San Diego Youth Services Spends one Night Outside to Raise Awareness and Funds to End Youth Homelessness
Media Advisory
For immediate release: September 28, 2022
Contact: Sandra Wellhausen
(619) 507-2077
swellhausen@sdyouthservices.org
San Diego Youth Services Spends one Night Outside to Raise Awareness and Funds to End Youth Homelessness
More than 1,800 youth experience homelessness every night in San Diego
San Diego, Calif (Oct.7, 2022)— San Diego Youth Services’ board of directors, CEO and supporters are taking a stand against youth homelessness by sleeping out today, Friday Oct. 7 at the organization’s second annual Street Sleep SD event. The group is hoping to raise awareness and funds for youth experiencing homelessness.
The event will start at 6 p.m. at San Diego Youth Services’ Spring Valley Campus at 3845 Spring Drive, Spring Valley, CA 91977. Doors open at 6 p.m. and the program begins at 7 p.m. and includes presentations about homelessness by staff and youth, sharing their experience. The event will be emceed by Tati from Jesse and Tati in the Morning on Star 94. 1, and San Diego Youth Services’ youth run coffee shop Ground Up Coffee will be open. The event concludes the following morning at sunrise.
“More than 1,800 youth are experiencing homelessness every night in San Diego,” said Walter Philips, CEO, San Diego Youth Services. “Homelessness is a big problem in our city, and we see youth that are struggling every day.”
According to the Regional Task Force on Homelessness’ 2022 Point in Time Count, which is a one-day snapshot of the minimum number of San Diegans that experience homelessness, 8,427 people in the San Diego region experience homelessness on any given day and 1,842 are youth.
“Youth who experience homelessness, are often between the ages of 12 to 24, and look like any other youth,” said Philips. “But at the end of the day, they don’t have anywhere to go.”
SDYS works to end the cycle of homelessness by moving youth into safe and stable housing and providing safe places to live and long-term solutions for children and young adults who otherwise would have nowhere to go. The organization also provides wraparound services, including the tools and training youth need to become self-sufficient and create healthy and productive paths in life.
“We are not trying to pretend to know what it is like to experience homelessness by doing this event,” said Philips. “We are instead sleeping out in solidarity with those that do not have anywhere to stay.”
To learn more and support Street Sleep SD, visit streetsleepsd.org.
San Diego Youth Services is a nonprofit organization serving more than 17,000 youth annually who are vulnerable, homeless or abused. SDYS has helped stabilize the lives of more than 797,000 youth living in San Diego County since its founding in 1970. SDYS is working to end homelessness, prevent delinquency and school failure, break the cycle of child abuse and neglect and promote mental health and addiction recovery.
To learn more, visit sdyouthservices.org
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