Shéiyi Xaat Hít (Spruce Root House) Launches Safe Place® Program for Youth

This month, in partnership with Tlingit and Haida, first responders, and several others, the Shéiyi Xaat Hít Youth Shelter launched Safe Place®, a new community initiative designed to better serve youth in crisis.

Safe Place is a national youth outreach and prevention program for young people ages 10 to 17 in need of immediate help and safety. Safe Place designates youth-friendly businesses and organizations as "Safe Places" where any youth in crisis can go to seek help. Once a youth enters the business and asks for help, the employee will show them to a safe waiting area and call the Shéiyi Xaat Hít Youth shelter. A trained shelter staff will respond within 30 minutes to provide direct crisis management and determine what resources are necessary to meet the youth's needs.

Shéiyi Xaat Hít is Juneau's only 24/7 emergency shelter for youth. Shelter staff work with families to provide necessary services like counseling, housing assistance, and family mediation for youth who have run away from home, are homeless, or are at risk of either.

"Although we've served a record number of youth at the shelter over the last year, we know that there's many more who need help. Safe Place is a great way for us to expand the safety net of support for youth in Juneau," shares Hannah Jenkins, Outreach Coordinator at Shéiyi Xaat Hít.

In Juneau, the first Safe Place locations will include the Tlingit and Haida Wayfinders program at Floyd Dryden, Capital City Fire Rescue's staffed fire stations (Downtown, Airport, and Auke Bay), the Southeast Alaska Food Bank, the Zach Gordon Youth Center, the Juneau Police Department headquarters, Glacier Cinemas movie theater, Kindred Post, Dimond Park Aquatic Center, and Augustus Brown swimming pool.

Youth can find a Safe Place by looking for the black and yellow signs on businesses, searching the list of current Safe Places on the Shéiyi Xaat Hít webpage, or texting their location and the word "safe" to TXT-4-HELP (44357).

Celebrate the launch of this program by coming to the Safe Place Launch Party on Friday, June 12 from 2 to 4 p.m. at the Zach Gordon Youth Center.

For those interested in becoming a Safe Place site or partnering with the shelter in other ways, reach out to Hannah Jenkins at [email protected] or call Shéiyi Xaat Hít at 907-364-7481. For media inquiries, reach out to Jorden Nigro at [email protected].