Wind Youth Services |

Text Campaign: Help for Homeless Teens

Text Campaign sign

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Counting Our Blessings in 2012 - a note from the Executive Director

As 2012 comes to a close, I am sure that many of us are counting our blessings. This is certainly true for Wind Youth Services. 2012 has been a very exciting year in our history. First, we have completed our merger with Diogenes Youth Services. We now have three shelters available for homeless and at-risk youth! We added a position of Public Health Nurse to the Wind Center staff. Shavinderpal Sanga is at the Center two days a week giving out much needed vaccinations, seeing clients and answering their health questions and referring them to primary care physicians as appropriate. We even have flu shots available.

We constantly receive help from wonderful people throughout the year. So many in fact that it would be impossible to thank them all in this newsletter. However, I do wish to mention a few to convey the types of donations that we are blessed with throughout a given year. The men’s law group moved our nurse’s office from the crowded space it occupied to a new office twice as large within the Center. They moved the computer lab out into the open area of the Center where it is easier for us to see if the youth need help with their work. We appreciate the funding from the PASCO Foundation that helped us outfit our nurse’s area as well.

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Winds of change

By Cathie Anderson - canderson@sacbee.com

Paul McClure, Diane Stewart and other board members of Wind Youth Services saw the writing on the wall about a year ago as they began to see cash reserves dipping.

The economic downturn prompted government entities to reduce funding and patrons to cut back on giving. No one knew how long this climate would last.

The board decided it was time to consider a partner who would maintain Wind's mission of serving homeless youth while diversifying revenue streams, said McClure, director of advertising with Runyon Saltzman & Einhorn.

"What we really wanted to do was to find ways of doing, particularly the administrative aspects of our nonprofit – the management, the backroom, all those sorts of things – more efficiently," he said. "… We were not a burning raft. We weren't in economic need. We felt we had stalled."

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Unemployment, Homelessness, and Debt: the Plight of the Young

HuffingtonPostUK - Adnan Al-Daini

It is not a good time to be young. Our youth are bearing the brunt of the economic depression and its self-defeating solution of austerity and cuts. The future to them looks bleak; unemployment, debt and homelessness in various combinations, or all three beckon. Of course these three scourges (unemployment-debt-homelessness) are linked.

Youth unemployment (16-24 years old) is now 20.7 % in the UK. The average across the EU is 22.4%, with Greece and Spain leading the misery index at 52.8 % and 52.7 % respectively.

A report entitled "Youth unemployment: the crisis we cannot afford" produced by ACEVO (Association of Chief Executive of Voluntary Organisations) puts the human cost thus:

"Unemployment hurts at any age; but for young people, long-term unemployment scars for life. It means lower earnings, more unemployment, [and] more ill health later in life. It means more inequality between rich and poor - because the pain hits the most disadvantaged."

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America's Promise Alliance Presents 11 Of The Best U.S. Communities For LGBT Youth

HuffingtonPost

Each year America's Promise Alliance reveals the 100 Best Communities for Young People, as presented by ING.

According to APA's website, the list is comprised of "100 deserving communities who effectively provide their youth with the Five Promises and work to increase graduation rates. Winning communities come from all across the country and are addressing the unique challenges they face."

Applications are submitted by individual communities and then judged by a "blue-ribbon panel of national leaders on youth issues." Each winning community receives a $2,500 grant to be used to "help fund a local program or service, within certain parameters" or "for a local event to celebrate the win."

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New Report: 1.6 Million Homeless Youth Alone and At Risk on the Streets

HomelessnessLaw.org

A new report released today by the Law Center and the National Network for Youth reveals a disturbing truth: 1.6 million youth experience homelessness without a parent or guardian each year, facing numerous barriers to meeting basic needs.

I’ve gotten used to calling the issues we work on “forgotten” or “unseen” crises. That can sound a little trite, but I don’t know how else to describe the media’s failure to cover homelessness, or the lack of public outcry in the face of human suffering. Here, again, I wonder: how can we be ignoring this?

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Summer Soiree

The Summer Soiree was resounding success and a really good time! Thank you to our generous sponsors and guests, along with the hardworking committee, restaurants and partners who made this event a night to remember. We raised over $50,000 which will assist Wind in their continued efforts to provide shelter, meals, programs and services to the homeless and at-risk youth we serve in the Sacramento area. Click the link below to enjoy pictures of the evening.