Many thanks to Vermont’s own Darn Tough Socks for their generous sock donation! We got to go to the Darn Tough headquarters to pick up the socks and have since been distributing them to our youth, many of whom do not have a warm place to sleep at night (our residential homes are at capacity with very long waiting lists, unfortunately). The youth we work with have told us time and again that socks are one of the most important things they need to survive.

In fact, when a homeless teenager comes to us for shelter, if our beds are full we give them a survival kit to help them through the night. This kit contains a sterno can, a warm hat, mittens, water, food, and, while supplies last, Darn Tough socks.

Thank you, to Ric Cabot and Rick Carey at Darn Tough for taking care of our community’s youth.

Lynn Castro is a young woman who resides in our shelter.  At our legislative open house last week she read the following statement to those present.  I am so proud of Lynn for what she said, I know you will agree, and I thank her for giving me permission to reprint it here:

Ladies and Gentlemen of the State Legislature, my name is Lynn Castro and on behalf of my roommates and fellow youth I would just like to thank you for the opportunity to speak here today on behalf of Spectrum Youth and Family Services. In a recent poll conducted by the United States census over 500,000 citizens are homeless or at poverty level. Approximately twelve percent are below the age of 25. On August 16th, 2010 I became part of that statistic. Tonight I hope to shed some light on the popular stereotypes on what a homeless youth is, who we are, and the program that is helping us to change our lives.

First, allow me to tell you a bit about myself. I am a Political Science major at the Community College of Vermont and a University of Vermont hopeful. I found myself lost in the pieces of one broken attempt to fix my life after another. I had direction; I had a dream but no support. I was stuck in a nightmare and I felt like no matter how I tried I couldn’t get out. I was couch surfing, alone and very afraid but determined to fix my situation. After a brief stint with a roommate, I found myself on Spectrum’s doorstep depressed, discouraged and fearful for the next failure. I had this idea that maybe failure was just genetic and I honestly wondered which great world leader I must have assassinated in a past life. I hadn’t given up hope but I was nervous that maybe hope had given up on me. The staff welcomed me in and I started to meet the kind of people you only read about in poor me novels.

I expected them to be dirty, rude, belligerent and ill-educated. My plan was just to keep my head down and just figure a way out as soon as possible.  After only a week I realized how impossible that objective was going to be. You see, I had the wrong impression. Over the course of my first week, I met people of all different categories and labels. In the drop in I met people labeled as drug dealers, prostitutes, drug addicts, drop-outs and fellow college students. The vast majority of them were not only honest, caring people but they were real and dedicated to making a difference in the area around them. I was also shocked to see that the staff of Spectrum treated them all the same. No matter what ‘label’ they happened to fall into, the drop-in staff, our case manager and residential staff all worked to make them comfortable, safe, and promoted them to do the very best they could and reach for that possibility that looks to be just out of their reach.  For people that usually felt ostracized and belittled, we entered into a goal-focused program that not only gave me a steady place to be while I figured myself out, but allowed me to make actual connections with people and feel included in something that only expects me to expect the best out of myself.

If it wasn’t for the supportive environment that Spectrum fosters and my make-shift family I seriously doubt that I would be the same open-minded, goal focused person I am today. My own personal journey at Spectrum is not quite over yet but in the last four months as a resident I feel that I am slowly gaining the tools to move out and move on to the bigger fight of becoming a lawyer, the one better thing that Spectrum helped me realize is not only possible to attain, but something I deserve.

I just found out about this, but one of our volunteers,  Paul Demers, has been teaching our kids at Spectrum how to drive.  These are the formerly homeless youth who live in our SRO, also other kids we work with who used to be in foster care and are getting ready to live on their own.  He will practice with them, letting them use his own car, they even take the driving test with his car.  He even worked with a young woman who was under 18, so she had to log 40 hours with an adult. He spent 10 Sunday afternoons doing 4 hour road trips with her, and according to Paul’s wife Joanne,  ”he learned to appreciate rap music.”  !!!

I am so grateful to people like Paul who go out of their way to help our youth.  So many unsung heros in this world doing simple but extraordinary things.  He is one of them.

Paul has also made a specialty of teaching adult refugees to drive,

He was here to celebrate our 40th anniversary, a great visit, especially since he was a Spectrum board member in the early 1970′s.  Here is some of what he had to say:

“It was important to me to bring attention to Spectrum’s work – because in Vermont and around the country, homelessness is on the rise. If we can find tax breaks for millionaires, we can find the money we need to support our children and young people.”

He met Lynne Castro, a young woman who lives in our shelter, and this was his reaction:

 “I was very impressed by Lynne, an articulate young woman who has accessed Spectrum’s services. I thought what she had to say was important. She said, ‘Spectrum’s staff are not staff to me, they are family. I don’t know where I would be without them.’  She reminds us that Spectrum and the Vermont Coalition of Homeless and Runaway Youth Programs  help our young people get back on their feet, and sometimes our young people just need to be reminded that they are worth it.”

Thank you to Vermont Public Radio for highlighting Spectrum’s domestic violence prevention programs and our innovative approach to breaking the cycles of abusive behavior.

Listen online here: Advocates Press For New Approach To Domestic Violence Prevention

In response to the recent Giving Season article in the Burlington Free Press, a former Spectrum youth, who at one point lived in our Single Room Occupancy (SRO), wrote the following comment:

Speaking from personal experience I know how helpful Spectrum can be, I wouldn’t be where I am today without them. I successfully completed their SRO program and moved on to get my own apartment and I was able to obtain a respectable job at a local bank. Spectrum (and an amazing case manager at the SRO) had a very big impact on my life and it’s so uplifting to hear this story because if you are receptive to the help that Spectrum gives you really can go far.

If you missed the Free Press article, read it here: How Spectrum Helps Young Lives in Vermont.