The town became instantly famous, with kids searching for the utopia lifestyle. The town became famous to young youth everywhere. The town that was once quiet was now overgrown with young youth sleeping on benches, people now hitchhiking in and out of the town, and also seeking food and clothing.
One woman realized all there was a problem and opened her home and phone line to them. The Family of Woodstock still has the same telephone number that Ms. Varies has always had. The woman’s name was Gail Varies, and with the help of the rest of town she organized food drives and clothing exchanges. This is where Family of Woodstock, Inc. Originated from. The ways the Family of Woodstock specialized to meet the needs of the community In earlier years the Family of Woodstock helped meet the needs of the community by coming together and providing shelter, clothes, food, and phone nines to those traveling through or homeless.
Today, the Family of Woodstock specializes in many different services from domestic violence shelter, a teen runaway shelter, several homeless shelters, several walk-in centers and case management services for adults and adolescents. These are just some of the different services that are provided by the Family Woodstock. Many of the youth that the agency was working with were 18 years old and were deemed adults in society, but they were not prepared to live in the world independently. Family of Woodstock prepared them and helped guide them in the direction they needed to venture.
The Family of Woodstock was not always faced with runaways, but young adults who became homeless due to domestic violence, sexual assault in their homes. Some of these young adults had parents who were unable to care for them anymore due to financial restraints, substance abuse, incarceration, and some of the young adults just wound up with nowhere to go. How have the values, attitudes, and beliefs of this organization developed and changed over a 40-year period, and how have these changes affected the way hey deliver services?
The Family of Woodstock went from helping teens who were runaways and homeless due to their situations, to now dealing with young adults and children who come from divorces and “blended families. ” In the offs when divorces became more of the norm, more children and young adults were leaving home, because they felt the younger, newer siblings were replacing them. Also some of these blended families still had the same problems that were faced before, domestic violence, sexual assault, and financial restraints.
There are now Midway Programs open in Lenitive, New York and also Kingston, New York. Both these Midway programs are run by the Family of Woodstock, and provide the same services. These two homes have six adolescents each, ranging from ages 16-20. They are provided with the chance to earn their GEED and also further their education to college. These adolescents are taught daily living responsibilities, daily living expenses, how to live in a co-deed home, and also to live in the world as an active member of society.
There have been many changes made to the Family f Woodstock agency due to growing population, word of mouth, and also changes in society. How has specialization become a trend across human services delivery, in general? The Family of Woodstock I think opened many doors for the human services population to have more programs readily available to those in need. Also society is more open to wanting to help and sees that we have a large problem of homeless people and also homeless youth.
With agencies such as Family of Woodstock, there is a place provided to help those who have aged out of foster are, these agencies do not just hand the homeless adolescents money or food, and not expect something in return. The Family of Woodstock and other agencies want to see that these people are using these resources as a tool to better themselves, and also finding a way to eventually not rely on the resources to live.
