Daybreak Youth Services reaches fundraising goal, looks to hire counselors

After fears of closure in January due to budget shortfalls, Daybreak Youth Services will keep its doors open.

The nonprofit is actively looking to hire mental health and chemical dependency counselors.

The Spokane location of the statewide nonprofit offers mental health and substance use treatment and counseling for teenage girls ages 12 to 18. Recently, the nonprofit has had waitlists of teens wanting to access their inpatient services but has been limited in what it can offer due to low staffing levels.

On Wednesday, leaders announced that the nonprofit was able to raise $500,000 to plug its budget hole.

“All of the funds are going to hire necessary staff,” Sarah Spier, director of external relations at Daybreak in Spokane, said.

In Spokane, both the emergency inpatient beds and co-occurring mental health and substance abuse treatment inpatient beds are not operating at their full capacity due to lack of staff. Only six of the 12 emergent beds for teens can be filled, and 14 of the 24 co-occurring treatment beds can be filled. Spier said they are actively hiring two substance use counselors and two mental health therapists in order to open up all of their beds and ease the waitlists.

The nonprofit’s other location in Vancouver expanded last year, leading to costly investigations and, eventually, the budget shortfall.

Individual and group donations as well as foundations and grants stepped up to ease the group’s shortfall, and now, Spier said, they are ready to expand back to their full range of services.

The Spokane Daybreak office also offers outpatient co-ed clinics and wraparound teams that work with families.