Youth Homes

The Shirley Miller Attention Home

Program Description
The Shirley Miller Attention Home is an eight-bed coeducational shelter home. It was created in 1976, to offer an alternative to detention or the streets for adolescents who have committed minor offensives, faced a short-term family crisis, are struggling with addiction or whose placement has broken down.

Beliefs
The program is designed upon a foundation of beliefs that:

• Crisis is opportunity.
• Kids often act out to get attention and giving them attention may shed light on why they are making these choices.
• Youngsters will make more progress in their life when caring adults work from a strength-based approach.

Location
The Shirley Miller Attention Home is just off West Broadway and exactly 1 mile west of Higgins Avenue, the major north-south Street through the center of downtown Missoula. The home sits hundred feet from the California Pedestrian Bridge and overlooks the Clark Fork River as it flows west from Missoula. It is very close to services and easily accessible to any city high school or middle school.

Placement Criteria
Youngsters appropriate for placement are:

• Between the ages of 10 to 18 years of age when referred
• Are in crisis
• Cannot return home or remain in a placement due to:

• emotional crisis
• family conflict
• lack of supervision
• abuse or neglect issues
• poor behavior
• need for assessment
• trouble with the law

Youngsters are not appropriate if:

• At risk of self harm
• A threat to others
• Exceedingly disruptive or destabilizing to the rest of the residents in the home; or
• Whose needs are greater than what can be provided in the setting

The Program accepts referrals for any child in need of shelter or assistance, from an agency or family or even the youngster him or herself.

Admissions
Referrals and placements are made with a phone call to the shelter and can be made any time of the day or night.

Staffing Design
The Staff includes a Program Director, 4 youth care workers, 2 overnight youth care workers, a home manager, added senior youth care workers for Runaway and Homeless services and relief youth care workers.

• Program Director coordinates placements and case plans, supervises staff and represents the program in the community system from placing agencies to schools to other social services.
• Youth care workers have college degrees, manage the daily routine, provide counseling and mentoring and provide enrichment activities.
• Senior youth care workers have time set aside for runaway services, including outreach, additional counseling, case management and family contacts.
• Night staff is awake and provide bedtime and early morning services as well as supervising residents during sleep time, handling crisis in the middle of that time and any outside contacts.
• A home manager manages the day-to-day functioning of the environment to assure that the Shirley Miller Attention Home is as family-like as possible and appropriate. The home manager plans menus, purchases for the home (food and other supplies), arranges maintenance, oversees the inventory of the home and manages capital assets.

Program Structure
At the Shirley Miller Attention Home, adolescents receive:

• The opportunity to continue their education in school or access to our own learning lab to prepare for returning to school when possible
• Caring, individual treatment while attending school or doing work
• Assistance and support from talented and trained staff stabilizes the young person in a safe, stable and creative environment
• Daily attention and guidance
• Assistance with case planning
• Preparation for family reunification, if appropriate, or other placement if necessary
• Individual and group therapy aimed at promoting healthy emotional expression, improving insight, increasing self-esteem and improving anger management and other inter-personal skills
• A structured daily program, including school and recreational and cultural activities, with a graduated privilege system that teaches social skills and behavior; and
• Access to community services, including professional therapy and health care.
• Focus on cultural identity development. Each youth is given a multi-ethnic identity assessment and individual goals are added to their treatment plans.

Contact Information
Craig Krueger, Program Director
Shirley Miller Attention Home
550 N California
Missoula, MT 59802
Phone: (406) 721-2704 ext. 233
or (406) 549-3836
ckrueger@youthhomes.com

The Shirley Miller Attention Home is named for the late Shirley McShane Miller, who was a loyal and trusted friend of Montana’s neediest children and an early mentor to our Executive Director. Shirley worked at identifying untapped talents among minority youth, supporting community development efforts to reform juvenile justice and education and administered services such as special education within State Government during a public service career that spanned nearly four decades. Shirley died, too young at age 63, before she could see the new home that would bear her name and honor her gentle spirit and dedication to Montana’s youth.