Free To Be Me

Free To Be Me       by Catherine L. Murray

Keeping Tulsa area youth safe, and teaching them to lead healthy and productive lives: that’s part of the mission of Youth Services of Tulsa.  Youth Services is a nonprofit community agency that is nationally recognized for its quality, creativity, and its devotion to the advocacy of youth. The agency helps to build up self-esteem, teaches valuable life skills for independent living, and instills positive core values and decision making skills in each youth that seeks help. YST provides services to 16,000 youth a year and cannot do it without the help of caring individuals that volunteer their time along with donations to keep the services viable.

It all started in 1969 when the Tulsa Metropolitan Ministries helped support the creation of Youth Services of Tulsa (YST) by matching caring adults with youth that needed guidance and help as part of the Oklahoma Crime Commissions  delinquency prevention project. In the 1970’s a formal counseling program began and an emergency adolescent shelter opened its doors to provide temporary 24 hour residence to youth that had no safe place to go. In the 1980’s YST’s suicide prevention program was chosen as a national model along with another agency. Around the same time the Misdemeanant Alternative Program began to deter youth that had minor offenses from further infiltrating the juvenile justice system. The 1990’s saw a partnership with QuikTrip in the formation of the SafePlace Program; this was set up to provide a neighborhood access point for youth in crisis so they could avoid becoming victims. This was followed with the opening of the Broken Arrow and Skiatook offices. 2002 saw the beginning of the independent living program and the Owasso office opened. For an exact timeline visit http://www.yst.org/images/yst/Docs/yst_history.pdf.

Youth Services of Tulsa provides a variety of services to Tulsa’s youth in need, they include:

Crisis Services; counseling, SafePlace, shelter, street outreach services, and transitional living program. Juvenile Justice; community intervention center, first offender diversion program, and re-entry. 

Youth Development; performing arts, health education and prevention and PregNot, LGBTQ/GSA, north Tulsa youth program, youthbuild, youth court and youth leadership forum.

A complete list and descriptions can be found here: http://www.yst.org/yst/Programs.asp

Can YST count on you?

Donate, your gift is tax deductible. YST is a 501(c) (3) nonprofit organization. Contact Suzy Sharp at 918-382-4401 or send her a message via the webpage: http://www.yst.org/yst/Donate1.asp

Volunteer! Why not share some of your time and talents with these at-risk youth and help them build a brighter future? There are so many ways to volunteer. Please visit http://www.yst.org/yst/Volunteer.asp and make a positive mark of these children’s lives.

Mentoring: You must be over the age of 21 to mentor, fill out the online volunteer application.

Are you interested in SafePlace training? Contact Ashley Walker, Safe Place Coordinator, 918-382-4479 or email her via the above webpage.

If you are interested in an Internship please contact Human Resources at 918-382-3405 or via the above webpage.

And for more information about the volunteer program contact Liz Neas at 918-382-4402 or via the above webpage.

Wish List: The youth living in the Transitional living and Street Outreach programs are in need of donations that consist of clothing, furniture, household items and other essentials. Please help these youth stay off the streets and begin their bright fulfilling futures. For a complete list of everyday items visit: http://www.yst.org/yst/Wish_List1.asp .  During the Holiday season they have a special wish list located here: http://www.yst.org/yst/Holiday_Wish_List_2013.asp . You can drop off your donations at the following location: 311 S. Madison (2 blocks west of 3^rd and Peoria). Donations are excepted Monday-Thursday 8:30am-6:00pm and Fridays 8:30am-4:00pm.  For more information please contact Liz Neas at 918-382-4402.

http://www.yst.org/yst/default.asp

Youth Services

311 South Madison Ave.

Tulsa, OK 74120

Youth Services Shelter

1011 East 4^th Street

Tulsa, OK 74120

Phone:   918-582-0061

Fax:        918-382-3434

Satellite Offices:

Broken Arrow Office:

860 South Aspen

Broken Arrow, Oklahoma

918-258-6545

Owasso Office:

109 South Birch

Owasso, Oklahoma

918-272-5146

Skiatook Office:

123 South Broadway

Skiatook, Oklahoma

918-369-4108

Glenpool Office:

94 West 145^th St

Glenpool, Oklahoma

918-321-2233

Building Families Up

Building Families Up     by Catherine L. Murray

In 1964 then President Lyndon B. Johnson Started his War on Poverty Program and thus began The Community Action movement. The Community Action Project of Tulsa County (CAP Tulsa), formerly known as “Project Get Together” in 1973, began with funding from a federal grant through the Office of Economic Opportunity.  Project Get Together started “to address the problems faced by low-income people living in the southern portion of Tulsa County,” mainly migrant farm workers along with tenants living in apartment complexes in the area.  The program helped open daycare for migrant workers, transportation for senior citizens in conjunction with local churches, and formed community organizations in order to make a positive change from poverty for these disenfranchised people.

In 1997 the United Way began providing provisionary funding to Project Get Together in order to help with the expansion of new programs and services in response to growing client needs.  Unfortunately, shortly after, in the fall of 1997, “the Oklahoma Department of Commerce (ODOC) decertified the Tulsa Community Action Agency (TCAA) as the county’s community action agency and TCAA’s Board of Directors voted to shut the organization down entirely.”  Shortly after, the Community Action Program of Tulsa County (CAP) was established as a new not-for-profit organization and the Oklahoma Department of Commerce designated it as the new community action program for the county. In 1998 CAP welcomed the Tulsa Children’s Coalition as part of its family and in 2000 the United Way welcomed CAP as one of its member agencies.

As the largest anti-poverty in Oklahoma CAP Tulsa’s mission statement “is to help families in need achieve economic self-sufficiency”, to help children grow up and break the cycle of poverty by way of economic success. In order to achieve this CAP Tulsa combines cutting edge family financial and health services, the highest caliber early childhood education, and community improvement efforts. CAP Tulsa concentrates on “a two generation approach” by aiming at future success during school for young children and increasing employability, earning potential, and parenting skills through programs for the parents.

How can you make a difference?

You can volunteer; CAP Tulsa offers on-the-job training and educational opportunities. The volunteer assignments are flexible and will work with your availability.  For a list of current volunteer opportunities and a link to the volunteer application, youth volunteer application and tax volunteer application visit:  http://captulsa.org/get-involved/volunteering/  

You can schedule a volunteer interview and learn more about other opportunities by contacting Pam Smith at psmith@captc.org,  918-382-3225, fax: 918-382-3357.

You can donate; CAP Tulsa would not be able to continue to do what they do best, help lift up low-income families, without the ongoing and generous donations from individuals and organizations within our community. A $10 gift will fill a backpack with food for a weekend for a young student for an entire month and a gift of $500 will supply diapers and formula for one of their infant rooms, any gift, regardless of size is accepted. Your donations and information will be kept private.   Please visit http://captulsa.org/get-involved/donate-today/ for more information.

Please consider a donation and contact Heather Duncan, Director of Donor Relations, at hduncan@captulsa.org or call 918-382-3273

CAP Tulsa Headquarters

4606 S. Garnett Rd.

Tula, OK

(918)-382-3200

http://captulsa.org/