Safe Harbor drop-in center for youth

When: 1-4 p.m. every Wednesday

Where: Serenity House of Clallam County Sequim Housing Resource Center, 583 W.Washington St., Suite A.

More information: Call the Sequim Housing Resource Center at 477-4918 or Serenity House of Clallam County at 452-7224.

At least once a week youth in Sequim in need of a hot meal, friendly faces and housing resources have a set place to go.

Serenity House of Clallam County has partnered with a handful of community volunteers to operate a youth drop-in center at their Sequim Housing Resource Center along West Washington Street near the Serenity House Thrift Store.

The “Safe Harbor” drop-in center is set to launch with an open house from noon-2 p.m., today, April 27.

“This is something that’s really exciting for us in the Sequim area,” said Viola Ware, Serenity House program director of coordinated intake and youth and young adult services.

The center’s hours are restricted to Wednesday afternoons, but if more volunteers get involved, the hours will expand, said Kim Leach, Serenity House of Clallam County executive director. For days Safe Harbor isn’t open, but the Housing Resource Center is, Serenity House officials have the ability to assist youth with services like obtaining bus passes, replacing identifications or financial assistance for placement exams or the General Educational Development test.

Safe Harbor is a “complementary service” to the Boys & Girls Clubs of the Olympic Peninsula’s Sequim club, Leach said. Unlike the Boys & Girls Club, however, Safe Harbor is directly related to housing and aimed at ages 17-24.

“But, anyone younger that comes in won’t be turned away,” Ware added.

Life skills classes will coincide with the hours of Safe Harbor and any youths at the drop-in center are welcome to participate, but aren’t required to, Ware said. The classes range from developing soft skills such as self-esteem to learning how to rent, find  a job and keep it.

“We’re just hoping they’ll (youth) come in, play games, read a book, talk to us and if they need housing, then we can help connect them with the right resources,” Cecilia Eckerson, Safe Harbor volunteer, said.

At its roots Safe Harbor is the brainchild of Eckerson and fellow volunteer Gail Lucas, as they’ve been looking for and working toward a way to aid homeless or at-risk youth in Sequim. Together, with help from a couple of other community volunteers and in partnership with Serenity House, Eckerson and Lucas spearheaded the youth drop-in center. At the center youth can have a hot beverage, meal, access resources, use the center’s computers or simply read a book and relax.

If needed, Eckerson said, she hopes the drop-in center will be a place youth can gain the tools and encouragement to change their lifestyle.

“I want to interact with them and get to know them,” she said.

Youth assessment

To help gather more insight into the needs of homeless and at-risk youth and young adults Ware recently released a “Youth and Young Adult Community Needs Assessment” April 20.

The three-page assessment “splits information into quantitative data, such as rate your need for food one through five, and it also looks at what is what we’re missing, like identifying the biggest barriers to employment,” she said.

The assessment is countywide with a target age range of 16-24. Ware is distributing the copies of the assessment to organizations, schools, the faith-based community and any interested individuals likely to come in contact with youth and young adults.

“I am really excited about this,” she said. “The hope is that we get much more nuanced approach to youths’ needs in our area across the county.”

Ware was concerned about the length of the assessment, but after piloting the assessment with a few youths she found it was received positively and it could even be longer.

“They actually wanted to say more and were really appreciative that we were even asking these questions,” she said.

The more in-depth questions also allow Ware and her colleagues to better understand how youth and young adults communicate.

“Youth answer questions differently than adults do,” she said.

For example, one of the primary questions used by housing officials to determine homelessness is “Where did you sleep last night?” For many of the youths they answered “at home” but upon further questioning Ware noticed they weren’t living at a single home, but often are couch surfing.

“I think those distinctions when it comes to this population is really important,” she said.

The assessment is meant to be ongoing.

“There’s no end date right now,” she said.

Instead, Ware will tabulate the data on a monthly basis. Results of the assessment will be available to the organizations submitting them and through the Shelter Providers Network of Clallam County.

For more information on the needs assessment or to get an electronic version, contact Ware at 452-7224 or vware.serenity@gmail.com.

Family shelter

Serenity House officials reached a milestone mid-month after opening a single-family shelter in Sequim.

“It took a little while to find a unit to put the shelter in, but it’s a perfect location,” Leach said.

The three-bedroom shelter on North Fifth Avenue is near the Housing Resource Center, the bus route and other services.

Although it is intended for a single family, under certain circumstances the shelter may be able to house two small families, Leach said. To discourage families from bringing additional belongings, the shelter is fully furnished and livable. Limiting the amount of personal furniture helps ensure a timely transition between families in need, which is important, Leach said.

“There were four homeless families, but only one unit available so the turnover needs to happen very quickly,” she said. “We want them to shelter there, but we also want them to hit the ground running and be proactive about getting into permanent housing.”