My internship is a non-profit organization that was founded in 2009. They help “build confidence and promote self-sufficiency for homeless, runaway, and under served youth ages fourteen to twenty-four by providing trust, hope, support, and education”. Their mission is to be a “support system for these youth so that they may grow to be health, successful adults that exit street life”. Many of these youth are from by local communities and a lot of these teens attend the local high schools in Redlands, including Redlands East Valley High school, Redlands High school, and Citrus Valley High School. There will sometimes be a few that come all the way from San Bernardino or Colton. However, not too many because they have to provide their own transportation and with these teens many just walk from wherever they are. This program will provide bus passes but only to be used for school and they have to prove themselves that they are attending school with homework, assignments, etc. This program is used as a place for teens to come and hang out during the day. This is not a shelter for teens to stay at overnight but a community to be surrounded with support during the day. Because of their transition into the new facility, they are only open during Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday between the hours of 2:30pm to 6:30pm. This gives students an opportunity to have a place to hang out with others in the same situation after school. They can come here and work on homework together and build relationships all while getting a few items they may need. For example, the day I went to observe, it was raining and a girl needed a new pair of dry socks and she was thankful to know that the director just brought in donated clothes so she was able to receive a new pair of socks and even a new beanie! Snacks and hot chocolate was also provided until dinner was served. They always provide dinner when the facility is open and is usually served around 4:00pm. The dinner is always donated by another organization. Majority of the time, the food will be donated or prepared by churches in Redlands. The day I was there, it was a day for a Redlands church to provide dinner so at the church they will make home cooked food to give to the homeless teens. The shelter will have to go pick it up from the location but other than that the food has already been prepared and cooked. If it is another church’s time to donate (hence they all have set schedules when it is their time to provide dinner) and they may not have enough time to prep food, they will just order a bunch of pizzas or something easy to donate. I feel that this is a wonderful opportunity for teens all over the are.

By obtaining statistics from this nonproft, they recently surveyed 276 of the youth attendees: 29% were homeless and living on the streets, 34% were abused as youth children, 19% were in the foster care system, 37% have parents with drug or alcohol substance abuse problems, 76% were classified as low-income, 3,204 homeless children were registered in Kindergarten to 12^th grade, and 1,414 homeless youth were registered in 7^th-12^th grade in the Redlands Unified School District in the 2010-2011 school year.