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Seton Youth Shelters has operated its
Street Outreach Programs since January 1999. It all began with a collaboration
between
Seton Youth Shelters, Stand Up For Kids and the Virginia Beach United
Methodist Church, which continues to this day. Working together, there
was now a place and the needed trained professionals and volunteers to
open a weekly teen drop-in center at the Virginia Beach Oceanfront for
runaway, homeless youth and youth in crisis that found themselves in
need of help. Since that time Seton Youth Shelters' Street Outreach Programs
has developed a diverse, multi-faceted approach to filling the gap to
ensure accessibility of crisis services to the youth of South Hampton
Roads and their families.
Today, our Street Outreach Programs assist youth up to the age of 21
years old and services offered include:
•
Weekly Youth Street Outreach Center (affectionately known
as “The
Crow’s Nest”). Each week, staff and volunteers open the 2nd
story doors of “The Potter’s House” on Tuesday Evening
from 7:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m.
At The Crow’s Nest,
youth up to the age of 21 years old can find a “safehaven” with
caring adults that offer crisis counseling, food and drink, access to
emergency shelter, clothing, hygiene items, substance abuse education,
community referrals,
written educational information, a G.E.D. study hall, employment posting
board and Family/Runaway Message Board.
Our Youth Street Outreach
Center is located on the 2nd Floor of The Potter’s House which is next to Domino’s
Pizza on the corner of 18th Street and Pacific Ave. The building is easily
identified through
our building signs on Pacific Avenue and over the 2nd story door.
• Our
Van Outreach Program travels through out Virginia
Beach, Norfolk and Portsmouth, accessing 335 square miles
of South Hampton Roads.
The Van Outreach Program is a mobile unit equipped with two person
teams, offering the same services as our Youth Street Outreach Center,
but
providing greater access to emergency youth services by traveling
through these
cities seeking areas of high risk where youth congregate.
Read about
our Van Outreach Program in this Virginian Pilot article.
Read about Joshua Martin,
who recieved help through our Van Outreach Program.
• The
Special Outreach Projects is the part of Street Outreach which generally
addresses focused, short term activities
and services
to high risk youth. This includes extensive support services to an individual
homeless youth in attempts to assist them in leaving the street; responding
to a call for help from schools, churches, youth serving agencies and
the community at large, and occasionally conducting youth educational
activities for a specific high risk group.
Read about
Byron Watson, who recieved help through our Special Outreach Projects
Program.
• The
most recent addition to Seton Youth Shelters and the Street Outreach
Programs is Project Safe Place. Seton Youth
Shelters is
a licensed Safe Place Agency, securing affiliation with the National
Safe Place Organization, headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky. Safe
Place is a national youth outreach program that educates thousands
of young people every year about the dangers of running away or trying to
resolve difficult, threatening situations on their own. This community
initiative involves the whole community to provide safe havens and
resources
for youth in crisis.
Safe Place creates a network of "Safe Place locations" - youth
friendly businesses, schools, fire stations, libraries, YMCAs and other
appropriate
public buildings that display the distinctive yellow and black Safe Place sign.
These Safe Place sites extend the doors of the youth emergency shelter or youth
service agency throughout the community. Youth are easily able to access immediate
help wherever they are.
 
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Street
Outreach Programs