Safe Children Coalition Foundation closes out Youth Shelter Campaign

In 2023, child welfare organization Safe Children Coalition (SCC) quietly began gathering community leaders and potential supporters to gauge the viability of a major fundraising campaign to build a new Youth Shelter. After a feasibility study and a quiet phase to gather major donor support, the public phase of the fundraising campaign began in late 2024.

Thanks to contributions from the state, area foundations and generous individuals, SCC broke the $9 million mark to cover Phase I of the campaign, for construction costs, early this year. Additional gifts moved SCC into Phase II but, to close out the effort, SCC received $500,000 from the SCC Foundation – the first time that the foundation has ever awarded such support.

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SCC announced that the campaign had exceeded its goal during its annual fundraising event, the Giving Breakfast, in late March.

The new Youth Shelter will serve homeless and other vulnerable children in Florida’s Judicial Circuit 12 (Sarasota, Manatee and DeSoto counties). In our region each year, there are thousands of youths who are homeless, have run away, or are ungovernable or truant.

SCC's Youth Shelter is the only facility designated for homeless teens in Sarasota and Desoto counties; it serves youths from Manatee County as well. Many of the teens served enter the shelter because of a mental health crisis and/or a parent’s inability to cope with a youth who is out of control. The shelter provides wrap around services focused on reuniting teens with their families or other appropriate placement, and preventing them from entering foster care or juvenile justice programs.

In recent years, SCC’s Youth Shelter has been first or second in facility utilization out of the 16 shelters in the Florida network, exceeding contracted bed days.

The consequences of youth homelessness include mental health problems, substance abuse, victimization, and short- and long-term barriers to education and employment. The new Youth Shelter will enable SCC to “reimagine the future” for more at-risk youths in our community.

"The Safe Children Coalition has been doing extraordinary work in our community for a long time, protecting kids from abuse and neglect, keeping families together, and providing key wrap-around services to children in need,” said Brian Goodrich, who serves as a board member for SCC and the SCC Foundation. “When the foundation had the opportunity to support this project, it was a no-brainer. This project serves as a very powerful reminder to all the children who will walk through these doors that they matter, and they are worth investing in. The foundation is deeply proud to be a partner in this project."

The new shelter will be located on Sawyer Road in north Sarasota; the exterior construction is nearly complete. SCC leaders expect the facility to be operational by the fall of this year.

“Thanks to our generous donors and foundation partners, teens ages 10-17 – who have no place else to go – will have shelter, wrap-around services, and an opportunity to receive the tools they need to either be reunited with their families or to be provided with appropriate care that avoids placement in the child welfare system,” said SCC President & CEO Brena Slater. “Our hearts are full as we say ‘Thank you!’ to all who believed in this critical program and entrusted our organization to make the dream of a new Youth Shelter a reality.”

For more information about the new Youth Shelter, visit sccyouthshelter.org. For more about SCC, visit sccfl.org.

About Safe Children Coalition, Inc.
Safe Children Coalition, Inc. (SCC) serves as the lead agency for community-based care for Sarasota, Manatee and DeSoto counties. SCC is a collaboration between local community agencies who provide services to children and families in need. SCC is committed to protecting children, strengthening families, and building community. The core functions provided by SCC include child welfare case management, foster care, adoption, independent living, prevention, diversion, quality management, and support services. Visit sccfl.org or call 941-371-4799.