Lake Center for Youth and Families reports steady caseload, asks council to continue five-year support

Dr. Linda Madsen, community outreach coordinator for the Lakes Center for Youth and Families, gave the Forest Lake City Council an annual update on the nonprofit’s programs and finances, and thanked the council for the city’s five-year funding agreement.

“We have 3 areas of programming…enrichment programming, intervention and counseling,” Madsen told the council, summarizing long-running services that began with a 1976 effort by then-Forest Lake Police Chief Jim Trudeau to offer an alternative to court for youth with minor offenses.

Madsen reported program statistics for 2024: the intervention program served 189 clients with 258 sessions; counseling served 217 clients across 3,468 sessions; 88 counseling clients were from Washington County and 78 lived in Forest Lake. The Lake Center runs an after-school program (Youth First) that last year reached 120 participants; a safety camp for students entering grades 3–5; and a new education engagement program, funded by the St. Croix River Education District and the Chisago County Human Services District, intended to address absenteeism in several school districts.

Madsen said the Lake Center does not turn away clients for financial reasons and that 33 clients used a sliding fee scale in 2024 for a total of almost $33,000 in budgeted assistance; 13 of those clients lived in Forest Lake. The center also receives grants, program fees, charitable-gaming proceeds and support from local governments. Madsen thanked Chief Peterson for serving on the Lake Center board and noted the city’s five-year agreement with Lake Center has been “extremely helpful financially and helping us in our planning.”

Why it matters: The Lake Center provides counseling, intervention and prevention services for youth and families in Forest Lake and surrounding districts; the city’s ongoing contract supports programming and planning.

Provenance: - topicintro: {"block_id":"111.265","local_start":0,"local_end":20,"evidence_excerpt":"Our first regular agenda item is annual update from the Lakes Area or Lakes Center for Youth and Families. And we're going to introduce or welcome Doctor. Linda Mattson."} - topfinish: {"block_id":"667.04","local_start":0,"local_end":12,"evidence_excerpt":"So anyone have any questions for doctor Mattson? No questions, but I just wanna thank you for the service that you provide back to the community..."}