Interface's Runaway & Homeless Youth Shelter in Over-Drive

We’re so proud that with the help of generous donors, and supportive community partners, we’ve had our Runaway Homeless Youth Shelter open for just about 6 months already! Our original plan was to do a comprehensive review and report out to the community at 12 months, which we still plan to do. However, 6 months in, we have come to a few clear conclusions: 

·         Does our region need a Runaway Homeless Youth Shelter? Absolutely! We’ve sheltered 21 youth already, and we’ve hit capacity (maximum of 6 youth) several times. Because the youth are staying for a relatively short period of time (2 days to a couple of weeks), our occupancy opens up fairly quickly. Now, we’re starting to get calls directly from homeless youth themselves. They’re hearing about our shelter from friends. These youth are especially vulnerable, because there is no adult in their life who is even advocating for them – they must reach out and find shelter and help themselves. 

·         Are youth improving their lives through our work with them? Absolutely! We have over a 95% success rate in returning youth safely back into family homes they know. These youth are getting the medical and psychiatric help they urgently needed. This is taking a lot of careful follow up work to assure that these youth are stable, and that the families are making enough progress in therapy, etc. so that a new crisis doesn’t erupt. We have been surprised by the degree of “follow up” work is needed to help maintain these youth in their homes. 

·         How “serious” are the situations for these youth? Very serious! We’ve been shocked by the level of need and intensity of the youth that are being referred to us: a single teen mother with her infant daughter, a young man who lived in a community park for weeks, a transgender youth who’s family is in crisis over her sexual identity. Youth with complex medical issues, major mental health issues, etc. It’s upsetting to realize that these youth were “out there” getting no service up until our doors opened in the fall. We believe there are many more youth in equally serious situations that will present to us in the coming months. 

·         Does Interface have the resources necessary to serve these youth? Frankly, no! We set a $100K fundraising target for the first year of operations. This is not enough. We’re at $41K raised so far, but we’re finding that the youth being referred to us are far more intensive than we anticipated. This is requiring even more intervention. We’re beginning to dialogue with county partners on potential new funding, but those discussions take months, and sometimes years to bring to fruition. We’re also in need of a 7 or 8 passenger van, so that we can continue to transport youth to their own schools while they are in shelter with us. Right now, we’re burning up the miles on our staff’s own cars!

The program is in over-drive, yes, but it is also successful, safe and healthy. Would you pass this blog on to other friends who you think may have a heart for joining our efforts to meet the needs of these youth?  To all who have helped to make this shelter a reality – from the youth in need across our region, we thank you!

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