Statement on Opening of Youth Stabilization Center and an Innovative Approach to Youth Justice
Hennepin County has a vision for our communities: where all people are healthy, all people are valued, and all people thrive. That means for our youth, too – even, and especially, those with the most complex needs. Youth with complex needs are in crisis, and the system finds it almost impossible to find them an appropriate treatment setting. The new Youth Stabilization Center is to serve our youth with the highest, most complex needs. There is nowhere in the current system to meet the needs of these youth – until now.
Hennepin County is taking bold, innovative steps to create holistic new ways to approach youth justice. Just thirteen months ago, the Youth Stabilization Center was just an idea in a board action request. Last week the center opened. This family-centered program supports youth aged 8-17 with complex mental and behavioral health needs in a welcoming, non-institutional setting designed for safety and healing.
It is the first-of-its-kind: a program co-developed between the County and community providers, informed by national best practices, staff expertise, community voice, and most importantly – in direct partnership and decision-making with youth who will stay on site and their families. This is a testament to what decisive, compassionate leadership can achieve.
Hennepin invested $20M of capital investment to bring this project to life, which was prioritized over other potential projects in order to meet a growing and unmet need. Hennepin County is also investing $8M in operational funds for this facility. I am deeply grateful to the staff, partners, youth, and families who shaped its design and made this vision possible. This is a major step forward in strengthening our continuum of care and ensuring young people get the support they deserve and need. See my prepared remarks from the opening event below.
REMARKS AS PREPARED
Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for joining us today.
We are here together today in a new space: the Hennepin County Youth Stabilization Center.
I’d like to begin by sharing an observation: This youth residential crisis stabilization program existed only in the resolving clauses of a board action request just 13 months ago.
And today, we are here – days away from doors opening and serving youth and families.
It was late October 2024 that the Hennepin County Board of Commissioners approved two board actions to construct this new space and develop this new service.
This was a bold action to fill a critical need.
Here’s what we saw: A small population of county-connected youth have significant needs due to complex diagnoses, behaviors, and trauma.
Multiple compounding factors make it difficult for these youth to access appropriate care settings, at the right time or at the right level.
This leads to a worsening of their condition and behaviors over time, and puts them and their families at high risk for involvement in many county systems like child protection and juvenile justice.
These problems are not new. But in recent years, it’s reached a crisis tipping point.
We know the appropriate response is a specialized setting that takes extreme care and caution with these children and youth and their conditions.
So Hennepin County stepped up – in partnership with many others, as you’ll hear from my colleagues who speak today.
We know this center is just one piece of the continuum of care. It cannot solve the problems of the entire system, across the entire state.
But leadership and action was needed. This opening reflects an essential step towards a larger vision where every youth has access to the care they need when they need it.
This space is a direct investment in youth and families, and in the community providers who care for and treat our most vulnerable residents.
We moved decisively and quickly, and with thoughtful intention every step of the way.
This building has been standing here for decades, but this Youth Stabilization Center was built from the ground up in every other sense over the last year:
Complete demolition and new construction of the physical environment, specific to the needs of these youth– a program co-developed between the county and community providers, informed by national best practices, staff expertise and community voice.
That is how we govern, lead, partner, and serve in Hennepin County.
Lastly, I want to note that while we mark this opening event today, we do not celebrate it. We are serving youth in crisis, and that is not a problem to be admired.
Instead, it is a need to be met. Our youth need more from us, from the systems that serve them.
As partners in those systems, I invite you all to join us in our commitment. Thank you for showing up for our youth and I look forward to continuing to work with everyone in this room to deliver.
Next, I’d like to hand it over to my county board colleague, Commissioner Angela Conley.
Moving Forward
The Youth Stabilization Center represents years of work at the intersection of youth, social services, and county involved youth. We know that young people who are presenting with this level of complexity did not choose these circumstances – what we are seeing is the result of systemic compounding factors, unmet needs, and gaps across multiple systems. Until all systems are truly centering the whole person, we must keep building solutions like this: thoughtful, trauma-informed, shaped by best practices, and those that will use these spaces. I’m so proud of Hennepin County for choosing to lead with compassion and care in how we show up for young people, and I’m hopeful for the stability, healing, and opportunity this center will help make possible. Hennepin County remains committed to more innovative and unique solutions, because the status quo is not working.
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