Safe Place Program started in area
With a self-proclaimed love for her job, Michelle Lindsey, youth director of Home Again, an 11-month-old Uniontown shelter for homeless youth, works to guide children in the best direction, more recently through the planning of the Safe Place Program. “I don’t want any children to fall through the cracks, so to say,” said Lindsey. “I think Safe Place is a great opportunity to make sure that this does not happen.”
The Safe Place Program is a Home Again outreach project. It sets up public locations where children in crisis can get immediate help.
Nationwide, Lindsey said 100 cities have implemented the program, including Pittsburgh, the nearest location to Uniontown that has it. But, with Home Again’s planning, “safe places” may soon make up a part of Fayette County.
“It is [a program that is] definitely needed. To expand, we need safe place sites and volunteers in each community,” said Lindsey.
A bright yellow, diamond-shaped sign reading “Safe Place” is posted in participating businesses, agencies or schools, signifying that children may go there if in need.
When in the store, the trained staff will contact Home Again for the child.
The youth center will then send one of 10 informed workers to pick up the child and return to the shelter.
Appropriate arrangements will be made to ensure that the child has the needed support, including living quarters, clothes, meals, education, transportation, social activities, friends and a family.
Home Again does have limits. It is able to support 14 children from ages 12 to 17. Lindsey said other agencies that work with Home Again include Mental Health and Mental Retardation Services, Children and Youth Services and the Juvenile Probation Office.
“The children at Home Again offer me a lot of feedback. They think the program is wonderful and appreciate the help it would provide other children. They say, ‘I could have used that,'” said Lindsey.
According to Safe Place Program rules, parents will be informed of the child’s location and status and the participating business or school can be utilized for only 30 minutes.
Lindsey said that publicity and education are key for children to know that when they see the bright yellow, diamond-shaped sign with “Safe Place” printed inside that is a place they can go to seek help.
By the middle of April, Lindsey hopes to have Safe Place signs posted in five area businesses, schools or agencies. She hopes to have 20 to 25 locations posted by the end of 2003.
That number would include a sign posted at a location in each of Fayette County’s residential communities.
“We would like the outreach program to grow where there is a least one safe place in each area,” said Lindsey. “I am hoping that the program will connect to every homeless kid on the street.”
Twenty area businesses that have implemented the program in other U.S. cities have been pinpointed to later determine their interest in the program, said Lindsey.
“We are looking for anywhere a teen-ager might frequent,” said Lindsey. “Such as stores at the Uniontown Mall. High schools, fire departments and police stations are another possibility of being a Safe Place.”
“The program will help to promote the businesses as well as helping the children,” said Lindsey.
Lindsey also is looking forward to a working relationship with area schools to educate and promote the program and its yield-like symbol. Teachers at the school heralding the symbol would know where to refer children come to seek help.
Initiated by the Uniontown City Mission’s Executive Director Irmi Gaut and Director of Operations Dexter Smart, the Safe Place Program was founded as an offshoot of Home Again.
When the two program leaders witnessed the need for a shelter to serve as a temporary home for children under 18 years old, due to the City Mission only housing adults from 18 years and up, the idea for Home Again was initiated.
In April of 2002, Home Again was built on Cleveland Street in Uniontown.
“We had tons of children come to the doorsteps of the City Mission until Home Again was built,” said Lindsey.
From its beginning in April of 2002 to December of 2002, she said Home Again has assisted more than 50 children in need. The shelter succeeded in finding foster homes for the children and in some cases reaching their ultimate goal of reuniting children with their own families, she noted.
“That is what it is all about. Reuniting children with their family,” said Lindsey. “We work on other goals, such as medical appointments, schooling and behavior modification. We give these children productive social lives. We sit down with them and deal with all their problems.
“If it [the program] only helps one person, I would be happy,” said Lindsey. “That’s what I am looking for. I am looking to be there when needed.”