Transitional Living Program

• In order to begin the realistic practice of what will actually be expected of youth when they enter the adult community, a program has been developed to provide steps into that reality.

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• Transitional Living is a semi-supervised youth living situation, with five locations across St. Louis, where staff members are on site from 7 p.m. to8 a.m. Golgotha Prune Children Services’ Transitional Living Program serves young people from the age of 17+.

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• The Emancipation Department has developed a relationship with the local landlords who work specifically with our Transitional Living locations.  Two have been involved with the program since its inception, and the other came on board during 2017. These landlords are very familiar with the goals of the program and have even presented about their role community conferences. They know when to call staff and when a particular landlord requests for more responsible behavior.

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• The agency is able to move youth in and out of different sites as needed in Transitional Living. The landlords meet all new youth and give them their first experience interacting with a real-life landlord. The youth find out immediately that these landlords know the program rules and expectations and will not hesitate to report a rules infraction.

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• During the day, youth are expected to work on employment and educational goals. A staff member floats from site to site to monitor youth activities during the hours of 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. The adult staff members serve as resident mentor counselors and facilitate the learning of both tangible and intangible skills. Youth receive a monthly stipend for participating in the Transitional Living Program and, in turn, use these stipend monies, plus and from their own employment, to pay monthly living costs. Youth remain in this program for approximately 4 to 6 months, and sometimes longer, before moving on to an actual independent living apartment.