Safe Homes, Hopeful Futures;
Caution: Kids At
Risk
"I can't imagine
being 13 or 14 years old and not having somewhere to go at night … and
knowing that some of these kids are sleeping under a bridge in Duluth.
That's disturbing to me." --Nancy Ojard, resident of Duluth and LSS Board
Member
Nancy Ojard is on a
mission. So is John Sippola. The two are teaming up with LSS to
safeguard kids and the emergency outreach services that protect them
through a new campaign to save LSS Street Outreach and LSS Renaissance
transitional housing for youth in Duluth.
In the last legislative
session, $56,000 in state funding was cut for these services. Those state
funds represent matching monies that are required by the U.S. Department
of Health and Human Service to access an additional $300,000 in federal
monies that fund the programs annually.
Church leaders are not
staying silent. In June, the ELCA Northeastern Minnesota Synod voted to
raise $56,000 to ensure that these emergency services stay open. And they
are speaking out about the need to advocate for kids.
"It's unprecedented that a
synod would pass a resolution to cover a gap left in state funding!"
exclaimed Sippola. "Many people don't realize that essential services are
being cut, not fluff. It's a 911 call to Minnesotans, not only in Duluth
but throughout the state, to be vigilant about what's happening to
people."
Sippola, a pastor at Gloria
Dei Lutheran in Duluth, has been active in supporting emergency outreach
to kids for several years, after meeting teens who were taking refuge in
an abandoned building during a frigid, below-zero evening. "You don't look
at kids who are freezing to death and not have a visceral reaction."
Several Duluthians have
already stepped up to serve on the Campaign Team to seek financial support
from individual donors, church councils, youth groups and women's groups.
Funds must be raised by June 2004. Through the next legislative session,
there will also be a great need for supporters to contact their public
officials and ask them to support teens in their funding decisions.
Both Sippola and Ojard know
that a teen doesn't have to come from poverty to land on the streets. "It
can happen to any parent's child."
Read on.
