On a bright January day, Youth Services of Creek County cut the ribbon on an expansion they had been working towards for over 25 years.
Director Erin Brook stood at the front of a large crowd featuring city leaders, past and present board members, school officials, and more. The $ 1 million expansion brought not only some much-needed upgrades to the county’s youth shelter but by doubling the size of its space and adding additional functionality to some of its offices, YSCC can now provide more services to more families than ever possible.
Cutting the Ribbon at Youth Services of Creek CountyWe had to zoom out on this HUGE crowd that showed up for the grand opening at Youth Services of Creek County in their new expansion! What a beautiful place full of people doing wonderful work. Look for our story on their grand opening this week!
Posted by Sapulpa Times on Monday, January 20, 2025
“I’m excited. I’m overwhelmed. I still walk through the building and I think is this real? I want to pinch myself.”
Brook sits in a brand-new office, which she hasn’t had the chance to fully enjoy yet because she’s pulling double duty as director and resident advisor due to a staffing shortage.
“I’ve been here a total of 25 years, and I had dreams, I always talked about it, always thought, you know, ‘see it, say it, do it, your dreams could come true.’ And now it has and I still walk through and think, ‘Am I this lucky that I get to have an office to myself?’ And do we get to have this wonderful space for kids to come and get therapy and counseling services?” she asked. “Everybody that works here is excited.”
Youth Services of Creek County began in 1987 as a 4,000-square-foot shelter for children ages 0 to 17 in the custody of the Oklahoma Department of Human Services or Oklahoma Juvenile Affairs. The organization provides therapy and counseling services for schools and families, along with residential services for up to 14 children.
Before the expansion, there was a 30-day waitlist for their therapy clients. Now that it’s complete, the capacity has quadrupled. A large conference room allows them to triple the size of the groups they serve.
“Years in the making”
“This project started years ago, even before there was funding,” Brook says. Though the project was primarily funded by ARPA, Brook said that there had always been a strategic plan to expand.
“In my brain, I was thinking we’d have to start a capital campaign.” Years of boards at YSCC laid the groundwork for what they hoped a successful capital campaign would look like.
And then COVID happened, and it looked like the expansion they were planning was going to be punted to an unknown date in the future. It would turn out to be exactly the kind of provision the shelter had been looking for.
The American Rescue Plan Act was part of the $1.9 trillion COVID-19 Stimulus bill passed by Congress and signed into law by President Joe Biden in 2021. Organizations all over the country like YSCC have gotten much-needed aid from the package. Suddenly, an unknown project was giving dollars and deadlines, and in March of 2024, the staff broke ground on the the expansion.
The dream in danger
Ten months later, the expanded shelter is open for business, but even getting here took some extra effort at the realization that additional funding would be needed to make some critical infrastructure upgrades, such as a fire suppression system, plus the increased cost of materials and labor. Suddenly, the dream looked as though it might be in danger.
Brook and her team had a plan, however.
“In November, we did a ‘1000 to 100 campaign,’ where we asked the community if we could get 1000 people to donate $100 we could get $100,000,” Brook said. Additionally, Shelter Counselor Summer Fairchild wrote a grant to Quiktrip and got $42,000 from the Tulsa-based gasoline retailer. They also wrote to the Bartlett Foundation and received $50,000 towards the cost of the additional needs. The Hershberger Trust stepped into a contribute as well, and with other private donations, they were able to raise $108,000 to offset that overage.
Brook described the generosity of the community as “wonderful.” “Our community is so supportive,” she said.
More than a shelter
Though most people know YSCC as a youth shelter, many more families are served by the organization’s other offerings than by the youth shelter itself.
“(The shelter) only serves about 60 kids a year, versus our prevention programs, which reaches and touches about 3900 kids a year,” Brook says.
These “prevention programs” include licensed therapists that are embedded in several schools in Creek County providing therapy, to students and their families at the school site.
YSCC also offers whole-family programs like group counseling, life skills, social skills, a physical and nutritional eduction program and a parenting program for parents who have lost custody of their children through DHS or the court system.
“It’s a 14-week program to learn parenting skills, and just one step on their individualized service plan to get their child back,” Brook said. “We also have an in-step program for kids who have failed a drug test or committed a misdemeanor offense or an offense that would not even be a crime if they were and adult, like truancy (being out past curfew).”
Brook says the In-Step program focuses not on the act itself, but the behavior that led to the offense.
“We know that behavior is often a symptom of an underlying issue, and so we’re trying to get to the issue. It’s not therapy. It is a curriculum-based, evidence-based program,” she said.
Sights on the future
The paint on the new facility has only just dried, and Brook is already setting her sights on what she hopes will be the next YSCC project: tiny homes to assist youth aging out of the foster system with transitioning into life as an adult.
“We don’t usually see these transient youth,” she said. “They’re couch-hopping. They’re not abused, neglected youth, but for whatever reason they are unable to live at home. So at 18, they leave, and they don’t have credit. They don’t have enough money in the bank to get housing, and maybe they’re not quite ready to live on their own.”
Brook says that the need for a transitional living option for these younger adults is becoming more and more necessary.
“My research shows that youth will leave home and return now twice before the age of 31,” she said. “And so the reality of it is, especially in foster care, we’re asking kids to be legal adults at 18 when they really have not lived on their own. If you grow up in a foster home or especially in a shelter, you’ve had a lot of decisions made for you, and you haven’t had a lot of independence. Then all of a sudden you’re 18, and every decision is up to you.”
Brook says her vision for the program would be for these young adults to have a case worker who helps them learn the life skills they need to balance a budget, handle a checking account, hold down a job, and pay their bills. If they stayed in a tiny home with YSCC, they’d get some additional help with preparing to live life as an adult.
Under Brook’s vision, the participant wouldn’t have to pay for anything for the first few months, concentrating instead on saving. “We’ve learned it takes six to nine months for a kid to be fully independent to where they can afford to pay for everything on their own,” she says. “So they would start paying us partial rent, and then by the time they leave, they’ve been paying for everything, but they would get some of that money back as they exit our program, so they would have a nest egg when they leave.”
“Thankful”
Brook ended the interview with a statement of thanks for to the community. “We appreciate the support that we have of the community that always supports our kids that live here, and supports us, and allows us to do our job and we’re thankful,” she said. “You know we love it. We have a great team, and I can’t think that to say enough good things about our community.”
Youth Services of Creek County is located at 1025 E. Grayson Avenue in Sapulpa. The organization is currently seeking applications for qualified individuals who want to work with the youth. Find out more about YSCC at their website, yscc.net.
