Q & A With Joli Guenther

Jamie Babetch | Unaccompanied Youth

Jamie Babetch had a Q and A with Joli Guenther, assistant director for the Wisconsin Association for Homeless and Runaway Services, check out Joli’s responses to our questions, and don’t forget to “Like” us on Facebook. Feel free to share your story with us!

Unaccompanied Youth | Jamie Babetch: What kind of work do you do for unaccompanied youth? 

Joli Guenther: I am the Assistant Director for the Wisconsin Association for Homeless and Runaway Services, a consortium of runaway and homeless youth agencies throughout Wisconsin.  My work is primarily with the agencies that provide direct services to youth, ensuring the provision of high quality, consistent services throughout the state, as well as serving as an advocate and educator regarding youth issues at the state and Federal levels.

Jamie Babetch: How do you help unaccompanied youth change their lives around?

Joli Guenther: By working to ensure accessible services of a high quality are available to youth on a voluntary basis.

Jamie Babetch: What do you see the unaccompanied youth struggle with the most?

Joli Guenther: Although I don’t work one on one with youth, the issues that drive youth to leave or be pushed out of the home are, not surprisingly family dynamics.  Abuse and neglect, educational issues, poverty and substance use issues (both by the youth and their family members) are also huge factors that lead youth to run away or be “thrown away” by their families.

Jamie Babetch: On average, how many unaccompanied youth do you see/help/work with in one year?

Joli Guenther: My work doesn’t lead to my working one on one with youth, as it’s more of an administrative role.  Our 23 runaway programs throughout Wisconsin served over 2100 youth face to face and had over 15,000 hotline contacts.

Jamie Babetch: What is the biggest struggle you have found when working with unaccompanied youth?

Joli Guenther: Our biggest struggle is providing consistent services with limited resources.  Due to the collaborative work among programs, Wisconsin is ahead of most states in ensuring that services are available outside of the major metropolitan areas; however, in recent years, services have become more expensive due to the higher need and greater requirements of providing shelter and it’s difficult to provide these services around the clock, as needed by youth and their families.  

Jamie Babetch:  On average, do more unaccompanied youth struggle or thrive?

Joli Guenther: Without question, it’s easy for unaccompanied youth to be lost along the way.  The youth served by our programs, on the other hand, usually thrive.  I think that’s due to the voluntary nature of service provision and ensuring that youth are active participants in defining their goals and what it means to be successful.  One example of that is the positive placement rate of youth who have received services by our agencies.  Over 95% of youth served return home or to an agreed upon safe placement upon completing services.

Jamie Babetch: In what ways are unaccompanied youth better off?

Joli Guenther: Unaccompanied youth are better off as a result of receiving programming from our agencies because they have an advocate that can work one on one with them and see the unique strengths of the youth and their families.  This allows the family to work, voluntarily, to return the youth home or to a place that makes more sense for everyone, without involving the expense and stigma of the court system.

Jamie Babetch: Anything else you would like to add?

Joli Guenther: Just that I’m very glad to be doing the work that I do.  I’ve been with the Association for over 14 years and most of our agencies have been doing their work for 30+ years.  We started as a more grassroots form of service provision and it’s been exciting to see the professionalization of services over time and to see the results that we get have such a big impact on the lives of youth and their families.