TOLEDO, Ohio — As part of National Runaway Prevention Month, the Zepf Center's Safety Net youth shelter hosted a community walk to raise awareness for youth homelessness in the Toledo area.
The community event allowed the youth services team at the Zepf Center to share information and answer questions about the shelter and services the center provides.
It's all an effort to shine a light on youth homelessness, which leaders said continues to be a problem.
Safety Net at Zepf Center provides 24/7/365 emergency shelter and counseling services.
The shelter, which is available for those ages 12-17, saw 204 admissions in 2022 and the center expects that number to be closer to 300 for 2023, according to Linda Nordahl, the chief integration officer at Zepf Center.
Leaders said that often those numbers are not unique admissions, but re-entry of kids who returned to the shelter for help.
Nordahl said that on average the kids stay 2-3 days and sometimes they stay several weeks as they await placement into foster care. In some cases, the family of the child is homeless and the parents are staying at adult homeless shelters.
The Zepf Center Safety Net shelter is the only shelter that meets this need in a 120-mile radius, according to Nordahl. She also said that they often operate at a loss because they're not funded, but do work off grants and donations.
If you'd like to donate to Zepf Center, you can do so online by clicking HERE or you can purchase items using their Amazon wishlist HERE.
You can also donate gently used clothes. The center said they need shoes and teen-like clothes such as joggers, sweatpants and hoodies.
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