Lighthouse Youth Crisis Center

Zeyd Khan, Summer 2013

Lighthouse Youth Crisis Center is a unique facility open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, serving youth aged ten to seventeen who are homeless, abused, neglected, abandoned, or who have nowhere else to go. The YCC sees approximately 1000 young people each year with 20% of those returning more than one time. While the average length of stay is 3-5 days, many youth are able to return home within six hours. To these youths, it not only provides a safe haven, but also food, clothing, schooling, and counseling services.

A typical day for a resident of the YCC starts at 8:30 with wake-up call. Residents are then given an hour to make their beds, clean their rooms, shower, get ready, and eat breakfast before being taken up to the classroom for independent activities. During this hour, youth are encouraged to spend time on the computers, read books, or work on a art project. At 10:30 they have "group", a sort of therapy session in which each youth airs their grievances about their current situation and receives advice on how to best cope with it. This is then followed by game time, where the entire group participates in a board game, and then lunch from noon to 1.

At 1, there is usually a scheduled outing to give the youth a chance to get out of the facility. The outing can range from something educational, such as a trip to the museum or conservatory, to purely recreational such as bowling, seeing a movie, or laser tag. 3 is snack time, and other than another group session or scheduled outing in the afternoon, residents have the rest of the evenings to themselves to use the community phone, watch TV, do their laundry, or play games with the other residents. The residents must be in their rooms by 11, and lights go out at midnight. All of this is interspersed with phone calls to family and friends, visits with the assigned social worker, and individual and family conferences.

As an intern at the site, I assisted in all of the activities involved with caring for the youth. This includes helping with intakes and discharges as well any day-to-day activities requiring supervision. In addition to this, at the beginning of my internship, I helped the residents construct an organic garden and implemented a biweekly Writing Workshop in order to broaden the youth's creative abilities. I feel that my greatest impact, however, has come through one-on-one conversations with the residents through which they could talk to me about their problems and seek advice on how they should handle situations.

Often, when a youth was disruptive, I would be asked to take them to cool off. In addition to this, I made an effort to communicate with every youth that came through the center on a daily basis. It was during these interactions that many of the youths chose to open up to me about the issues in their family and their feelings about them, usually while shooting around a basketball or playing a game. I listened and gave advice when I could, and I formed close connections with many youths. They began to see me as a mentor who they could confide in, and it truly helped many cope with their situations. Through these one-on-one conversations, I have been able to hear their stories, some tragic, and learn about the constant struggle that comes with being a homeless youth.