Janus House Center for Youth in Crisis
A Program of The Council of Churches of Greater Bridgeport,
Bridgeport, Connecticut

In the mid 1970's, The Council of Churches of Greater Bridgeport became involved with teenagers who were detained by police as status offenders for loitering. The Council's chaplain in the police lock-up, found these youth to be primarily runaways and otherwise homeless youth. The Council responded by developing a network of volunteer host homes that, with casework support, were willing to host one of these youths for two or three weeks while longer term plans were being made.

When Woodfield Village, a major residential program for youth, closed a community task force was organized to consider the support and residential needs of youth. The task force conceptualized a crisis response approach that that would include crisis response, short term counseling and, as a last resort, shelter. The task force asked the Council to be the lead agency for implementing this plan. The Council inaugurated the Youth In Crisis Program in 1977 and opened Janus House in 1978. Since then, the program has responded to 15,000 youth and provided shelter to 3,500. As a general shelter, it blended youth referred by schools, the juvenile court, the Department of Children and Families (DCF) and local community organizations and churches.   

Two years ago, Janus House and the Center for Youth in Crisis underwent some exciting changes. Janus House reached an agreement with the Department of Children and Families (DCF) that allows the Center for Youth in Crisis to exclusively focus on youth who live in the greater Bridgeport area and are not in the care of the Department of Children and Families (DCF). Based on the agreement with DCF, Janus House was also issued a license as a "child placing agency" which allows them to provide "host home" style care for youth in crisis who need a short term respite before returning home. This is a form of short term foster care and the license give Janus House the ability to authorize private residences to serve as host homes or short term foster care providers.  

In many cases, young people run away, become homeless or end up in juvenile court programs due to volatile relationships at home. The short term respite care approach allows the youth and their primary caregivers to get some needed time apart. The primary goal of respite care is to coach and support the youth on how to live with family and friends so that they can remain within their natural support networks. It is believed that in many cases short term respite care is more helpful than institutional care, because links to the community remain intact. In addition, host home costs are 40% lower than traditional shelter costs.  

Operating under this new license, The Janus House Center contains two host home residences - one for girls and one for boys - with Betty and Robert living in second and third floor "apartments" of the building and acting as host home parents. Between them they can care for six youth at any given time. In addition, the Safe Place initiative, which supports forty designated safe places for greater Bridgeport children and youth who feel in danger, the twenty four hour a day Youth In Crisis Hotline, and the Youth In Crisis Outreach Team are based in the first floor of the same building.

The vision for Janus House includes an active computer room that supports youth maintaining permanent e-mail addresses as well as completing school assignments and improving computer skills; groups counseling services and opportunities; and drop in support, conversation and counseling for kids seeking help. Janus House is also on the verge of licensing its first host home in a private residence.

Contact point:

Rev. Jon Kidd, Executive Director
The Council of Church of Greater Bridgeport
180 Fairfield Avenue
Bridgeport, CT  06604
Phone: 203-334-1121 ext. 233
Fax: 203-367-8113
E-mail: johnkidd@ccgb.org