It takes a village to tackle overwhelming needs in the midst of scarce resources. Open Doors is a program at Family & Children’s Service of Ithaca that provides support to runaway and homeless youth. Support can mean many things and it changes every day.
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It could be giving grocery gift cards to a youth who hasn’t eaten in a while. It might be a youth advocate taking them to the grocery store so they have food consistently at home. It might be a stop for tacos and a chance to get mentoring or support. A chance to be vulnerable and reach out to a safe adult. It could be linking up a youth to dental or healthcare.
It could be linking them to our many partner agencies in our village such as Tompkins County Youth Services Department, Village at Ithaca, The Learning Web, TST BOCES, Racker, social workers and counselors in Dryden and Ithaca schools, and others.
Open Doors could mean a late-night call where a child needs safety immediately to get out of a dangerous environment.
One of our most critical services is the Host Home, where community members volunteer by opening up their homes on a short-term basis to youth in crisis needing a place to stay. It is a brief but extremely important respite with the hope that our team can help reunify the youth with family, if it’s in the youth’s best interest.
That’s the thing. Open Doors is unique in that it’s voluntary and youth driven. They write their own goal plans. They use their voice and we listen. We trust the youth. That seems basic, nothing revolutionary. But I can’t tell you how often we hear that it’s the first time a youth experiences it. It may be the first time the youth actually feels heard. As much as we like to think our youths’ voices are powerful, they are not always considered or taken seriously. They need advocates. And they get them in our program.
WANT TO HELP? Host Homes are urgently needed in Tompkins County. For information about opening your doors on a short-term, voluntary basis, contact Lora Tsui at ltsui@fcsith.org or call (607) 273-7494.
Many people assume that the situation is not that bad—and then are shocked to hear that our community has homeless and runaway youth. Our work at Open Doors shows us the reality. It has revealed a world of hidden youth homelessness, in the form of quiet couch surfing. It’s often not the in-your-face homelessness we expect to see. It’s behind closed doors. And that’s where Open Doors is needed.
Family reunification is not always possible or even indicated. And not every youth has friends they can stay with. But when they do have that option, we financially help support the youth with basic needs and food because it creates less financial burden on this chosen family and therefore may be able to house them longer. This is important because the longer-term housing option of a youth shelter doesn’t exist here.
Fortunately, our village includes the homes of empathetic and giving community members. We thank everyone who has opened their home to a youth going through housing or food insecurity, emotional, sexual, physical abuse, alienation, lack of love and support, or drug abuse, in the home. You may never know how much you changed their life forever.
Many of us come to this profession because we have experienced hardship ourselves. From personal experience, I have learned just how much struggles can make us more empathic. But compassion burnout is real. And vicarious trauma is real. With this role, where the demands of our most vulnerable youth far surpass our supply of housing and resources, the pain is tremendous on both ends.
We allow ourselves to feel real and difficult emotions. Anger that there isn’t a youth shelter in this community when it is so desperately needed. Deep empathy and compassion for the plight of our clients. We feel overwhelmed when we don’t know where to place a youth. The options are often not there. It’s a huge struggle, it weighs on our conscience, it can keep us up at night.
Sometimes we feel like we can’t catch up. But we show up. And keep showing up. And we ask each and every relevant person we know to step up. And we keep trying. Until we know that youth will have a safe place to rest.
We couldn’t sustain our work without the village. It involves daily check ins regarding our own mental and physical health. In our village, we all know what this work takes and we are always here to cheer each other on and problem-solve, brainstorm, and refill each other’s supplies of energy and hope. Without that constant support, the job becomes too hard. Burnout can hit hard and fast.
That village? It’s us. It’s all of you. It’s those who step up when asked or just because. It’s knowing that each youth is worth the effort and deserves our best efforts. The village hears their quiet voices in a system that doesn’t always listen well enough to hear it. Our youth need our protection, our support, and our hearts.
—By Lora Tsui
Lora Tsui is the Open Doors Team Leader and Crisis Therapist at Family & Children’s Service of Ithaca. This article is excerpted from her keynote speech at Family & Children’s Service of Ithaca’s 2024 annual celebration.
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