Sisters of charity: Siblings give help to homeless youths
Price, Rita. Columbus Dispatch, Dec. 19, 2010.
No matter how early Jeana Patterson arrived at work last week, her footprints weren't the first on the snowy porch.
Cold and hungry and lonely young people were waiting to go inside. "They can eat, get warm, take a shower," Patterson said. And, this being the season, the homeless young people also like to look at the Christmas tree, which they somehow manage to appreciate without bitterness. "They're happy to be part of a tradition," Patterson said. "They want to belong."
But Patterson and her sister, Angela Lariviere, aren't sure how even the most resilient of Franklin County's homeless teens and young adults will fare if they lose - because of withering budgets - both
the respite house and the advocacy organization that fights for them every day.
Patterson, 36, is the program coordinator at the
Human Ecology House on N. 4th Street,
the city's only drop-in center for homeless young people.
Lariviere, 38, runs the
Youth Empowerment Program at the
Coalition on Homelessness and Housing in Ohio, the only statewide council of homeless young people.
Separate but united in their missions, the sister-led programs are devoted to a vulnerable and underserved population that - here and nationwide - rarely benefits from shelter systems designed for adults and families with young children.
"We're exactly the same, except we have totally different personalities," Lariviere said with a laugh about herself and her sister.
The two grew up poor, in and out of homelessness, just like the desperate kids they mentor and love.
"They come from a position of knowing," said Mary Jane Quick of Project Connect, the Columbus school district's program that focuses on homeless children.
"Quite frankly, Jeana knows how to get the youth to represent themselves in a way that the rest of us are just learning. She's gifted."
Patterson's job might end in June, however, when funding for
the drop-in center runs out.
Natasha Slesnick, an associate professor at Ohio State University's Department of Human Development and Family Science, said
the research grants that she used to start the drop-in center in 2006 have expired.
She has been unable to find enough money to cover the roughly $150,000 in annual operating costs for the center, known to young people as the Star House.
"We have people who are really, really caring and passionate," Slesnick said of Patterson and her staff, which includes OSU students. "I'm just sick about this. We don't want it to end."
Most large cities have drop-in centers, Slesnick said, because experts know they are an effective way to engage street youths.
An average of 20 to 30 go to the house each day to cook, rest and get help with clothing and resources.
Many of them also belong to Lariviere's group, which helps with basic needs but also encourages the youths to work together, participate in community service and advocate for policy change.
In the past two years, Lariviere's $200,000 budget has dropped by more than half. "I've cut everything," she said.
Danielle Jinks, an 18-year-old who counts on both
the drop-in center and the Youth Empowerment Program, said they mean the world to struggling youths.
"Angela is their family; Jeana is their family," Jinks said. "If they were to disappear, then I think a lot of the youths would just give up. They might think there's nobody who cares."
Megan Thompson, youth and young-adult minister at
St. Matthew the Apostle Church, said many young parishioners at her church and other Catholic churches are vowing not to let that happen.
The volunteers are trying to raise $20,000 to save the
Youth Empowerment Program. They have interviewed homeless youths and posted a
video on YouTube; one Bishop Hartley High School student says she won't accept Christmas gifts for herself this year - only donations.
"They're in such crisis," Thompson said. "But I really believe that our community could do something powerful."
D'Andre Sample, 19, often is one of the young people waiting for the drop-in center to open, and he might not leave until it closes around 5 or 6p.m.
He had been sleeping in an abandoned house but now has a bed at Faith Mission, he said.
The men's shelter is a tough place for a kid. He feels safer at the drop-in center, where he can talk to other teens, play video games and get help with apartment searches.
"I'm trying to get off the streets," said Sample, who now has an overnight job at a warehouse. "I want off at all costs."
As he bundled up to leave the center, an employee stopped and looked at his hands. "I'm OK," Sample insisted.
She quietly handed him a new, thick pair of gloves.
A couple of years ago, Patterson said, someone gave her the talk about being too busy, about how you can't take care of others unless you first take care of yourself.
Nice idea, maybe, for another line of work.
Lariviere spent an entire night last week on the street and in her car, trying to find shelter for frightened, freezing 18-year-olds.
"These kids don't get to turn off their lives," Patterson said, so the sisters won't, either.
For information about the drop-in center or to donate, go to
the website or call 614-432-5406.
For Youth Empowerment Program information, please call 614-280-1984, Ext. 17.
