The public is invited to attend a community meeting this week on Ramsey and Hennepin counties’ potential plans to build a shared residential treatment center for delinquent teens.
The meeting will be from 6 to 8 p.m. Thursday in the auditorium of the Wilder Center, 451 Lexington Parkway North in St. Paul.
Ramsey County has for many years housed its treatment program for troubled youth at Boys Totem Town in St. Paul’s Highwood Hills neighborhood. Hennepin County Home School in Minnetonka has been the home-base for Hennepin County’s program.
Both facilities have aging infrastructure and each program has varying gaps in services.
Boys Totem Town doesn’t serve girls or sex offenders, for example, so those teens have to be sent out of the county for treatment. Hennepin County Home School, on the other hand, doesn’t offer after-care or day treatment options.
The counties have spent the last couple of years studying whether combining forces might allow for more robust programming in a better-suited facility for delinquent teens across the region.
County staff will provide an overview of the study to date at the meeting. The public will have a chance to ask questions and share concerns.
The session is the first in a series of community meetings in coming months as the counties enter the pre-design phase of the process.
The aim is for both county boards to make a final decision about the possible merger in the spring.
RSVPs for the meeting are requested at juvenile.program1@hennepin.us or juvenileprogram@co.ramsey.mn.us.
Additional information about the project can be found at www.hennepin.us/residents/public-safety/hennepin-treatment-center and at www.ramseycounty.us/juvenileprogram.