Company Profile
YouthCare
Company Overview
Each night in Seattle, 700–1,000 young people have no safe place to sleep. That’s thousands of homeless youth every year — stuck in survival mode.
Most were traumatized before they reached our streets. Each day they spend on them will take its toll. It isn’t difficult to understand why so many chronically homeless adults report having been homeless as youth.
At YouthCare, we serve children young as 12 and young adults all of 24. On the streets, rather than having a childhood, the younger ones are already enduring greater fear than anyone should ever have to. At ages for finding mentors and role models, the young adults are learning to trust no one. All of them should be imagining and building a future. Instead, they’re occupied with getting to tomorrow.
We know how to help that kid in the doorway become a kid in school, an adult on the job, an independent and stable citizen. It takes a “continuum of care”: a coordinated set of individually appropriate services.
Unfortunately, our resources are limited. In the face of an alarming rise in demand, we are able to put together a true continuum of care for only a fraction of the youth that walk through our doors.
We do stand out in this community, however, and in the nation, for the scope of services we can offer. From specialized counseling to formal and informal coaching in life skills, from GED and high school classes to employment training, the continuum of care is the surest way to get homeless youth off the streets and preparing for life.
Notable Accomplishments / Recognition
For nearly 40 years, YouthCare has been a leader in providing effective services to Seattle’s homeless youth. In 1974, a group of concerned citizens started a three-bed shelter for homeless and runaway youth, the first in the Western United States. Since then, we have grown to become a community-based agency with six sites serving the greater Seattle area. During that time, we have led the way in creating effective, innovative programs for homeless young people:
In 1989, YouthCare created one of the first transitional living programs in the Northwest. Straley House now houses Catalyst, one of the first low-barrier housing programs for homeless youth in the region.
In 1998, YouthCare opened ISIS House, the first transitional living program in Washington State to focus on the unique needs of homeless LGBTQ youth.
In 2003, YouthCare was one of the first agencies nationwide to contract with the Office of Refugee Resettlement to house a shelter/case management program serving the specialized needs of refugee youth.
In May 2010, YouthCare partnered with the City of Seattle, the King County Prosecutor’s Office, and others to open the Bridge Program, the only residential recovery program in the Northwest for sexually exploited children
Benefits
YouthCare offers a very generous package of benefits to both full and part-time employees. Benefits include holiday, sick, and vacation pay plus paid parental leave, well-liked medical, dental and vision coverage plus company paid disablity and life insurance. YouthCare has 401(k) plan with matching contributions after the waiting period.