Our Team of Handy Superheroes!
So much of 2021 was spent transforming our houses into homes and making them beautiful, calming places that our youth want to come home to. While maintaining safe and upkept spaces is a critical aspect of our youth's wellbeing, their trauma response behaviors can often lead to them being destructive to the houses and anything in them - this is a challenge. When providers are constantly worried about repairs that need to be done or something in the house that isn't working, it takes away from therapeutic time and creates a larger gap between our young people and their healing.
This is why we are so thankful for our handy superheroes, Gordon, Piet, and Henry. Our volunteer maintenance crew has played a critical role in our operations this past year - from painting and plumbing to home repairs and everything in between, this team is always willing to complete a project in our homes (and our thrift shop!) at a moment's notice. They help our youth feel safe in their environment and show them that people care about their safety, comfortability, and wellbeing.
Sometimes, due to misplaced feelings of aggression, we see holes in the walls of our home. One of our amazing team members, Gordon, has made trips to Andersen House to repair these damages, and recently started receiving some help. Gordon invited the young person who created a hole to join him in fixing it, offering to show them how it's done. This made them feel included in fixing the damage, while they had the opportunity to heal and learn.
Currently, our volunteer maintenance crew is working on revamping our Pryor home to become an additional therapeutic space for our clients to spend time with their providers. They're repairing walls, painting everything, fixing leaks, replacing flooring and transforming it back to a welcoming space after all the "love" it's received.
Next up is one of our most exciting projects yet! Youth Homes Thrift Shop is expanding and will probably be a bit larger by the next time you visit. Under the project management of one of our transition-age youth, they'll be knocking out a wall and using the space from one of our storage rooms to create a larger space for shoppers to enjoy our inventory of treasures. We are so proud of our client for leading such an important project and can't wait to see all the skills they learn from our maintenance crew along the way. Stay tuned for updates on this exciting expansion!
Youth Homes is so lucky to have a community full of amazing humans who care so much about our youth and want to help them thrive in any way they can. Special thank you to Gordon, Piet, and Henry for helping us create safe and beautiful therapeutic environments where our young people can grow.