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43 °F Forecast | Road Cams Friday, February 18, 2005 Today's News | Classifieds | Autos | Homes | Jobs | Tempo | Health | Community | Home Delivery SECTIONS Home Page Local News Sports Business Obituaries Life Opinion Tempo AP News Weather Classified Archives Site Map SPECIAL SECTIONS Since We Asked Outdoor Journal Menu Guide How To Guide Health Readers' Choice Real Estate Showcase Real Estate Guide Joy Magazine Homelife Magazine Wedding Guide Passport to the Rogue Valley SHOP OUR VALLEY AutoFinder HomeFinder JobFinder Classifieds Place an ad TOP JOBS EXTRA NIE Personals Movie Times TV Times E The People Volunteer Moving here? eSouthernOregon CUSTOMER SERVICE FAQ's Advertise with us Home Delivery Employment Contact Us Media Kit Oregon Road Conditions & Cams Email Story to a Friend April 20, 2004 DawnDee Elliott, 25, program coordinator for StreetWise at Community Works in Medford, helps homeless teens like these youths, left, who visited the StreetWise center on East Main Street to stock up on food Monday. Mail Tribune / Bob Pennell Homeless kids, teens, adults get StreetWise The Community Works-run outreach program, which helps people ages 11 to 22, has seen a sharp rise in drop-in visits By JONEL ALECCIA Mail Tribune The young boy in the big coat walked in the door of the newest StreetWise center Monday and headed straight for the food. Behind him, two teen girls and another boy crowded the shelves that serve as a makeshift pantry at Jackson County’s only drop-in center for homeless youth. Within minutes, they’d filled plastic sacks with bread and crackers, cereal and milk and raspberry shortbread cookies. If they’d wanted, they could have picked up shampoo and toothpaste and other necessities to tide them over through days — and nights — on the street. Advertisement "Food, hygiene supplies and a place to live — those are the top things they need," said DawnDee Elliott, 25, the pink-haired coordinator of the program aimed at helping young people ages 11 to 22 fill those needs. Since January, the program that has bounced from Medford to Ashland and back during the past five years has found what organizers say is a permanent perch at 900 E. Main St. in Medford. There, in a remodeled office of Community Works — the agency that runs StreetWise — Elliott and two volunteer outreach workers said they’ve welcomed more homeless youth than anyone expected. "It’s really cool here. It’s not cheesy," proclaimed one of the girls visiting Monday. Strict confidentiality rules prohibit identifying the four kids, who ranged in age from 14 to 17. They are among nearly 150 different youth who have visited the center since January, with many showing up more than once, Elliott said. Hours are from 2 to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. In March alone, about 60 individual young people dropped in during more than 100 visits. That puts the center on target to far exceed the 260 kids the program was designed to serve each year. Estimating the number of local homeless people, let alone the number of homeless young people, is difficult, experts say. Many of the homeless are hard to locate or don’t want to be counted. Still, about 900 homeless people were counted during a 24-hour tally conducted by area social service agencies in November. As many as 1,100 students enrolled in the Medford School District are homeless, a district official estimates. That’s about 8.5 percent of the district’s 13,000 students. "It’s surprising how many are still in school and still going," Elliott said. "That’s the one stable fact in their life." Outside of school, many young people have fled their homes to avoid physical and sexual abuse or drug and alcohol use by parents, Elliott said. Many move every night, snagging a spot on a friend’s couch or a relative’s spare bed. Others simply sleep in cars, if they have them, or under bridges, Elliott said. "I talked to one boy who was 16 a few weeks ago and he said he was just sleeping on the streets," she said. For those young people, StreetWise provides not only necessities like food and hygiene supplies, but also connections to resources for shelter, help reuniting with their families and access to social services. The hardest part, by far, is getting the word out about the center and convincing young people to use it. "It takes a lot of courage to say ‘I can’t do this by myself,’" Elliott said. Part of the solution is personal charisma, acknowledged Elliott, whose candy-pink hair, multiply-pierced ears and turquoise nails resonate with the alternative style of the young people she seeks. Elliott would like to parlay that connection into increased resources for the program’s $100,000 annual budget, which includes her salary of not-quite $25,000 a year. It’s paid out of a $200,000 grant awarded in 2002 through a federal program targeting homeless and runaway teens. Also on Elliott’s wish list is a van that could be stocked with supplies to reach homeless kids in rural areas who can’t get to the center. Until that goal is realized, she splits her time between outreach and staffing the new center, which is gradually catching on with the kids on the street. "They usually come in asking for me by name," said Elliott. "That’s good because volunteers come and go, but I’m always here." How you can help Supplies for StreetWise, the only local drop-in program for homeless youth, are always needed, said program coordinator DawnDee Elliott. In January alone, the program handed out more than 1,000 hygiene products — shampoo, razors, toothpaste — to clients ages 11 to 22. Donations from community members would help the homeless kids while also easing the strain on the program’s $100,000 annual budget. The best donations are gift certificates to grocery stores, department stores or fast-food outlets, Elliott said. Community Works, the program’s parent agency, also accepts direct donations of supplies at 900 E. Main St., Medford. Call 890-1070. Items particularly needed include the following: shampoo/conditioner shaving cream razors deodorant first-aid kits toothpaste toothbrushes combs brushes feminine-hygiene products diapers, particularly large-sized diapers Reach reporter JoNel Aleccia at 776-4465, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life | Opinion AP News | Archives | Site Map | Community | Classified Copyright © 1997-2005 Mail Tribune. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions | Website Feedback Student Loan Consolidation Conference Calls - $50/Month Home Security Systems Trunks, Footlocker, Trunk, Footlockers Advertisement s