”
An Arrowhead worker says this is a big blow to youth who need help. “I’m disappointed,” Harry Cribbs, a Behavioral Health Specialist, said. “It’s not a job that everyone wants to do, but something that everyone needs to do, because that’s what our community is going to look like.”
Moreno says the Family First Prevention Services Act that was signed into Illinois law a few years ago was one of the major factors regarding the closure. Illinois required moderate youth cases to be at home, while Arrowhead took on more severe youth cases because of the act. “Where we were built for moderate youth, we are now seeing almost exclusively the severe kids,” Moreno said. “That increased the number of staff needed to run this organization.”
Despite funding and staffing issues, workers looked back on their time working at the facility in a positive light. “Helping those hardcore youth,” Cribbs said. “Open their eyes to some other options, and it doesn’t have to be a big step, it’s just seeing that its’s getting through. It doesn’t happen a lot, but it does happen. You can’t reach everyone, but you can reach out to everyone.”
Some youth services workers at Arrowhead haven’t applied for new jobs in decades, but that isn’t stopping them from doing what they love. “Things go on, we’re going to keep working with the youth,” Cribbs said. “Working with adults, it’s what we do. It’s in my DNA.”
The official closing date for the facility in Coal Valley is April 23.
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