>> Savannah: My mom and her boyfriend got into drugs,
and all that stuff.
And then, like, towards the end
of the year, we got evicted,
or by the end
of the school year.
And I was kind of forced to live
with my friend, Taylor,
because we didn't have
any electricity or anything.
>> Lisa Gumm: When you hear the
word "homeless young person"
or "homeless adult"
they think of the person
who's begging on the corner,
or who might be sleeping
under cardboard boxes,
or sleeping in the park.
>> Justin: At my house, there
was like 10 people living there,
so I moved up here with some
friends.
And then, they started having
some budget problems
so I moved out, 'cause they
couldn't afford to
have me around.
And then I became homeless
and lived on the bus.
>> Tim Baack: Young people who
are homeless, who have run away,
are invisible, because they put
a lot of effort into making sure
they stay invisible.
They really don't want to
draw attention to themselves
or to stand out.
And that's a survival skill.
>> Amber: There's a lot of kids
out there on the streets.
And nine times out of ten,
they're not just teens,
they're younger kids.
Because I done ran into a couple
kids while I was out there
that was younger than me.
And I'm looking like,
what are you doing out here?
You are a baby.
You need to be at home.
>> Todd Witt: Most people do not
believe the statistic that
there are about 400 youth
on the streets of Milwaukee,
on any average given night
that are considered homeless.
>> Scott: The only place
I knew that I could go
was to an island,
that the only way to get there
was crossing either one of two
train bridges.
I was just in like,
survival mode.
I just kept thinking
that I needed to do
whatever I needed to do
to keep myself alive.
>> Becky Soderna: Oftentimes,
our youth, particularly,
are referred to
as the hidden homeless, because
they are, they're finding places
to keep themselves safe
that are outside
of the mainstream.
Because we don't have a shelter
that they can go to.
>> Savannah: I'm not really sure
if I have the saddest story.
I mean, yeah, there was times
that I was heartbroken.
But, like, they probably
weren't the saddest.
I mean, it all, as a whole,
is pretty sad.
Like, every time my mom
goes to prison, and every
time my dad goes to prison,
the fish dying, the cat --
The animals being taken away.
It's all sad.
>> Ali Draheim: We always use
numbers when we talk about
homeless students.
And so, in Wisconsin,
I believe there's around 10,000,
which is--
It's doubled
in the last five years.
Currently, in the Green Bay
Area Public Schools,
we have over 700 students
identified as homeless,
and the year isn't over yet,
which means that that number
will grow probably closer
to 800.
>> The second part
of your assignment today,
terms on page 117...
>> Ali Draheim: Homeless
students don't come to us with
sort of, this is what you do
if the student presents
with this issue.
So a student like Savannah
who is in a transitional living
program, we just connect
with community resources and
say, "Hey, we've got this kid.
This is a situation.
Do you have anything
that might fit?
Do you have a program
that could help this student?"
It's truly
a community collaboration.
>> April Strom-Johnson: This is
always my favorite part,
you know, because you make me
work so hard.
My husband and I started
Good Samaritan Charity
about three years ago.
And one of the biggest things
that we really felt
we could make an impact on
was making sure that by
supplying their basic needs,
like food and hygiene, clothing,
that somebody would show them
that they cared.
When a young person
becomes homeless,
what generally happens is
they jump from house to house.
And that's why a lot of times,
you'll hear them referred to
as couch surfers.
What is so interesting
about it is that,
in looking at our shelters,
we do have some really
wonderful shelters.
But they are "niched"
so to speak.
They're very specific on
who can stay in those shelters.
There is a myth that the only
people coming that are homeless
in this area, are coming from
outside of this city.
The majority of the people
that we're serving
in the homeless community
are homegrown homeless,
if you will.
>> Savannah: My mom went
to prison for the same reason,
again, drugs and stuff.
Yeah, she's my mom.
But I'm a little nervous,
'cause it's, like,
it's a repetitive thing.
She gets out, goes back in,
gets out, goes back in.
I wasn't surprised
when she went in.
Like, it was just like a normal
thing, which is terrible,
but I felt like--
>> You're growing up so fast.
>> I start college in the fall.
>> I know.
In my mind, you should
only be like 13,
'cause I wasted all those years.
They just went by
so fast.
I know that we can have
a better relationship
now that I'm me again now,
finally after all those years.
I'm, looking forward
to getting out
and doing all the things
that we couldn't do before.
I'm glad that I could
stay with you,
because I mean, like who
could be healthier for me
to be with?
>> Nobody...
>> The time I lost
when she was little,
um, pictures in my head
of her face
when I couldn't keep promises,
because I was too sick
from drugs, or I was too high
to take her.
How she begged me to stop.
She'd tell me I was sick.
I never listened.
She didn't like
the people in the house.
She didn't like
what was going on.
I ignored her.
The things she lost
because of me--
It's especially the time.
She's grown up so fast.
I don't know where
the last five years went.
>> April Strom-Johnson: I think
one thing that you often see
with teenagers whose parents
are imprisoned is
almost a sense of relief
if you will,
that they don't have to worry
about their parent.
There is that sense
of now I know where she is.
Now I know that she's safe.
>> I'm ashamed that I have to
live with my daughter.
You know?
That I'm not the one
where she can come.
That she has to--
It's like the roles
have switched, almost.
That she's got to provide
a roof over my head,
instead of the way it should be
where I provide one over hers.
>> Savannah: I am in the school's orchestra.
I have been in orchestra
for nine years.
I play the upright string bass.
You can really get your emotions
out if you play an instrument.
School was my safe place.
Home never--
Home became--
Home lost that value to me.
Because like, my room
was like my sanctuary.
But when people started to enter
my room and they would take
things, or they would be
in my bed sleeping,
or they would just go in there,
so that lost its value.
Mom never really noticed
I was gone anyway.
Like, I could've probably left.
But I stayed just to take care
of the plants, and the pets,
and everything.
But school was my safe place.
My Koi, they mean a lot to me.
They're very calming
and relaxing.
They're beautiful.
And I just love them.
They all have names.
>> April Strom-Johnson: I think
to the average person,
that may not necessarily
make sense to them, that fish
would matter that much.
But when everything else in your
world can be gone in an instant,
and changes consistently
from where you live, from
where you might be sleeping,
you know, where you put
your head at night, to where
you shower in the morning
might change.
The consistency comes
in the fish.
>> Savannah: I could never
imagine myself just giving up.
Like, it's just not me.
I've already gone through
so much.
And if I just gave up,
then it would all be pointless.
Like, if I was going to give up,
I would've given up
a long time ago.
>> Amber: At first, on the
streets, I mean, I was out
all types of hours of the night.
I wasn't doing so well
in school.
I was having problems
on the street.
I was having problems
finding a job, being in school
and staying in school.
I had a problem doing a lot
of stuff on the streets.
Now that I'm in a group home,
I'm structured more.
I'm in school,
and I'm focused on school.
>> Janis Shogren: There are
students who become homeless
in any part of our state.
Less than half of the students
that are homeless last year
in Wisconsin were in Milwaukee,
so the other half were in
other parts of the state,
and sometimes more.
Particularly with the
recession we're finding somewhat
of a change in the demographics.
>> Tim Baack: The Milwaukee
Public Schools, through some of
their resources, have made
available to our young people
tutoring assistance,
so we are able now
to hire a tutor.
Locally, here in Milwaukee,
a recent street count
of homeless individuals
indicated that perhaps
up to four hundred young people
on any given night
may be homeless
and may be coming from families
who, themselves, are homeless.
The National Runaway Switchboard
has estimated that within
the first seventy-two hours
of hitting the streets,
one out of every three
young people will be
sexually abused or exploited,
as they try to get
their most basic needs
of shelter, food
and clothing met.
>> Todd Witt: The main purpose
of Street Beat
is to reduce the amount
of sexual exploitation
that the youth may encounter
on the streets
to help them if they are willing
to get them into a stable
living environment.
>> Darlene: We see a lot
of homeless kids
but you wouldn't know
a kid is homeless,
unless you have a conversation
with that kid because they're
still dressing
like some of the kids
are in designer clothes
and they dress up to par
so they won't stick out.
I choose to call them
the invisible population
because they walk among us
on a daily basis and we just
don't know until we have
a conversation with them.
A lot of the young ladies
and males are doing survival sex
in order to have a place to stay
or to get their basic needs met.
You have to call every week,
to keep your application active.
And then the first six months,
whether you work, get SSI,
whatever you get,
the first six months,
we'll pay all your rent.
He is homeless.
He's doing house hopping.
He is employed,
he said he is employed,
but he just don't have
a steady place to stay,
so he's looking for
some stability in housing
and possibly some help
with some other resources.
>> Adrienne Strelcheck:
They come from a problem
where they've lived in homes
where there's
15, 20 people in the house.
Their whole life
they're being beat.
They have drug-addict parents.
They have a dad that's in jail.
A lot of them come to school
already with these problems.
So I think that's one of
the things that really needs
to be reframed
about homeless youth.
Is, it's not on them.
>> Todd Witt: The group home
that we're in today
is the Grand Street
Transitional Living Group Home
for teens, 16 and 17 year olds.
The youth that come
to our program
it's their last opportunity
to leave the streets and have
a place, a stable place to stay.
>> Amber: Oh, too structured,
too structured, too structured.
And I was thinking like --
This is --
No, I don't like this,
I don't like this.
But once I started
getting my talks-to
and they was letting me know
how everything go,
then I'm like,
okay, I can deal with it.
>> Kathy Griffin: You know
what you're doing wrong.
You know what you're thinking
about all the time,
you know what decisions
you're making about whatever
decisions you're making.
And you have to get to a point
in your life and realize,
at some point,
it doesn't have to be,
you don't do the right thing
just 'cause somebody's looking
and to challenge you
to do the right thing.
When are you going to step up
to the plate
and have some integrity
about what you're doing
in your life and what your life
is supposed to mean to you?
>> Amber: I didn't say that.
I didn't, but I do good deeds.
>> Kathy: I'm not saying
you don't do good deeds,
but you also do things
that you know are wrong.
>> Amber: But you can't say
everybody does this stuff.
>> Kathy: But you know
the problem with that?
It's not because I think
it's wrong, it's because
you think it's wrong.
>> Amber: I love Kathy for that,
because Kathy acts
just like my momma.
She basically is my momma.
Every time she talks to me,
I just think of my momma.
>> Kathy Griffen:
Homeless teens,
they're here, they're there,
they're going to, at some point,
be homeless adults
if things are not corrected.
They're going to have to draw on
the resources of the government
in some other way in order to
be able to sustain themselves.
So if we don't direct
the homeless teens,
they are going to be
homeless adults who are still
going to really tax the society
for more and more services
and sometimes people believe
you're supposed to pull yourself
up by your boot straps,
well, you know,
if they have no boot straps,
you can't pull them up.
>> Lisa Gumm: We are
a two-week crisis shelter
for teens age 11 to 17.
Youth coming to our program,
it's voluntary
so there are some things
that they need to identify
they want to work on
while they're with us.
We do need to have parental
or legal guardian consent
for all youth because they are
under the age of 18.
The peer leaders are probably,
they have the most
important job in the shelter
where they're really a bridge
between the youth
who come through our doors
and the adult staff
that are here.
There's something very powerful
of seeing a youth
in a staff position
that I really believe
has a great impact on residents.
>> Jataveyis Price: Every voice
needs to be heard.
A lot of the students
that I know, they have dreams,
but the homeless part
is getting in their way
of becoming that dream.
>> Oscar Walton: We get
11-year-olds and 12-year-olds.
They're just out there.
They don't know where to go.
They're young.
That's before they even get to
high school, and they just don't
have a home to go to.
That makes me sad.
I've talked to some kids
who have big, great goals
for themselves,
just kids that come here
that want to be artists,
sports stars, teachers.
The sky's the limit
for any one of them
that comes in here.
>> Amber: It is a lot
of teens outside.
Outside, period.
They don't have nowhere to go.
Sleeping out places
that they shouldn't,
doing things they shouldn't
have no business doing.
It's a lot of kids out here.
I didn't know that,
until I actually found
that out on my own.
Nobody told me.
No, I had to see for myself.
There's a lot of homeless
out there.
There is.
>> Scott: Well, I came up with the idea to go
to the island, well,
because that was like
the only place that I knew
that was semi available
around the town
that you could actually go to
and no one would really know
you were there
because it's all woodsy
and stuff.
There's a lot of trees
and shrubs growing everywhere.
I was a little bit scared
when I was on there
because it was like so cold.
And I mean I didn't have
anyone around me that I could
talk to because there was no one
I could turn to.
>> Kelli Beaudry: Whose
brilliant idea was this
to make this a safe place?
>> Scott: Mine.
It was the only place I knew
that I could stay
that would actually be able
to keep me alive
for a little bit longer.
>> Becky Soderna: The majority
of the programs that we provide
are for homeless youth
and young adults.
And that's one of the biggest
populations that we see.
We have situations where
because of the economics
families will leave.
And they will leave
their teenage,
older teenage youth behind
to finish school or
to fend for themselves
in whatever way.
Scott came from
an abusive background
and found himself
living on an island
between Marinette and Menominee
in the Menominee River.
>> Kelli: What were you most
afraid of while you were here?
>> Scott: Freezing, because
you're in the middle
of an island, it's getting cold,
it's turning to winter,
yeah, there is on that side
there is the, there's a hill,
there's two of 'em actually
but that way you can hear
the water running right now
and that way the wind
most of the time blew
right directly at me
so it was most the time
was right at me.
After it started
getting way too cold
to stay out here,
I ended up in the Laundromat.
>> Michele Ritter: I just
couldn't believe that someone
his age had no place to go,
couldn't go home,
and had to stay on an island.
I had no words.
I did not even know how
to talk to him about it
at first.
I was just that shocked.
Community service
is part of the program,
but Scott was like just adamant
about doing community service.
>> We're gonna put these
right here, Scott.
>> Michele: And he had worked
that out with his case manager
and the house manager
to be able to go out
into the community
of these places and volunteer.
I thought that
homeless youth picked that for
their lifestyle, they chose it.
After I began working
with Voices for Youth,
I realized that is
completely untrue.
>> Justin: I think a lot of people would be surprised that
there's a lot of homeless kids
living in Escanaba, Michigan.
I mean, it's not something
that people like to blurt out,
"Oh, I'm homeless."
Since I lived in Chicago,
you know, I'm not
a big fan of animals
so when I first moved
to the bus,
it was kind of scary.
It's in Powers.
It's in the middle
of a gravel pit in the woods
and like the animals
always scared me.
I'm not a big fan of animals.
>> Becky Soderna: Justin left
a difficult home environment
in Illinois and was involved
in some gang activity
that he needed to get away from.
Came up to the Upper Peninsula
and had no connections here,
no one to stay with,
so ended up living
in an abandoned school bus
in a quarry.
>> When you first came out here,
you guys were living in a bus?
>> Justin: Yeah, it sucked
after a while.
>> Mary: How come?
>> Justin: Just 'cause,
not being able to shower
whenever you wanted and just
having to find food and stuff.
>> Becky Soderna: Well, I think
Justin living on a school bus
does sort of paint
an interesting picture
about what has been
a safe haven for him.
He's a young person who,
although he went through
some very troubling times
he's always maintained
that connection to school.
And it's very important to him
to finish school,
to be able to move on,
to be able to move into
his vocational program that
he's interested in pursuing.
And so, I think that
both of those places,
that abandoned school bus
and his own school experience,
did provide a safe haven for him
when he needed it.
>> Justin: I slept up here.
Nick slept down here.
I got the hot part of the bus
'cause yeah,
the heat would rise.
He'd be kind of cold down here.
>> Mary: Yeah, that's true.
Let's see.
We got plastic tarps
and stuff out there.
>> Justin: Yeah, cover up
everything from the snow
when it came in
and we shoveled snow
under the bus
so the cold and wind
wouldn't come up through.
Yeah, home, sweet home.
>> Mary: Were you guys worried
when that big snowstorm
was coming?
'Cause I know we were doing
everything we could
to try to get you out of here.
>> Justin: We weren't too
worried but you were.
>> Mary: Yes, we were.
>> Justin: Yeah.
Home, sweet home.
>> Becky Soderna: But when you
go to that bus,
and you get on the bus,
and you look inside,
and you see how
those two young men were living
in that bus,
I think most people
would be surprised and shocked
to think that in our idyllic
Upper Peninsula communities
that people live that way,
especially young people.
>> Justin: Oh yeah.
We would climb up the hill
and peek over the hill
at about 4:30,
5:00 in the morning,
wait for the sun to come up,
sit up there and deer would
walk across and we'd shoot 'em.
Hurry up, run over there
and grab 'em and drag 'em
back here and hang 'em
over there and skin 'em
and take the meat.
>> Becky Soderna: I think there are many similarities
and also many differences
between working in a large city
like New York,
which I did for many years.
And then coming
to the Upper Peninsula
and working with homeless youth
in a very rural area.
Some of the similarities
would be that most of the kids
come from these similar
sorts of backgrounds.
A lot of them are homeless
and find themselves in homeless
or runaway situations
because they're leaving
situations of abuse
and neglect, domestic violence,
substance abuse in the home.
So that's a common theme
that runs between the urban
and the rural areas.
Because we cover
8,000 square miles
there's a great deal of space
in between our towns and cities.
And we need to be able
to outreach to the kids
who may be living
in those outlying areas.
And oftentimes, as we saw
with Scott and Justin,
they are living
in those outlying areas.
So it's really a challenge
for us to be able
to do that outreach
and to try to find the kids
where they are.
>> Justin: When I was living in
the bus, I didn't think I had
much of a future.
I thought I was going to be
delivering, picking up scrap or
something for the rest of my
life.
>> Tim Baack: Rather than
running to something,
the majority of young people
who find themselves
either homeless or in a runaway
or throwaway situation
is that they're actually running
from something.
And most often, that's a home
that has significant amounts
of trauma and conflict.
>> Lisa Gumm: I've seen youth
come through the most
horrible situations
that you really could imagine
and just blossom and bloom
into a young adult
that you would not have guessed
they had the past that they did.
(applause)
>> Ali Draheim: What we try
to do is just get in there
and help students
make good choices,
the good choices that are going
to do exactly what
Savannah's doing,
which is provide them
with an education
and a high school diploma
as well as give them options
for after high school
and going on to college.
>> Amber: I mean,
the streets is not
where it's at.
It's not where it's at.
You dead, you in jail
or you ain't got too much
of nothing.
The streets is not where it's at
because it wasn't where,
I thought it was for me,
it wasn't.
If you got your head on
your shoulders the right way,
then you know it's not for you,
you will know that.
You ready to go to school,
you gotta be in school,
you gotta get you a job,
you gotta get a good education.
You gotta do all that for you.
That's not for nobody else,
that's for you.
>> Scott is going to college.
And it goes back to the name of
our program, Voices for Youth.
We're there to be
those advocates.
To help them find that voice.
To be the voice for them
when they need that
and until they're able
to do that for themselves.
>> Savannah: I guess I never
really got to be a teenager,
never had that chance,
like I always had rules
for myself.
I am focused on success,
because I want to make it
out there.
I don't want to have to depend
on people to get me by.
I want to get myself by,
and I want to be able to learn
from my mom's mistakes
and not be the one
to repeat them.
>> Justin: I'm in school
right now and hopefully
I graduate next year
when I'm supposed to,
which would be awesome
and then I could go to college
to be a heavy machinist operator
which I want to really do
and then hopefully one day
I'll be able to own my own house
and nice vehicles and everything
that seems normal,
a white picket fence
with a big red door.