http://ozarkspub.vo.llnwd.net/o37/KSMU/audio/mp3/makingourc_7756.mp3
[Sounds of cars passing by]
It’s like a scene right out of a movie: cars flying by as images of children living on the streets flash before your eyes. Usually those movies have a happy ending, but for the hundreds of homeless youth in the Ozarks, life on the streets is an unscripted reality that doesn’t always end the way we hope. I’m Chasity Mayes. In this segment of our Sense of Community Series, we’ll take a look at the staggering statistics involving the local homeless youth population and see what one downtown organization is doing to get kids off the street.
[Answering Phone]
It wasn’t far into my interview with Todd Duncan, the coordinator of youth services for the Rare Breed in downtown Springfield that he asked to be excused for a few minutes to answer the phone. His facility wasn’t even open at the time. He’s got a heart for the community’s homeless youth population. And after taking part in the program for almost 11 years, he’s making big strides when it comes to putting an end to young runaways and homelessness. Duncan never dreamed this would be his career, but he’s not completely surprised by it, and he’s definitely qualified.
“I have a master’s degree in social work, I’ve got lifelong commitment and passion to working with those less fortunate [and] marginalized and [I] found myself in a really unique opportunity over 10 years ago where folks in this community were coming to a realization that we have a lot of homeless youth and youth on the streets. A lot of run away youth that could use some intervention and help,” says Duncan.
The Rare Breed reaches out to homeless youth or high-risk youth who need support. It has three main programs, including an outreach center, a transitional living program, and the Safe Place Springfield program. The outreach center is open five days a week from 3pm until 11. The transitional living program offers apartments to homeless youth for over a year’s time, and the Safe Place Springfield program gets local businesses involved in keeping kids safe.
Duncan says that when it came to planning homeless youth services for the Ozarks, the committee that he was a part of went right to the experts.
“That committee which I was a part [of] spent 15 months planning the service and was real progressive in how they did it. They went right to the kids and they said what are your situations? What are your needs? How would you like any services to be provided? And then we built it exactly like they said in partnership with them,” says Duncan.
Springfield might not have the same need that a larger city would, but homeless youth is still a significant problem in our neck of the woods. In 2009, the Community Partnership of the Ozarks oversaw a survey about homeless young people in Christian, Greene, and Webster counties. The survey showed that over 450 young people between the ages of 11 and 22 were found to be high-risk or already homeless. That same survey showed that up to 1400 Greene County youths were homeless at least one night in the past 12 months.
Duncan says that on average, each night, the Rare Breed sees over 60 kids per night.
“We are seeing about 65 youth per night in our drop-in center. You know, last month we saw around 300 different youth total and last year we had 1100 youth come through out drop-in center. They’re not all homeless, but all of them may be at risk at some point of becoming homeless or unstably housed. And it kind of breaks down in our outreach center that we have about 30 percent that are homeless or unstably housed. We have about 40 percent that are very high risk of becoming homeless in the near future. And then we have another 30 percent of our youth that are kind of coming out of that instability and homelessness and they’re kind of on the other side of recovery,” says Duncan.
The Rare Breed provides food, clothing, showers, laundry facilities, toiletries and infant supplies. It also takes care of the expenses associated with getting social security cards, birth certificates, and IDs so that homeless young people have the option of getting a job or continuing their education. On top of that, five nights a week the Rare Breed offers two educational groups that meet to discuss everything from relationships to life skills.
Duncan says it does get frustrating when he’s unable to solve every problem, but he keeps his focus on the progress that the organization has already made. He thinks that youth homelessness is solvable. Duncan says that knowing where these kids are coming from will allow them to combat the problem.
“We’re looking at youth falling into homelessness from four primary streams. From being a runaway or a chronic runaway, from what they call being a ‘street youth’ where you might have a place to lay your head at night, but it’s not the most positive place. There might be other things going on there that aren’t very safe so you spend a lot of time on the street with new friends that you’ve made and youth move in and out of homeless situations when they’re doing that.,” says Duncan.
Duncan says a number of youth become homeless after coming out of the juvenile justice or foster care systems because they lack the ability to live independently. He says the Rare Breed is doing all that it can to bring awareness to the community about the problem. Some of that awareness comes from a curriculum that it provides to schools teaching youth the dangers of running away.
Duncan says they’re making progress. At their second annual “Sleepout” to raise awareness and money for the organization, they had over 400 people participate this year and raised almost 13,000 dollars. That’s 13 times the amount raised the year before.
Todd Duncan is one person who’s making our community better. For KSMU’s Sense of Community Series, I’m Chasity Mayes.