Let me give you an update on what our team has accomplished since 2017 when we started Solutions for Youth. We have raised over $30,000 and spent over $50,000. More importantly, we have served 414 youth! We have also collaborated with 16 schools that cover an area from Yreka to Corning. Since I first heard that there were 3-400 high school youth in Shasta County alone, I wondered how this happened.

Knowing this information, we’ve committed to finding a solution for this problem and created a program that has:

• Helped a homeless young man who couldn’t afford the shoes he needed.
• Helped a homeless young lady take a workshop on nursing.
• Bought clothes for numerous homeless children who had only one set of clothes.
• Purchased a mattress for a young man who was living with 8 others in an apartment so he would have somewhere to sleep.
• Bought laptops and tools for school.
• Purchased a bike for a student so she could get to and from work after school and continue helping her family with household bills.
• Paid application fees for a young lady’s college application.

From our beginning month in October of 2017, we have continued to serve our “heroes.” Heroes because these youth are continuing to get an education despite no or little support from the adults in their lives.
My heart goes out to these young people. The loneliness, the occasional feelings of hopelessness must be enough to give up. However, these youth continually move forward. I don’t know all of them personally, but I have a deep respect and concern for them. This past year at our annual Christmas Party we were able to thank Kristen Schreder for her encouragement and her dedication to solving problems in our community.

Kristen was a major help in our first year when she told me about the Women’s Fund and encouraged us to apply for a grant. We were able to obtain a $10,000.00 grant and later we obtained a gift of $5,000.00 from a business in Red Bluff to get us on our feet.  Since that time there has been a steady flow of requests from principals and school counselors to help homeless youth in Siskiyou, Shasta, and Tehama Counties.  We are grateful for the opportunity to assist these young people in finishing high school and continue with productive lives.  We are constantly raising funds and in need of the support from the community.  There has not been a magic fix for this problem, and we don’t see any changes in the homeless situation with adults or children soon. While that may be a gloomy outlook, we will continue to help these youth move forward. Would you please consider donating to Solutions for Youth?