SPOKANE, Wash. — Eastern Washington’s only licensed youth shelter is moving out of the downtown core and into a neighborhood. A move it says is needed to create a safer place for the teens it serves.
“The beauty of this location is that it is next door to our young adult shelter,” Said Fawn Schott, president of Volunteers of America Eastern Washington, the organization that runs the Crosswalk shelter. “It’s also co-located with Chas. We partnered with Chas to build a clinic right on the space.”
Crosswalk serves around 700 youths a year and has outgrown its current space.
Wendy Alderson, who oversees the shelter, has seen firsthand the need for this relocation.
“They’re so on top of each other right now,” said Alderson. “It’s so small. This is going to be, I can’t even describe how wonderful it’s going to be for them to have separate spaces. We have a quiet space. We have a TV room. We have dedicated study areas.”
This new building will also have 18 emergency beds as well as 18 college dorms for teens who are engaged and embedded in education or employment programs.
“This is the answer we have to make sure that our youth and young adults have never entered the adult homeless system. If we can divert them from that by giving them the resources they need to focus on education and the job training skills that they need to build livable wage jobs, they’re not going to be homeless,” said Schott.
VOA has been working on bringing this new facility for more than 5 years. The hope is for teens to officially live in the new facility this fall.
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