THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, January 12, 1996 TAG: 9601120482
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DIANE TENNANT, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 64 lines
Seton House, the shelter for teenage girls, plans to double its residential services by opening a similar shelter for boys.
The target date is July 1998, but it could open sooner if a suitable building is located quickly and funds for an operating budget are secured, said Seton House Director Kathy Jeffries.
``At this point in time, there is no boys' shelter like the Seton House,'' Jeffries said. ``There are other places kids can be sent if they've been through the court services unit - if they have committed a crime or been taken out of their home.
``We are the only one in the area that is a non-court placement shelter.''
The free shelter for girls has operated for nearly 11 years on North Lynnhaven Road in Virginia Beach. Boys ages 10 to 17 who are having difficulty at home have been given out-client counseling at Seton House, but there has been nowhere to keep them overnight for the cooling-off period that can be vital to solving parent/teen conflicts, Jeffries said.
``A lot of these kids just need somebody to talk to or somebody to help them talk to their own parents,'' she explained. ``So many of these kids are not yet into the court system. They haven't done any crimes. They're just in need of some structure and mentoring and role modeling.''
Seton House shelters approximately 200 girls a year, with each girl staying an average of two weeks. It also provides out-client counseling to an average 35 children a month - boys and girls - plus their families.
Clients come from all cities in Hampton Roads. Residential clients transfer temporarily to the Virginia Beach school system.
The ideal facility for a boys' shelter would be a two-story building with 6,000 to 8,000 square feet of space.
The first floor would be remodeled, if necessary, to contain activity areas, a kitchen/dining area, counseling/conference areas and staff offices. The second floor would contain about five bedrooms holding two to three residents each, and two bathrooms. It would need room for an outdoor recreation area and basketball court, plus 15 parking spaces.
The preferred location would be in Virginia Beach, bounded by Shore Drive on the north, Birdneck Road on the east and Newtown Road on the west.
Seton House operates on a $200,000 annual budget, with three full-time and three part-time counselors.
The boys' shelter would need a similar budget, although it would share a director and some staffing.
The boys' shelter cannot open until a source of operating funds is secured, and fund-raising is being planned now, Jeffries said. Of concern is the shaky status of the federal Runaway and Homeless Youth Grant, which provides 38 percent of Seton House's operating budget, she added.
The Department of Health and Human Services, which provides the grant, has not been fully funded in budget negotiations to date, she said. The rest of the Seton House budget comes from the community.
Jeffries said some of the remodeling and design work on the boys' shelter could be done by vo-tech students in the school system, which would provide an opportunity for teens to help each other.
``I feel like it's definitely going to happen,'' she said. ``It's just a matter of getting the resources together.'' MEMO: If you know of a potential facility, or would like to donate to Seton
House, contact Kathy Jeffries at 498-4673. by CNB