Milford's Host Home Program

Milford has a number of social service programs that are designed to help out people with problems of various types. One great program that I have been involved with on a few occasions is the host homes program.

The purpose of the program is to provide short-term crisis intervention for adolescents and their families when they are experiencing stress of some type. The method of intervention is to have the adolescent stay with a non-involved local family for a short period of time to try to ease the stress levels. There are many different situations that lead to a crisis, but the program allows the adolescent to stay in a safe environment while the problems are being addressed.

There are three points to keep in mind about this program

1. Learn about the program and what it offers. More details on the program can be found here. You never know when you will have an occasion where the program might help out a situation. If you know of an adolescent with problems, then recommend the program to them or to their parents or guardians.

2. Consider volunteering to be a host homes family. They are always looking to have more families set up to accept placements. They try to match the adolescent with a family that is compatible, and having more families in the program helps to provide various situations that offer different environments from which to choose.

Also, there are some families that have hosted a larger portion of the placements in the program. Having more families in the program helps to spread the load around. There are no hard and fast rules as to how many placements you will handle if you sign up to be a host home. It is entirely up to you. If you can do one placement every year or two, then that is great. If you can do more, then that is good too.

There is a qualification process that you need to go through if you want to be a host home. This is to insure the adolescent is being placed in a safe and suitable environment.

Mary Pat Jackson is the program coordinator, and she does a great job. Contact her if you have any questions of any type.

3. Consider making a donation if you can, as they always need more money to help out with situations.