Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
Shelley Osterloh Reporting It's hard to imagine---especially on a cold snowy day like this--that there are about 500 teens who are sleeping on the streets of Salt Lake.
Government and community leaders are asking for donations to help get these teenagers on a better track.
They call themselves throwaways. These are kids between the ages of 15 and 22 who are living on the streets.
They go to the Homeless Youth Shelter for a meal, a shower, some food, and just a safe place to hang out.
Zoe is 22 now, but she first dropped into the homeless Youth Resource Center when she was 17 and had runaway from an alcoholic mother.
Zoe: "They took me from some cold, ruddy little kid sleeping behind a dumpster, eating out of it, to now. I've got my GED. I'm going to secondary education school. I have my own place through their housing program."
Zoe says the place and people here are like family to her now.
Many aren't so lucky. The Volunteers of America -- which operates the center --- sends out vans in search of homeless youth.
Last year the center helped more than 400 young people with the basics of life, and more.
The center held an open house today to draw attention to
the plight of homeless youth, and to ask for help from volunteers or those who can donate supplies.
Congressman Jim Matheson and community advocate Pamela Atkinson both say the community needs to do more to prevent youth homelessness at school and in the neighborhood.
Jim Matheson, 2nd District: "I think a lot of times, when kids fall through the cracks is when they are isolated. That's a problem that we see, not just for homelessness, but a lot of issues with kids."
Pamela Atkinson, Community Advocate: "We need the public
to go to the schools and find out how to mentor some of the children who are not getting the mentoring at home. Let's try to prevent this in the first place"
