THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, January 5, 1996 TAG: 9601050453
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DIANE TENNANT, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 90 lines
The old Texaco office on Olney Road doesn't look like a safe place.
The sign for the Midtown Muscle Club is half gone, as are some of the windows. About 20 years of hoarding has filled the three floors with items as diverse as a burlap-and-paper palm tree, an aluminum bowl full of dusty goblets, stacks of John Wayne pictures, and chairs, lots and lots of chairs.
Pigeons love this place. So does Tami Reed Kilgore, deputy director of the Safe Place Program.
The building is being transformed into a shelter for runaway children, and offices for the Youth Crisis Network/The Safe Place Program, which provides 24-hour crisis intervention for youths and families.
Kilgore said she was the first Safe Place representative to look at the building. ``I really liked it,'' she said, standing on the sidewalk dressed in coveralls, watching three jail inmates carry piles of trash out of the building. ``It's structurally sound, and it is really big. It's got character.''
By April or May, the building will have more than that. Plans call for sleeping space for up to six runaways: three boys and three girls. The first floor will house three or four offices, a conference room, a great room with living and dining facilities, bathrooms and a laundry room. The second floor, which will be renovated next, will have apartments for live-in staffers.
The Safe Place Program is best known for its yellow-and-black signs that identify businesses in Hampton Roads as safe havens for youths in crisis. A child can enter a business that displays a Safe Place sign and ask for help. Employees will contact the Safe Place Program and a counselor will be sent immediately to assist the child and parents.
Under a contract with the city of Norfolk, every police report on runaways is faxed to the Youth Crisis Network. Network employees and volunteers follow up to locate the runaways and solve the underlying family problems.
The network receives about 200 police reports a month. A proposal for a direct computer link with the police department is being considered by the city. Such a link would mean at most a two-hour lag in receiving police reports. Now, it can be up to 48 hours before the network receives the reports.
Safe Place, funded by United Way, federal grants, private donations and the city of Norfolk, operates with 10 employees and more than 50 volunteers out of its founder's house in Virginia Beach. The Pritchard Building will give the network a home in Norfolk.
Finding a location was not easy. Since September 1995, Kilgore and others had looked at buildings in Park Place and on Granby Street. Each time, they were rebuffed. Even the Olney Road site was in doubt for a while. Some downtown merchants were unhappy about a ``social program'' moving in, Kilgore said. Kilgore and others, including Program Director Felicia Booth, visited every nearby business to talk with owners and hand out packets of information.
``We had overwhelming support from all the immediate neighbors,'' Kilgore said. ``Not anyone said `No.' ''
The Youth Crisis Network/Safe Place Program has signed a three-year lease and will renovate the building with donated materials and labor. But first the building must be cleaned out. Sheriff's work crews are helping carry out trash and load trucks with items that owner Tony Pritchard wants to keep. Pritchard stopped Tuesday to buy lunch for the crew. ``I'm a hoarder,'' he said, watching the men carry out lumber and massive mirrors, hot dog carts and boxes of cups.
The curving, tiled staircase that leads to the second floor was piled with restaurant-style upholstered chairs. The red-and-white Texaco stars set into the brick walls were a little faded, since Texaco moved out in 1955.
Kilgore watched the garbage truck fill up. ``It was a bit overwhelming'' on first sight, she admitted. ``We've gotten four truckloads out already.''
``But we're determined,'' Felicia Booth added, and Kilgore finished for her: ``We like challenges.'' MEMO: To contact the Youth Crisis Network/Safe Place Program for help, to
volunteer or donate materials or labor, call 431-2627. ILLUSTRATION: Color photos by BETH BERGMAN, The Virginian-Pilot
Donney Cannon carries plywood and other refuse from the Pritchard
Building on Olney Road in Norfolk.
Worker Eddie McMillan of Portsmouth carries trash from the Pritchard
Building...
Photo by BETH BERGMAN, The Virginian-Pilot
Donney Cannon, left, and Gary Kotlarsz, center, carry boxes of
refuse from the Pritchard Building on Olney Road in Norfolk. The
building is being converted into a shelter for runaways and a
24-hour crisis intervention center.
by CNB