St. Mary's County Local Management Board asks youth for input on homelessness, trauma and other priorities

Tammy Lowy, chair of the St. Mary’s County Local Management Board, told the St. Mary’s County Youth Advisory Council on Feb. 4 that the board is collecting youth feedback to identify local service gaps before applying to the governor’s office for state funds.

The input sought by the Local Management Board will inform applications tied to seven priority areas the state children’s cabinet has identified: reducing the impact of parental incarceration, youth homelessness, improving outcomes for disconnected or “opportunity” youth, reducing childhood hunger, juvenile justice diversion, trauma-informed care and preventing out‑of‑state placements.

Lowy said boards like the county Local Management Board are positioned “to identify the drivers and effects of youth homelessness in their communities and ensure those youth are connected to appropriate services.” She described youth homelessness as having different needs than adult homelessness and said the root causes include unsafe home environments, family discord related to sexual orientation or gender identity, transitions from foster care or detention, poverty, undocumented status and lack of affordable housing. “Due to age, developmental age, and past traumatic experiences, unaccompanied homeless youth have unique needs that cannot be addressed by the same housing and supportive services offered to adults,” Lowy said.

Why this matters: the Local Management Board can package local needs and proposals for state funding administered through the governor’s office and the children’s cabinet. If projects are funded, those dollars could expand school‑based or community programs that county youth and providers described as thin or inconsistently available.

Students at the meeting pressed for details and for services they said are lacking in schools. Taylor Berry, a Great Mills High School student, said she has long advocated for more school psychologists and counselors and described anxiety and other needs among peers. “I’ve always said that we needed more school psychologists at our schools,” Berry said. Lowy acknowledged gaps in school‑based behavioral health staffing and said some services are provided through grants and partnerships: “Center for Children does come into the elementary Title I schools,” she said, and some clinicians bill Medicaid or other funds when services meet billing criteria.

Lowy also described limits in the county’s available data. She said the Local Management Board has Medicaid/medical assistance data on youth who received behavioral health or substance‑use services, including self‑reported homelessness, juvenile services involvement and substances tried, but that data excludes privately insured youth and thus is not a complete picture.

On the topic of children of incarcerated parents, Lowy noted a small program with the county detention center that supplies books so parents can read to children during visits and said the library and other partners are exploring additional supports. She told the council that St. Mary’s County has not had children placed out of state for residential treatment historically; she said there is one case being worked on “for a specific need that couldn’t be addressed due to a specific medical diagnosis.”

Students asked practical questions about access to programs. When asked whether undocumented families can access school food programs and other services, Lowy responded that documentation status “is not a concern for St. Mary’s” and that the county’s role is to serve residents regardless of immigration status; she said fear of government questions can be a barrier to uptake even when services are available. On WIC, Lowy said pregnant people may apply and offered to provide specific eligibility criteria to the council.

Students and adult advisors were invited to provide follow‑up input to the Local Management Board and to participate in related local partnerships, including Healthy Saint Mary’s Partnership working groups (behavioral health, HEAL—Healthy Eating Active Living—access to care and tobacco‑free living) and the county’s ECAC early childhood coalition. Lowy encouraged youth who wish to serve on advisory groups or help with projects to contact her or to use the Healthy Saint Mary’s website for meeting dates and minutes.

Lowy repeatedly asked the youth commissioners for concrete examples of local services that could be expanded and for volunteer or research projects students could take on to help document need or design pilot programs.

Ending: Lowy left printed materials for the youth council and asked commissioners and other young people in the community to share observations privately if needed; she said the Local Management Board will use youth input to refine proposals before applying for state funding.