Launch of Safe Place sites for youths to seek crisis help scheduled Friday at ZGYC

The Zach Gordon Youth Center. (City and Borough of Juneau photo)

(City and Borough of Juneau press release)

This month, in partnership with Tlingit and Haida, first responders, and several others, the Shéiyi Xaat Hít Youth Shelter launched Safe Place, a new community initiative designed to better serve youth in crisis.

Safe Place is a national youth outreach and prevention program for young people ages 10 to 17 in need of immediate help and safety. Safe Place designates youth-friendly businesses and organizations as “Safe Places” where any youth in crisis can go to seek help. Once a youth enters the business and asks for help, the employee will show them to a safe waiting area and call the Shéiyi Xaat Hít Youth shelter. A trained shelter staff will respond within 30 minutes to provide direct crisis management and determine what resources are necessary to meet the youth’s needs.

Shéiyi Xaat Hít is Juneau’s only 24/7 emergency shelter for youth. Shelter staff work with families to provide necessary services like counseling, housing assistance, and family mediation for youth who have run away from home, are homeless, or are at risk of either.

“Although we’ve served a record number of youth at the shelter over the last year, we know that there’s many more who need help. Safe Place is a great way for us to expand the safety net of support for youth in Juneau,” shares Hannah Jenkins, Outreach Coordinator at Shéiyi Xaat Hít.

In Juneau, the first Safe Place locations will include the Tlingit and Haida Wayfinders program at Floyd Dryden, Capital City Fire/Rescue’s staffed fire stations (downtown, airport, and Auke Bay), the Southeast Alaska Food Bank, the Zach Gordon Youth Center, the Juneau Police Department headquarters, Glacier Cinemas movie theater, Kindred Post, Dimond Park Aquatic Center, and Augustus Brown swimming pool.

Youth can find a Safe Place by looking for the black and yellow signs on businesses, searching the list of current Safe Places at https://bit.ly/SheiyiXaatHit, or texting their location and the word “safe” to TXT-4-HELP (44357).

A ceremonial launch of this program is scheduled from 2 to 4 p.m. Friday at the Zach Gordon Youth Center.