Drop in Center for Youth opens in Superior

Project Reach Out has become a safe space in the community of Superior, Wisconsin. It brings a multitude of services for youth ages 12-21 to have access too, and it’s all in one building. Anywhere from food, laundry, hygiene products, clothing, you name it. And today, they expanded to now have a Youth drop in center.

“We serve youth who are either homeless or at risk of homelessness. Maybe they are thinking about running away or have run away or are just at risk youth. And I think anybody can be considered at risk at any time, which really opens the program up to any and all youth. The drop in center is open to all youth,” says Tenya Nelson, the Runaway Homeless Youth Program Supervisor for Project Reach Out.

Nelson says they had started a youth advisory board in the community and what youth were saying was that there was not enough safe and fun places for them to access in the community. In addition, they also talked about how there is a lack of resources.

“We want to make sure their basic needs are met. So we have a food shelf and we’re going to be offering warm food. We have hygiene products, we have household items, and we have winter gear, clothes, anything that they may need to be successful. We have school supplies. We work on education goals, employment goals, and we could just be a listening ear and be that one person that says, how school is this week?” continues Nelson.

The center also is a place that provides structure and support for youth that need it.

“A lot of kids are living with other family members, they don’t have the structure they need. So this place is kind of a fallback for them to just know that when you’re here, just take a load off and we’ll get to the rest of this stuff later.” Says Katie Madin, Program Coordinator for Project Reach Out.

To find out more about Project Reach Out, call at: (800) 777-7844. Or email projectreachout@hdchrc.org