Group leader: youth home manager a competent presence

 The thing Lance Isaak remembers about his first trip through the Flathead Valley is the snow, how it fell gently downward without a breath of wind to disturb it.

Like many Midwesterners from windier locales, Isaak was struck by the calm of that winter scene. It was one of the things that drew him and his wife, Shelley Jo, to the Flathead to build a life together.

Isaak, 42, is the program director for Flathead Youth Home, an eight-bed group home in Kalispell that provides crisis intervention and longer-term group care for youth ages 10 to 18. His demeanor is quiet, but confident, qualities that bode well for his position.

“One of my strengths is to create a stable, consistent presence,” he said. “My job is to make sure the team has what they need to do the job, whether it’s training or emotional support, to make sure we stay connected to the system of care.”

Residents of the home are children who have been referred by the local youth court or state family-services program. The shelter accommodates children whose family lives are typically in crisis, providing temporary housing until they can return to their families or secure foster care.

Isaac occasionally has opportunities to work directly with the young people sheltered by the youth home, but more often his job takes him in an administrative direction, networking with donors and dealing with family services or mental-health agencies.

He hadn’t intended to make a career out of working at a group home. In fact, he earned a degree in wildlife ecology from South Dakota State University and worked on a master’s degree in fisheries ecology at Mississippi State, aiming for a career in the fish and game arena.

Life often has a way of leading one down a different path.

Isaac’s upbringing in the small town of Centerville, S.D., population 892, was idyllic.

“There were 22 in my graduating class, so we got to do everything,” he said about participating in sports and extracurriculars. “I played baseball in the summer. My dad owned a fertilizer business so I helped out with that in the summers.”

Hunting and fishing were important activities carved into their small-town lifestyle.

Isaak worked for fish-and-game agencies for a time after college and wound up living with his brother in Laramie, Wyo., where he got a job as a roofer.

He met his wife in Laramie, and from there they headed to South Korea to teach English. They were in South Korea for eight months before the economy collapsed and their jobs ended. The Isaaks traveled in Thailand and Nepal before returning to Laramie.

“We got back and all of our friends were doing the same things,” he recalled, noting how life overseas had changed them, broadened their horizons, so to speak. “That’s when we decided the Flathead Valley was the place for us.”

Isaak got a construction job when they moved here in 1998 and it wasn’t long before he took a job as a relief therapeutic youth care worker when the Flathead Youth Home, a branch of the regional Youth Homes Inc., was located on Homestead Road. He had worked there for a week when the shelter was forced to close overnight because of a diesel leak on the property.

During the eight months the home was closed, Isaak took a temporary job with the U.S. Forest Service in Boise, where his brother also worked for the federal agency. He returned to Kalispell when the youth home opened again in a rented facility on Four Mile Drive.

The youth home was on the move again in 2006 when the home on Four Mile Drive was sold and residents were sent to other facilities until a new home could be found. Eventually the home was re-established on Panoramic Drive for a couple of years until the current shelter was built at the northeast corner of Eighth Avenue East North and Oregon Avenue.

Isaak was among the Flathead Youth Home leaders who worked toward getting a permanent facility. The $1.1 million, 6,000-square foot facility was financed with a community development block grant and a capital campaign.

OFF THE job, Isaak is a family man who enjoys raising their two daughters, Juniper Jo, 11, and Ren, 7. They hike, bike and canoe together.

He’s active with the Kalispell Daybreak Rotary Club.

“As I get involved, I like what our community does,” he said. “It’s great to see a community so generous.”

He and Shelley Jo bought a vacant lot near their home on Kalispell’s west side and have turned it into a neighborhood park. The lot was where John Parsons’ home was located before Parsons intentionally caused it to explode in an act of suicide in March 2012.

The Isaaks have turned the property into a positive place where people can gather for parties or entertainment. It’s equipped with a tepee, cob oven and small stage for a band.

“It’s been a fun project,” he said. “Both my wife and I like to build things.”

Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by email at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com.