Outreach program for troubled kids expands

Wake Forest fire stations to be among sites

Back in 2001, Safe Place coordinator Karen Bonnewell could find only a handful of volunteers interested in establishing a program in Wake Forest. At the time, Bonnewell said she felt that the community was not large enough to generate the necessary number of volunteers.

Five years and about 7,000 additional Wake Forest residents later, Bonnewell feels the time is right to try again.

"With the growth Wake Forest has undergone, I think we're going to be successful in bringing Safe Place here," Bonnewell. "This time, I won't be defeated."

Safe Place sites provides immediate help for youth. Anyone up to age 17 dealing with crises at school or home can go to a Safe Place site and ask for help.

Once a youth arrives at a Safe Place site, a local volunteer is called to meet and help decide what assistance is needed and whether that person wants to be taken to the Wrenn House crisis shelter in Raleigh.

Project Safe Place is the outreach component of Wrenn House, a runaway/crisis intervention program and shelter on Hillsborough Street in Raleigh. The shelter is run by Haven House Services, a private, nonprofit agency founded in 1973.

Nearly 200 Safe Place sites have been established in Raleigh, Cary, Apex and Garner. By bringing Safe Place to northern Wake County, Bonnewell said, children and teenagers facing difficult situations will no longer have to take risks just to seek help.

"We've had kids thumb their way down Capital Boulevard or take rides with people they probably shouldn't have ridden with just to make it to our services in Raleigh," said Bonnewell.

The services offered at Wrenn House range from crisis counseling to utilization of the shelter facilities. Reaching out to youth in the early stages of a crisis can minimize its impact, said Haven House social worker Jodi Springer.

"If we are doing our job right, families and youth will develop new skills and be better equipped to deal as a family unit with whatever comes their way," Springer said. "We want youth to return home with a true sense of overall happiness, that they are being heard by us and by their parents."

In order to provide the vital link between area youth and Haven House services, a minimum of 20 trained volunteers will be assigned to Safe Place sites around Wake Forest. Wake Forest Fire Chief David Williams has agreed to allow station houses to be among the first Safe Place sites in town.

A date for the opening has not been set, but Safe Place officials are putting together a volunteer staff now. They expect four orfive sites, initially, in Wake Forest.

"It's just a natural fit," Williams said. "A lot of kids love firemen and view firemen as a safe group of people. When they need a place to go, when they have a problem, it seems only natural to have a fire station as a place they can get help."

Having an approachable location should make it easier for youth in crisis to take the first step and walk through the doors of a Safe Place site, according to Wake Forest/Rolesville High School teacher Shiree Long.

"A student might find it easier to walk into a neighborhood fire station or community center than, say, the police department or social services," said Long, who also is the school's Key Club advisor. "The less intimidating the site, the more likely a student might seek help there."

The Key Clubs at Wake Forest/Rolesville and Wakefield high schools are helping to promote Safe Place around town by sponsoring a poster contest among their members. Selected posters will be displayed by businesses and organizations during National Safe Place Week in March.

"I can already sense that Wake Forest is serious this time about making their children a priority," she said. "By bringing this strong safety program to their community, they are putting what's important first."