Teen center opens to help homeless students in Davis County
Sep 13, 2024, 10:00 AM
The Teen Living Center was established to help some of the high-school-aged students in Davis County by providing them a place to stay and by teaching them self reliance. It held a ribbon cutting on Sept. 12, 2024. (Mike Anderson/KSL TV)
(Mike Anderson/KSL TV)
LAYTON, Utah — There are approximately 1,500 children who experience some kind of housing insecurity in the Davis County school district. A new center to house homeless teens in the district is now complete to help some of the 300 that are high school age.
The new center takes a unique approach to take on the problem at a district level. The Davis Education Foundation, which started on the new solution two years ago, is behind the fundraising and Thursday’s ribbon cutting. Now that the facility is ready a company called Switchpoint takes over. It runs a number of residential facilities for those experiencing homelessness, veterans and those with mental health needs.
It will be deciding which 16 teens will get housing help with an assist from school counselors. The will have a goal of helping students to graduate from high school and helping them learn self-reliance.
For those involved, the opening is more than a simple ceremony; it’s the start of a new approach to helping teens in Utah. Jodi Lunt, the director of the Davis Education Foundation, said that teen resource centers were already offering after-school help.
“The conception of the teen center started with one of our incredible donors and partners in this area who said, ‘Where are these young people sleeping’ ” Lunt said.
It became apparent that the Davis School District could try to help in a bigger way.
“A place where they could have their food insecurity met, their physical needs met, and then assistance and wraparound service to help them succeed and achieve all of the dreams and goals that they might have,” Lunt said. They will also have separate areas for privacy and study, and they’ll learn to prepare their own food.
It might have seemed like a big ask, but immediately, people started donating. Thousand of individuals, businesses, and organizations, along with state and federal funding, combined to create the 16-bed facility.
Carol Hollowell is the CEO of Switchpoint, the company running the Teen Living Center.
The absolute end goal is to get these kids to graduate,” Hollowell said. “You know, education is the first step in trying to solve homelessness and poverty.”
Read the full story at KSLTV.com.
