Safe Children Coalition Receives Major Gifts for Youth Shelter Campaign

January 10, 2025 | Sarasota

Three recent major gifts have bolstered Safe Children Coalition’s Youth Shelter Campaign, a fundraising effort that is supporting the construction of a new Youth Shelter for homeless and other vulnerable children in Florida’s Judicial Circuit 12 (Sarasota, Manatee and DeSoto counties). Generous support has been provided recently by: the Leonard & Judith Schwartzbaum Foundation, $250,000; Siemer Family Foundation, $100,000; and Bank of America, $25,000.

Currently, the Youth Shelter Campaign has raised nearly 80% of its Phase I goal of $9 million; Safe Children Coalition (SCC) recently launched the public phase of the campaign. The new Youth Shelter will enable the organization to serve and protect more at-risk youths in the coming years.

“The effort to build a new Youth Shelter is a massive undertaking, one that we could not achieve without the generous support of the entire community,” said SCC President and CEO Brena Slater. “We are immensely grateful to the foundations, businesses and individuals who believe in our vision for a new Youth Shelter and have entrusted us to carry out this important project. Thanks to the support of organizations such as the Leonard & Judith Schwartzbaum Foundation, Siemer Family Foundation and Bank of America, we are thrilled to find ourselves closing in on our campaign goal.”

Since 1991, SCC has provided the only CINS/FINS (Children in Need of Services/Families in Need of Services) Youth Shelter in Sarasota and DeSoto counties for our community’s children; the shelter serves teens from Manatee County, too. The program provides basic needs: safe shelter, food, clothing, and transportation to and from school and other essential appointments. Case managers and therapists provide onsite sessions including individual, group, and family counseling.

“Partnering with Safe Children Coalition demonstrates how Bank of America is taking action to provide the resources and support needed to help Sarasota/Manatee thrive,” said Erik Vatter, president, Bank of America Sarasota/Manatee. “This funding builds upon our longstanding efforts to help strengthen community vitality by addressing important issues related to basic needs.”

The consequences of youth homelessness include mental health problems, substance abuse,  victimization, and short- and long-term barriers to education and employment. SCC’s goal is to prevent the entry of teens into child welfare or the department of juvenile justice system, and to protect at-risk youths from human trafficking or involvement in other harmful activities.

Many of the teens served enter the Youth Shelter because of a mental health crisis and/or a parent’s inability to cope with a youth who is out of control. Additionally, when a child experiences a disruption in foster care placement, foster children are placed in the shelter until more appropriate living arrangements can be found. For the past four years, the SCC Youth Shelter has been first or second in facility utilization out of the 16 shelters in the Florida network, exceeding contracted bed days.

SCC’s new Youth Shelter will be located on Sawyer Road in north Sarasota; currently, the shelter is housed at a smaller, temporary location until the new facility can be built. The groundbreaking for the new facility is expected to be held in the spring of 2025.

For more information or to contribute to SCC’s Youth Shelter Campaign, visit sccyouthshelter.org.