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Melissa Reynolds was the guest speaker for the Soroptimists of the Redwoods on Thursday, Dec. 3. She has a Masters in Social Work and is a community-based case worker for the Youth Service Bureau, one of the groups overseen by the Redwood Community Action Agency.
”I am a youth case worker for youth 12-19 in Southern Humboldt,” she said. “I work with runaway, homeless youth and youth who are at risk of being homeless.”
The most recent count of homeless youth in Southern Humboldt is said to 37, a number which surprised the women in the audience. Reynolds says that the true number is probably larger because of the difficulty of doing a count.
The definition of a homeless youth is different than that for a homeless adult. Reynolds said it doesn’t mean that kids are sleeping on cardboard under bridges, although that may happen, but more likely the situation is that the youth don’t have a permanent or safe home and survive by “couch surfing,” a new term that means they stay with friends or acquaintances who take them in for a day or two at a time. They have no fixed, regular or adequate shelter during their growing up years. Their parents may be economically marginal themselves, or may be involved in an addictive behavior that prevents them from being good parents and providing a stable home. Reynold’s job is to make contact with these youth and help them get some safety and stability in their lives. She said that most often this includes working with the youth’s family.
Reynold’s work is funded by The Rural Demonstration Project, a three year grant intended to prevent youth from having to go into the Child Welfare and Juvenile Justice system.
Reynolds is the only Youth Service Bureau worker in Southern Humboldt. She serves as a liaison with the Family Resource Center in Redway, has an office at South Fork High School, and works with Raven, the homeless youth outreach project.
”Raven comes down two Tuesdays a week,” she said, “to do street outreach for homeless youth. I work with the local youth,” she said.
Reynolds said that South Fork High School has proved to be the best place to meet and make contact with youth who are couch surfing or in danger of becoming a couch surfer.
Reynolds works closely with Christina Huff and Carol Willard Clark and while she does get referrals from the schools and the Resource Center, most of her contacts come through community members who are concerned about a particular youth. She can provide youth with ordinary things, like socks or clothing or even a toothbrush and toothpaste, what she calls the “basics” of life that these youth don’t have, even food and transportation. She can also engage them in conversation and try to build up a trust and rapport with the youth to help them better their living situation.
Currently, Reynolds and the Youth Service Bureau are trying to build a network of “mini-shelters” for homeless youth in this area. Rural Host Homes are places where youth can stay for a night or a week when they are experiencing conflict in their home, having attendance problems at school, or can’t go to their home for some reason beyond their control. The goal, she said, is to have at least four such homes in the Southern Humboldt area, so that youth who are in that situation don’t have to leave the area and go to the youth shelter in Eureka, away from their friends and everything familiar to them.
”The goal is to keep youth in their community,” she said. “This is a wonderful community and a lot of youth can get away from home and go spend a few days with a friend. But not everyone can do that. They don’t have a friend, a neighbor or someone they can go to.
”You are the most important resource in this community,” she said. “The resources of Southern Humboldt are you all, the people of this community. I can tell you how to get a motel voucher, a food voucher and all this, but I really think it’s the support of the neighbors, the small community people looking out for one another.”
She said that people can pay attention to the youth in their neighborhood, invite them over for dinner, or offer them a ride to some school event.
Soroptimist President Crystal Arbuthnot said that homeless youth are going to become a project for Soroptimist clubs in the county.
To find out more about Reynolds’ work and the Rural Host Homes project to provide emergency shelter for local youth, call 707-923-1147, or 707-498-0927. The YSB maintains an emergency shelter for youth in Eureka. Contact them at 444-CARE, a 24-hour service. Their office is at 707-443-8322. The Raven project helps street kids. Their number is 443-8322.
REDWOOD TIMES PHOTO BY MARY ANDERSON
Soroptimist President Crystal Arbuthnot welcomes Youth Service Bureau case worker Melissa Reynolds to the Soroptimist lunch on Thursday, Dec. 3. Reynolds is hoping to recruit Rural Home Shelters for locally homeless youth.
