Graduate Research Papers
Availability
Open Access Graduate Research Paper
Abstract
Youth shelters provide temporary care to children who may have been a runaway, homeless, or had problems at home. They may have been physically, emotionally, or sexually abused. Some children admitted to a youth shelter have committed law violations, and others may be waiting for treatment or discharged from a program and have no immediate place to reside.
The purpose of this study was to profile the demographics of all children admitted to the Black Hawk County Youth Shelter for each of the years 1989 through 1994. Files of the 1187 children admitted to the shelter were exmained. Data were collected from the intake forms and discharge notes of each child's file to answer these four categories of questions: How many admissions to the Black Hawk County Youth Shelter? Who are the children? How long were children remaining at the shelter? Where did the children go after leaving the shelter.
This study reported that the Iowa Department of Human Services referred 52 % of all admissions to the shelter. Shelter children average 14 years and 10 months of age, 67% were males, and 71 % of those receiving shelter care were Caucasian. The length of stay of admissions from 1 to 4 days was 26% of the total, and 23% of all admissions stayed in shelter care over 30 days. Home, was the prior residence of 37% of all admissions to the shelter, and 21 % of all admissions had a status of runaway. When discharged from the shelter, 35% of admissions were placed at home, 27% were discharged to foster homes or group/residential programs, 20% ran away from the shelter, and 8% were placed in the detention center.
The results of this study provides a profile of children admitted to the Black Hawk County Youth Shelter. The information can be used towards the development of shelter programming, fundraising, and staff education to support children.
Year of Submission
1996
Degree Name
Master of Arts
Department
School of Health, Physical Education, and Leisure Services
Date Original
1996
Object Description
1 PDF file (68 pages)
Copyright
©1996 Russell Grimm
Language
en
Recommended Citation
Grimm, Russell, "Who Are the Children?" (1996). Graduate Research Papers. 4400.
https://scholarworks.uni.edu/grp/4400
Comments
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