HOME's Article in the Statesman Journal!

The Statesman Journal ran an article on February 13th about the work that the First Christian Church has done for HOME over the years. In particular, the article highlighted the wonderful improvements that the Ambassador’s club has done for us recently such as purchasing computers, building shelves for the computer room as well as furnishing it, installing flooring, donating a new stove, and donating a new frost-free freezer. A dedication ceremony celebrated the completion of the Club’s one-year remodeling project. Members from the church’s congregation were invited to see all that the Ambassadors had done. There were typed signs hung with blue tape on the improvements to credit the Ambassadors for all their hard work. About 30 members from the church walked through HOME and loved the new improvements, and so do we.

            The First Christian Church Ambassadors’ Club first began helping us out three years ago with things such as cooking holiday meals, cleaning, and installing a bike rack. The improvement project was their largest contribution so far. Funds for the project were raised with three musical performances and a $7,950 grant from the church. The project took 500 hours to complete. We appreciate the time and effort of the Ambassadors’ Club and we definitely love the new, revamped computer room, kitchen floor, and appliances.
A short, 30 second video can be seen on the Statesman Journal website (along with the article) at the following link:
HOME's article

HOME-Front Story

HOME’s RHY (Runaway and Homeless Youth) staff worked with a young girl, “Jolie,” for several months before she disclosed that she was experiencing symptoms of depression again. As a coping mechanism to deal with her depression, Jolie had returned to cutting herself.

Jolie and staff came up with a safety plan to use when she felt the urge to harm herself. They also looked into local resources for depression counseling specializing in treatment of adolescent females. After some initial hesitation, Jolie and the RHY worker contacted these agencies and researched together which one would be the best fit for her. As a result, Jolie made an informed decision on where to go for help. She is currently seeing a counselor for her depression and has significantly reduced her episodes of self-harm. 

Jolie’s story is a reminder that building trusting relationships with at-risk and homeless youth can be time-consuming but is crucial to addressing their needs. Often the youth we come into contact with have experienced severe trauma and abuse. This trauma creates barriers to having an open dialogue with youth about their issues and how we can best assist them. It takes time and patience to build trust with a disconnected youth but the outcomes are well worth the effort and work.

Computer Room Artwork

Some of the volunteers have remarked about the youth artwork which we have displayed here at HOME. They’ve been impressed not only with the quality of the art but the writing that often accompanies the drawings. Some is funny and some touches your heart. So the Ambassadors' Club provided white boards for the youth to draw on and the artwork is then placed inside the cubbies and shelves in the computer room. The youth rose to the occasion and the computer room is both awesome and personal. Here are some examples:

Computer Room Remodel!

Our dear friends at First Christian Church have done it again. They made some HUGE improvements here at HOME as a result of a grant they wrote and the skills they have in their Ambassadors' Club membership. First of all, they talked with our staff to find out what we needed. They found out that we had a freezer that was not frost free or energy efficient. They’ve been in our kitchen enough to see that one of our stoves was basically an antique. Oh yes, and it was hard to miss the big cracks in the linoleum on our kitchen floor.

And they could easily look into our computer room and tell that it needed some help. 

So the Ambassadors' Club, led by Bud R., developed a plan and wrote a grant to accommodate our needs.

For two weekends in January, several volunteers spent many hours installing new linoleum, a new stove and freezer, taking out the old ones, and removing the old desks etc. in our computer room.

These are HARD workers. They built desks, shelving, and cubbies then installed them and painted the room. 

They purchased 4 computers, monitors, and office chairs then brought them in. (Several HOME staff have their eyes on those NICE chairs – can we trade?)

We now have a frost free freezer, a large crock pot, a stove with a flat cooktop that’s easy to clean, and new linoleum on the kitchen floor that looks beautiful. BUT, the centerpiece of all the efforts is our new Computer Room. 

It’s in nearly constant use and, since that’s an activity that we track, we’ll be able to see how many more youth use the computers now. We also regulate their time on the computers so they need to request a computer, get assigned one, and can only spend 15 minutes at a time.

BIG THANKS, once again, to the Ambassadors' Club at First Christian Church.

A Generous Gift

HOME received a letter the other day, along with a check for $100. The generous donor was more than 90 years old and because of his experiences as a homeless teenager, he wanted to help some of today’s youth. Here is what the letter said:

“I wanted to send a check to HOME Youth and Resource Center. Once upon a time, I became homeless. Getting an education was the answer for me. I am now 93 years old and living well. 

At age 17, I was homeless. Please use this check where it is most needed.” 

Two things come to mind with this gift. One is that being a homeless teen is not unique to the current generation, although many people seem to feel that it is. Sometimes, when we go speak to community groups, there are people in the audience who say things such as, “we didn’t need or have places like yours when I was growing up.” They have trouble accepting the fact that there are youth that do not have a safe place to go and that this has always been the case.

The other thing that comes to mind is how many people, regardless of age, understand the value of services such as HOME. Often this is due to their own experiences as they grew up or they know of a teen that has experienced abuse, neglect or homelessness. Quite often we hear from these folks, “I wish there had been a place like HOME when I (or my child/niece/friend’s child/etc.) was growing up. My (their) life might have been easier.”