Duane Vaughn, Executive Director, Shelters of Saratoga
Kristen Carey, School Counselor & McKinney-Vento Liaison, WSWHE BOCES
Jefferson Weidman,
Transcript
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Episode NINE: Our Children Facing Homelessness
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Duane Vaughn, Executive Director, Shelters of Saratoga
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Jefferson Weidman, Runaway and Homeless Youth Program Director, CAPTAIN
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Kristen Carey, School Counselor and Homeless Youth Liaison, WSWHE BOCES
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TRANSCRIPT
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DUANE VAUGHN (DV): Failing out of grades. Horrible trauma, rape. That’s what human trafficking and that’s what is actually happening out there. And that’s tragic, right? It is. Absolutely. This is awful. This is something that needs to change. These things are really happening in our own communities,
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KRISTEN CAREY (KC): Every community
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DV: Everywhere.
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INTRODUCTION:
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Welcome to Crossroads, the Shelters of Saratoga podcast, giving a voice to the many different challenges of homelessness in our community. Throughout our podcast series, we’ll be shining a light on the perception versus the reality of homelessness in the greater Saratoga community. The issues we’ll be talking about are more than a bed or a cot or a roof. The reality is that homelessness is an intricate ecosystem, including mental and physical health, public safety, food security, resource navigation, community engagement, and longer-term sustainable housing solutions. However, perhaps most important is recognizing that the majority of the challenges of the homeless in our community are invisible. We are at a crossroads where the challenges of homelessness intersect.
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DV: Throughout our crossroads series, we often talk about the invisibility factor, the perception versus the reality of homelessness. Hiding inside all the statistics is one of the most heartbreaking realities. More than 30% of those facing homelessness in New York State are kids under the age of 18, and that’s what we’re going to be talking about here today. Please listen all the way to the end of today’s conversation when the hardest realities become real. I’m asking you to consider this episode as an introduction to the challenges of helping those children survive. It’s just the beginning of the story. We hope to dig deeper into this vital issue in future conversations. I’m Duane Vaughn, Executive Director of Shelters of Saratoga. For this episode of Crossroads, I am joined with two special people that work with homeless youth. And so with me today, I have the Runaway Homeless Youth Director from CAPTAIN, Jefferson Weidman.
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JEFFERSON WEIDMAN (JW): Thank you for having me today.
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DV: And we also have Kristen Carey, who is a school counselor with WSWHE BOCES. Welcome.
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KC: Thank you.
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DV: I worked 14 years with homeless youth, the WAIT House up in Glens Falls. I’d like to talk about the numbers of homelessness that we’re seeing across the country. If you could, Jefferson, tell me what you’re seeing locally at Saratoga,
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JW: We have seen a definite increase in the number of individuals that are seeking our case management services. And the number of referrals definitely have been on a rise.
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DV: You could talk a little bit about the CAPTAIN Youth Shelter.
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JW: Within our Entrata apartments, for which we have 10 designated apartments for homeless youth that are exiting foster care. And in addition to that, our youth shelter, we have seen a referral percentage on average of three to four new referrals each week.
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DV: One thing that I can tell you about CAPTAIN is, so when we were starting the WAIT House, which was in 2003, the WAIT House specifically set up its age group because of CAPTAIN, the ages that you serve youth at the CAPTAIN Shelter are…
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JW: Most of the youth are coming in between the ages of 13 to 17. Try to figure out what best programming would fit, whether it’s with us or another partner agency that could better serve their needs.
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DV: But the Office of Children and Family Services is the governing agency for homeless youth. Kristen, tell me a little bit about your role at BOCES.
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KC: Well, I’m a school counselor and I also wear the hat of the McKinney-Vento liaison for our district.
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DV: The McKinney-Vento Act, I believe, if I’m remembering correctly, is a 50-mile radius. So could you explain that a little bit?
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KC: Sure. So the McKinney-Vento Act gives students the right to either stay in the district of origin where they came from, or they can enroll in the new district where they’re living, whichever is in their best interests. So what that means basically is when we learn that a student is homeless, we work with their homeschool districts to make sure that they get what they need to stay in school,
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DV: Fixed, regular, and adequate. Right? Yeah. Those are the three key words that we have to go by when it comes to homeless youth.
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KC: Yes.
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DV: And the term couch surfing predominantly came from youth, it was my understanding. Years ago. Correct. So maybe we can dive into what is couch surfing.
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KC: Well, you’ll find a teenager who is not staying at home, but they’re sleeping on their Aunt Susan’s couch or something because it’s not safe for them to stay at home. And a lot of times a school district in the past would’ve said, well, you’re not eligible to go to our school district anymore because Aunt Susan’s house is in this district and you are from this district, but now they’re allowed to stay in that school and not have to switch schools while the whole rest of their life is in chaos.
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DV: Often we are like, we become wards of them. Correct. While they’re in our shelters. I think the hard part sometimes was some of the kids just needed respite. Maybe there’s some chaos at home.
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JW: Sometimes people just need a break.
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DV: What do you see from these kids when they enter into CAPTAIN and what do you see when they leave?
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JW: So when they come in, a lot of anxiety, a lot of uncertainty, but when they’re leaving again, we see some that are just coming back to us or they’re making those connections while they’re with us. So they’re calling us or wanting to talk to either the program manager or our care coordinator because they’ve built that relationship even over a short two-day period.
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DV: So the work doesn’t stop just because they left the house?
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JW: Absolutely not.
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DV: Let’s talk a little bit about school liaisons.
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KC: Well, yes, we have a very strong network of liaisons in the area, and I know as my experience as a liaison, I always feel so much better when a student is staying at CAPTAIN or the WAIT House because I know that they’re going to be well cared for. A lot of our couch surfing students they left a situation that was dangerous, but sometimes the place where they’re couch surfing is even more dangerous. There might be violence or drug use or other things going on there. Those are the kids that keep me up at night. Those are the ones I worry about. If I know that they’re at CAPTAIN or the WAIT House, I know that they’re going to be cared for. I had one student many, many years ago at the time of his prom, his junior prom, and not only did they make sure that he got to his prom, they made sure that he had a haircut and they made sure that he had a suit to wear, so he didn’t miss out on that rite of passage
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DV: I think I remember that.
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KC: Do you?
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DV: Yeah. Yeah. That was really great and the staff took a lot of pride in that, which was awesome, and it made a special evening they thought just wasn’t going to happen. Right. New York State Education law that says every school has to have a liaison. Is that correct?
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KC: Yes. Every school has to have a liaison. That person’s role is to make sure staff is educated on the McKinney-Vento Act and knows to look for the signs. You won’t always know if a student doesn’t have a safe place to stay.
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DV: People have this perception of homelessness that it’s an old man pushing a shopping cart. One of the things that opened my eyes when I started the WAIT House was these kids look like any other kid. Let’s talk a little bit about the invisibility of homeless youth.
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KC: It’s very important to them to look just like everyone else. A lot of them.
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JW: That’s right.
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KC: And if they don’t have the opportunity to wear clean clothes to school or to take a shower that morning, they’re not going to come to school. They don’t want to stand out from their peers.
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DV: As we’re sitting here talking, I can see a couple of us welling up a little bit because for me it’s starting to bring back some memories. I was like, I couldn’t believe this youth has gone through this traumatic experience after traumatic experience. And it often kind of makes me angry, to be honest.
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JW: A lot of emotion.
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DV: Tons of it. Right?
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JW: And I think a lot of times when we see the youth come into the shelter, they’re coming in most of the time with just what they have on their backs. They’re not coming in with bags and bags of clothes. They’re not coming in with any kind of personal attachment items that you may think that think of your own families or your own children and what they might have, where our youth are just coming in, what they have on them. And so we do our best when they are with us to shop for items that are personable to them so that they can continue creating their own self-identity.
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DV: A lot of the kids that we serve are pretty resilient. They’ve been through a lot of tough times, but we are so concerned of when they break and what that leads to. One of the things that I did not see, I didn’t see a lot of drug use. I didn’t see a lot of that.
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JW: Yeah, we’re not really experiencing that either. There is a definite increase in vaping. It’s very similar to how the selling and the marketing of cigarettes took place back in decades ago. We let them know upfront that it’s not allowed at the shelter, but just to educate them on why they shouldn’t because it is a tremendous issue right now. Right.
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DV: Take me through the steps. If you have a youth that is presented as homeless.
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KC: Well, I will meet with the student to make sure they’re aware of their rights. So first I just make sure that they understand this is a safe place, that they’re allowed to tell me what’s going on and that I’m going to help. And then I’ll reach out to the school district liaison to say, alright, here’s what we can offer. What can you provide to make sure this kid stays in school?
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DV: Do you or do you see either one of you resistance to family members allowing kids to go to the shelter?
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JW: Absolutely, we do, and what we try to express to the families is that it’s the right of the youth. We don’t need parent consent for a youth to be at the shelter. We would like for them to come on board with us at the onset of the youth joining us, but sometimes that takes a bit of time. This is an opportunity for everyone involved to be able to grow and come together with the end result of wanting the child to be reunited with the family.
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DV: How do you think the general public view, homeless youth.
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JW: Having been in a lot of these conversations around why a youth would want to run away, it’s not a want. It’s a need to get out of an unsafe situation. And so yes, there is that perception that, oh, they just didn’t want to do a chore or they’re fighting with a sibling or they didn’t get something they wanted. But most of the time it’s just needing and wanting to be in a safe place.
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DV: I didn’t see a lot of kids coming to the shelter that were actual runaways.
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JW: No, most of the time they’re youth that are meeting with a guidance counselor, a social worker at a school, and they’re just providing there is a safer place for you to go to.
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DV: The other thing that I kind of discovered, and I think both of you can touch on this too, is that sometimes I found the 16-year-old being the parent in the home or having to take care of their siblings.
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KC: So many times I’ve seen that again and again.
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JW: Yes. So we had a youth in our shelter not that long ago, actually, there were eight siblings in the home for which this youth was primary caregiver, and he was just really trying to move forward in his own life and wanted to seek pathways that he couldn’t because of the restrictions of having to take care of his siblings. He did finally make the call to us and he was with us a little less than a week needing to go back home and take care of his siblings, really pulled him back into that home setting.
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DV: That’s always been exceptionally heartbreaking for me because sometimes the children that we see entering our shelters, we would just love to see them be children and it just breaks your heart. Let’s talk about what happens on outreach. Could you explain to me the CAPTAIN Outreach program?
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JW: Absolutely. So we have two offices for street outreach. One is located here in Saratoga and the other is in Gloversville. We have a couple of designated workers that are going out on the streets and just trying to connect with anyone that they may come across that may need a different level of support. And so then that individual would be referred to our case managers and our case managers would then start the process of identifying through an assessment what other areas that individual may need. They may need a meal. Our workers are going out and supplying a meal. They may need a hygiene bag of sorts, or maybe they just need somebody to talk to for a couple minutes.
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DV: Do the outreach teams go through certain training, things like that to be able to identify kids that are street homeless?
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JW: Absolutely. So there’s a core training program that we use at CAPTAIN for which they’re going through 60 hours of training, anything from trauma-informed care to working with difficult individuals, but there is intensive trainings that they receive year-round and in hopes of providing them the best tools to be able to meet the individuals where they’re at.
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DV: So when we talk about meeting people where they’re at barriers, what barriers are we running into with some of the kids that you’re serving?
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KC: A lot of the barriers that you mentioned is not having that documentation because when you leave with just what’s on your back, you’re right, you don’t have your birth certificate. If you try to go get your driver’s license, you’re not able to. If you don’t have a fixed residence, you’re not able to get those things and so many job applications you have to be able to check, yes, I have transportation in order to be even considered for the job.
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JW: Especially if the families aren’t on board too. So if the youth is at the shelter or the youth is trying to find alternative means of stable housing and their parent or guardian is not in favor of the decisions they’re making and they hold the documentation, it becomes an added barrier for them.
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DV: Sometimes it became kind of a power play between the shelter staff and the parents that the perception sometimes from the parents is that we’re going to take their kids away or that they’re doing a bad job or we’re pointing fingers. Can you expand a little bit on that?
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JW: It can be a difficult situation for many of our families. We work extensively with the families in trying to get them to understand that what we’re doing is supporting the child. So there’s, again, because of the length of stay that a youth is with us, there’s a lot of time and opportunity for the youth and the caregiver to rebuild a relationship that might’ve been broken in the process. And that’s really what we’re trying to do.
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KC: I’ve seen those difficult relationships too, and I do the same. I just try to explain the parent. There’s no judgment here. This is just we’re trying to help you guys navigate a difficult situation. My goal is just to make sure your kid is in school and hopefully they don’t drop out.
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DV: Do you see anything about political impact, especially deeply concerned about funding for agencies, things like that? Is that a struggle for either one of you?
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JW: Grants have been cut across the board through New York State this year. We did not receive the funding that we had previous, so had to try to reallocate from certain other areas, try to still best support the programming and the outreach efforts that are so dire here in Saratoga.
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KC: It does take a lot of money to provide these services to students, and if that isn’t there, I am afraid that schools won’t be able to provide transportation for those kids. More of them will drop out. Biggest thing is to want to try to break that cycle so that they don’t go on to have children and then become homeless themselves as well.
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DV: And I think what we’re seeing is that not just working with homeless, but a lot of the nonprofits, we tend to do more with less. And now that some of these cuts are coming by our way, I think that there’s a lot of agencies out there that are at the breaking point.
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KC: I have worked with some outstanding organizations too that have been so helpful when we have a student in need, like the Ben Osborne fund, Washington County Children’s Committee, Family Service Association of Glens Falls, Soroptimist International. Every time we have reached out, they step right in and fill a need, and I’m worried about whether they’ll be able to continue their services too.
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DV: So this is really for our listeners, not for people that are in the field, but are there certain things or questions or anything that you can think of to help people identify how a youth may be homeless?
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JW: For one, if you know it’s a regular school day and you see a youth walking around a neighborhood, a mall, and they’re not accompanied by an adult, that may be a first indicator.
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DV: So what would you recommend that somebody do? I know a kid that might need some help? What is your suggestion?
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JW: My suggestion would just be calling your local enforcement and asking them just to do a safety check. If you see this happening in your area, use our law enforcement in that capacity.
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KC: I’m thinking too though, a lot of our students are very afraid of law enforcement and I wouldn’t also hesitate to call the school, but they have connections with law enforcement so they can find out as well, but they’re not as intimidating very much so they have been such a great help for schools.
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DV: Let’s talk a little bit about the long-term implications of youth homelessness. Can one of you or both of you, please tell me where this leads for our kids in the future, when they’re struggling homeless with and not getting the supports they need,
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JW: Sadly, they could end up on the streets and in a situation of trafficking, that is the biggest fear that we have with our youth is that they’re going to end up on the street and trafficked and in situations that leave them most vulnerable.
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DV: Human trafficking is kind of a weird name for what it really is, right? So people when they think of human trafficking, I think they automatically think somebody grabbing a kid and taking ’em over the border and selling ’em, but that’s not the case.
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JW: A lot of the trafficking situations that we’ve seen or have been a part of have involved a level of grooming in a lot of different situations. It was a family member that might’ve been acting irresponsible and illegal, trying to persuade the youth to start doing small things just to receive a couple bucks or even just some positive reinforcement and just a caring gesture. From there, that grooming escalates, and then it could lead to either the sex trafficking or the labor trafficking that we’ve seen.
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DV: I had a young girl come to us. She was 14-years old. Her mother was prostituting her to older men sometimes in their fifties and sixties, so the mother could purchase cigarettes, alcohol, whatever she wanted. And that child, when she finally got to us, she had ended up failing out of grades. Horrible trauma rape. That’s what human trafficking, and that’s what is actually happening out there.
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JW: And then the youth internalizes it and believes that it’s actually of normal behavior.
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KC: Once you’ve been exposed to that level, it’s really hard to relate to another 14-year-old who’s just talking about comic books and things. So you’re also then more socially isolated.
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DV: And that’s tragic, right? This is awful. This is something that needs to change. These things are really happening in our own communities, all of them, every community.
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KC: Everywhere.
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JW: And so that’s where we’re thankful for the other agencies that we’re able to reach out to and refer youth to if we’re not able to adequately and safely house them within our own program because of staffing ratios. But it is difficult, and there’s only a handful of us in this area that are able to provide such a service.
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DV: When we’re talking about 16 youth beds north of Albany, and there’s literally hundreds of homeless youth north of Albany. It’s a horrible cycle we’re living in and what we’re trying to get through. Well, I want to thank both of you so much. Jefferson Weidman with CAPTAIN.
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JW: Thank you.
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DV: Kristen Carey from BOCES. It’s great to have you both. It was a great conversations. Hopefully we’ll have more of them because this is such an important topic. I know it’s very dear to my heart and it’s critically important to the community, and I know how invested both of you are in this program and helping youth, and I just can’t thank you enough for both coming on today.
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JW: Thank you.
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KC: My pleasure.
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DV: To contact CAPTAIN, you could visit www.CAPTAINcares.org and you can call your local school and ask for the guidance office and ask for the school’s Homeless Youth Liaison. We’re looking forward to sharing more with you about our youth facing homelessness in future episode of Crossroads. Thank you for listening.
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CLOSE: Crossroads is produced by Shelters of Saratoga, a nonprofit human services agency serving the greater Saratoga area. Our mission is to transform the lives of our neighbors facing homelessness with support services, safe shelter, and a path to independence. Your support keeps our mission alive. Find out more about how you can help at sheltersofsaratoga.org.