Monterey, Ca, March 22, 2022 – Community Human Services (CHS) is excited to announce that the Yellow Brick Road in Carmel has awarded CHS a grant of $5,000 to support our work on the Monterey Peninsula serving homeless youth. This funding will help counselors conduct street outreach daily offering survival aid, crisis counseling, case management and referrals to community services including medical, mental and substance abuse services.
The need for services for homeless youth in Monterey County is well documented. The January 2019 Monterey County Homeless Census identified 2,422 homeless individuals. Of that number, 324 were unaccompanied homeless children and transition-age youth (up to age 24), of which most were unsheltered. Unsheltered youth often wind up sleeping in vehicles, abandoned buildings or outdoors in tents, parks, or under overpasses and exposing them to harsh elements.
In 2021, Yellow Brick Road provided a grant to Community Human Services for the Safe Place youth shelter where we were able to serve 42 homeless youth and provide over 300 items of basic aid. Our street outreach continued daily throughout the pandemic providing much needed personal protective equipment as well as COVID educational materials along with survival aid, crisis counseling, case management and referrals.
CHS has provided services to unaccompanied runaway and homeless youth for over 35 years. Safe Place, a counseling and case management program, opened in 1986. The Monterey Peninsula Street Outreach Program was added in 2003, and a 12-bed emergency shelter was added in 2016. Safe Passage, a 6-bed transitional supportive housing program, opened in Monterey in 2009. And the Salinas Valley Street Outreach Program opened in 2019.
Over its 30 years, the Yellow Brick Road Benefit Shops have donated nearly $7.2 million to Monterey County non-profits. To help continue this philanthropy, they need more volunteers. Please call (831)626-8480 or www.yellowbrickroadbenefitshop.org