By: Joe Martinez, Sanctuary Community Relations & Outreach Manager

Outreach workers from across the states of California and Nevada spent the day in Fresno to learn from each other’s successes, challenges, and barriers in providing street outreach to runaway, homeless and other youth in at-risk situations. The Street Outreach Workshop covered many issues that outreach workers struggle with including finding resources for youth, developing relationships that lead to help, and sustaining programs during tough economic times.

“This was a gathering of the minds,” says Michelle L. Tutunjian, Sanctuary Youth Services Director. “We all wanted to learn about different methods used by other outreach workers and see how we can apply those to our clientele.”

For many of the outreach workers, the highlight of the workshop came when four former homeless youth, now part of our Transitional Living Center, took the stage. During the two-hour youth panel, they spoke about issues and barriers they faced while on the streets. “I remember being forced to sleep under a freeway overpass with cardboard as my only shelter. I knew something had to change,” recalls 21-year-old Steven Lewis. “The next morning I went to the Sanctuary and got the help I needed to leave the streets.” At times, the now young adults were overwhelmed with emotion and found themselves fighting back their tears. At the end of the discussion, they received a standing ovation from the outreach workers and were called heroes.