Youth Programs

Overview of Services

Street Youth Ministries has designed programs that offer youth the necessary resources to make progress in their movement off the streets. Additionally, SYM programs offer youth opportunities to interact and form relationships with healthy and caring volunteers. It is these relationships that encourage healing and develop hope in the lives of so many of our youth.

SYM serves street youth through the following programs:

Drop-In Center

The Drop-In Center provides services on a “drop-in” basis. These include showers, light meals, hygiene kits, clothing, and laundry facilities. Additionally, trained and caring volunteers and staff offer advocacy, activities and healthy interaction. Drop-in is often our first contact with street youth and one means of keeping in touch with youth as they deal with the challenges of street life. SYM builds relationships with young people to foster their personal growth and movement off the streets. Once youth are introduced to SYM, we are able to involve them more deeply in subsequent programs.

Advocacy and Referrals

SYM staff spends time weekly with youth inside and outside of Drop-in to determine specific needs and put together referral plans so that youth access the services that will help them make positive steps to success. SYM offers referrals for case management, shelter, chemical dependency, dependency, housing and counseling. In addition to our collaboration with the UDYA, SYM actively networks with youth services outside the University District to ensure youth receive the support they need. SYM is committed to giving a voice to youth who are often misunderstood and are treated based on misconceptions about their troubled lives. Staff often will advocate for youth in circumstances where they need counsel or support, such as with employers, legal authorities and in the process of accessing needed services.

Life Skills Practice

Without mastering very basic life skills, youth have little or no chance of leaving the streets. Through everyday interaction with volunteers and staff, youth learn various skills from practicing good hygiene, doing regular chores to finding a job.

Life skills practice offered or promoted at SYM include:

  • Budgeting
  • Hygiene/Self-Care
  • Education Resources
  • Chore Program
  • Time Management
  • Job Referrals
  • Utilizing Relevant Community Support

Chore Program

Bus tickets, batteries (for portable CD players), new shoes and new backpacks are items that youth desire, but can’t always purchase or access easily. SYM offers these items to youth as incentives for doing chores in the Drop-in center or SYM offices. Youth learn the value of work and learn basic skills like cleaning, organizing and follow-through.

Transportation

In the UDYA, SYM is the only agency that offers Greyhound tickets to youth longing to go home to a safe and healthy environment. Youth are assigned a specific numbers of hours of work to complete in order to earn their ticket home.

Youth Getaways

Life on the streets of the University District can be dangerous, tiresome and discouraging for youth. SYM takes youth out of this environment to see places with beautiful scenery, experience healthy activity and practice interacting with caring and positive adults. In this new setting, youth behave better and their facades diminish. SYM plans the following getaways each calendar year:

Winter Ski/Snowboard Trip

Each winter volunteers and staff take youth to the mountains to breath fresh air, learn something new and experience a new kind of high! An average of 10 youth and 6 volunteers attend each year.

Summer Hiking Trip

Summer is a perfect time to get youth away from the University District to exercise, enjoy the outdoors and experience community. On this summer's hiking trip youth and volunteers traversed through trees and onto the beach. At one point, they were comfortable enough to start singing songs as they hiked. “Pink” enthusiastically reported that she “really enjoyed herself and learned so much about the Lord!”

Rock Climbing

Our most popular getaway happens bi-weekly. SYM staff and volunteers take youth to Stone Gardens to try their skills at rock climbing. Between five to eight youth have become regulars at the gym, looking forward each time to the experience. Tyler, our Drop-in Coordinator says “you begin to see the kids as they truly are when they're away from their normal environment doing something so challenging and rewarding.”

Mentoring

SYM volunteer and paid staff spend time outside of Drop-in with youth, having coffee, engaging in impromptu conversations with youth who stop by SYM offices. Others minister to youth by writing letters while they are in jail.

Contact

For more information about the SYM programs, contact Tyler Bauer, Program Coordinator, at 206-524-7301 ext. 114 or via e-mail at .

Drop-In Schedule

Monday Drop-In 7:30–9:30 p.m.
Tuesday Drop-In 7:30–9:30 p.m.
Wednesday Closed
Thursday Drop-In 7:30–9:30 p.m.
Friday Drop-In 1:00–4:00 p.m.
Saturday Closed
Sunday Closed