“You just don’t know what’s going on behind closed doors—we need to go back to having stronger community—and always, always just be kind.”
- Susan Weaver, Children Who Witness Violence Program Manager
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The great moments happen when a caller agrees to receiving some form of help.
– Sabrina Kohls, Crisis Intervention Specialist
Allison was concerned when she saw her brother, Brandon, start making risky decisions and claim to have stopped taking his medication; he seemed to be hypervigilant and getting paranoid. She’d seen this happen before, and she remembered where it was usually headed – either with Brandon in the hospital or jail, or cycling for months through unmanaged symptoms struggling to get back to baseline. He’d attempted to take his own life before, and she was getting scared. In any event, these patterns almost always led to long-lasting consequences for Brandon. She decided to reach out to FrontLine Service’s Mobile Crisis Team to request someone call and check in on him.
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“Those in the public who have privilege should use it in the service of those without such privilege, and support community leaders and social policies that will address social determinants of mental health.” - FrontLine Service Clinic Team
Donivan was in his late 20s and had hit a wall when it came to dealing with his symptoms of mental illness while also trying to find his path out of homelessness. Because of his circumstances and the nature of his symptoms, Donivan was experiencing many obstacles to initiating or maintaining treatment but wanted to find ways of bringing his symptoms to a more manageable level and establishing a more stable, secure, and improved quality of life. This turning point eventually brought him through the doors of FrontLine Service’s Integrated Care Clinic for the first time.
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Cleveland Mediation Center (CMC) begins a new chapter as an independent nonprofit organization this month, legally separating from FrontLine Service. We celebrate this tremendous accomplishment, which took over a year of diligent work and collaboration.
The CMC is a community mediation center that has been resolving disputes and training community members in conflict resolution and mediation for more than 40 years. Founded in June 1981 as the Community Youth Mediation Program (CYMP), the primary focus was on at-risk youth. But the organization’s surveys revealed the at-risk youth overwhelmingly faced issues caused by homelessness and expanded their efforts to address those challenges. The organization began working with community partners in the early 1990s to prevent homelessness and began receiving funding to mediate eviction cases.
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“So many times our children are just talked to and not talked with, and we are talking with them, listening to them and holding everyone else in their world accountable to helping them and I’m really proud of that,”
- Iris Goins, Supporting Children-TST Family Engagement Specialist.
FrontLine Service takes the old adage “it takes a village to raise a child” literally, with many of our programs geared toward crisis and trauma support for children. FrontLine’s Supporting Children-TST program takes a multi-faceted approach to process everything happening simultaneously to children in their community.
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Parents are always thinking of their children: how to feed, clothe, teach, and comfort them. That pressure exponentially increases when you are also fleeing from an abusive partner with no support system.
Jess needs somewhere to stay after living out of her car with her three children. The seats make uncomfortable beds, and she can only keep the heat running for so long before her battery runs out. It’s difficult to feel safe in a parking lot or garage, but it feels much safer to her than living another night with her abusive partner.
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On a bright but frigid Thursday afternoon, residents at Harper’s Pointe, a Permanent Supportive Housing (PSH) site, gather in the community room to begin their monthly art workshop. Art instructor and local professional artist, Guy Vincent, introduces the activity of decorating small paper craft boxes, offering coloring supplies, old magazines, glue, and scissors to decorate the boxes however they like.
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The road to mental health recovery is not a straight line. It takes many twists and turns, with success looking different for every person. When an individual’s condition changes, FrontLine staff do not give up but look for additional ways to support those who are struggling.
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David considered the end of his 30-year prison sentence a starting line rather than a finish line.
After his release, David struggled to live in a world he hadn't seen in decades. He felt completely lost filling out online applications for jobs and housing and navigating the Internet and smartphones. However, he felt determined to rebuild his life after incarceration without relying on others.
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How do you find someone who needs help but has no address or consistent phone number and experiences severe symptoms of mental illness?
Randy, who had been unhoused for seven years, usually stayed at Public Square or by the tracks near West 25th Street. He was often nonverbal, he moved frequently, and he experienced hallucinations, delusions, depression, and mania.
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“When they come through the door, in that moment, there is so much going on in their life that is all jumbled up in their head… you really don’t know where to start. North Point is where you can start over and find direction again.”
-Treveya Franklin, North Point Operations Manager
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“I want better for them than I had.”
—Diane, mother of four
Ask any parent and they will tell you how hard it is to keep your children happy and healthy. But what happens when you don’t have a home to raise them in, or when you suffer from mental illness?
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“With employment people think about money, but that’s never the main motivator for our clients—it’s about being part of the community.”
Samantha McKenzie Program Manager, Supported Employment
We tend to think of employment as a paycheck—but for most of us, it means more. Employment provides belonging and a sense of contributing to society. For people with histories of homelessness, extensive trauma, and mental illness, employment can also promote recovery and stability.
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When someone is discharged from the hospital after attempting suicide, the first 24 hours can be the most vulnerable. The next twelve months can also be a period of elevated risk. Research consistently demonstrates that follow-up services after an Emergency Department visit or inpatient stay are critical to reducing deaths by suicide. While Cuyahoga County boasts one of the most robust healthcare networks in the country, until recently, there was no program in place to support children and adults during this vulnerable time.
In 2020, with support from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, FrontLine Service launched Hope-Link, a program dedicated to supporting children and adults during the first year following an attempted or significant thoughts of suicide. FrontLine modeled Hope-Link after two successful pilot projects the agency ran in 2010 and 2017 in partnership with the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline and the Ohio Suicide Prevention Foundation, respectively.
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“A lot of clients who come in are a bit isolated. Everybody is here for different reasons, but they are all here for help. Here, they talk with each other in a safe, supportive environment and find that they’re not alone in their struggles.”
— Kara Poth, Associate Director of Crisis Services, Stricklin Crisis Stabilization Unit.
The Stricklin Crisis Stabilization Unit (CSU), located on the west side of Cleveland, is a 15-bed, short-term treatment facility for those experiencing a behavioral health crisis. It is a voluntary program for adults who don’t require hospital admission but need a higher level of services to stabilize. The average stay lasts approximately 7 days.
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In three days, Miss Z, a transgender woman, was going to be homeless. She’d been living in a hotel since losing her home six months earlier, but her savings were almost gone, and she could only afford three more nights.
A local social service provider had been working with Miss Z, but believed Miss Z might have experienced harassment (like many in the LGBTQ+ community) that made it difficult to trust traditional providers. So, they referred Miss Z to FrontLine’s LGBTQI+ Shelter Diversion Specialist, Cassadi Hanley.
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Before the sun was up, even though her shift wasn’t starting for hours, Kathy traveled to the scene of a homicide. Police had called FrontLine to assist a five-year-old and a seven-year-old at the scene who had witnessed the tragedy. Kathy spent hours with them in the back of a police car and at the hospital, keeping them safe and occupied. She was a calm, comforting presence at their worst moment.
Kathy is a member of FrontLine Service’s Traumatic Loss Response Team (TLRT). Since 2008, TLRT has helped Cuyahoga County families navigate the sudden loss of a loved one to homicide, suicide, or other traumatic event. Licensed clinicians, available 24/7, travel to wherever families need them to provide immediate support after a traumatic loss. The children Kathy supported are among the more than 1,000 individuals TLRT served in 2022.
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Just as your lunch break is needed to get through the rest of your day, bi-weekly meetings from the Black Resiliency group help our Black staff get through theirs.
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If you have ever walked by someone lying on a grate on your way to a Cavaliers game, that person might now be a Safe Haven resident.
The Safe Havens are home to adults who have lived on the streets for years, plagued by hallucinations and other symptoms of mental illness.
For more than 25 years, the Safe Havens have encompassed two sites, an 8-bedroom house in Slavic Village and a 12-bedroom house in Cleveland's Tremont neighborhood.
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