Daybreak shows off addition
By WILLIAM K. ALCORN
YOUNGSTOWN
Jan Baharis, program director of the Daybreak Youth Crisis Shelter on Homestead Avenue, stands in the recreation area in the basement of a new $130,000 addition to the facility for runaway and homeless youths.
Edward Neil Bunkley, program coordinator for Daybreak Youth Crisis Shelter, adjusts the blinds in his new office, part of the addition to the facility for runaway and homeless children. From his office, Bunkley can observe residents in the living room. A grand opening for the shelter was Thursday.
An addition at Family Service Agency’s Daybreak Youth and Crisis Shelter provides much-needed space to residents for counseling, meals and recreation.
A grand opening for the $130,000 addition to the 10-bed Homestead Avenue facility was Thursday.
“We’re thrilled to death with the addition,” said David Arnold, FSA executive director, who thanked his board of directors for its support.
Arnold said he also is grateful to the Mahoning County Mental Health Board, which was instrumental in obtaining a grant from the Ohio Department of Mental Health to help pay for the addition and in 2003 donated the property to house Daybreak.
About half of the addition was funded by an ODMH grant and the rest with Family Service Agency and foundation dollars, Arnold said.
“Since Daybreak’s beginning, we have seen an increase in the number of youth who present with serious mental-health issues, have psychotropic medications prescribed, and/or are in need of long-term counseling services. At least 75 percent of the youth served are engaged in mental- health services or in need of them; about 50 percent take or have taken psychotropic medications,” Arnold said.
The new wing provides additional space for indoor recreation, a new dining area and offices large enough to better accommodate family counseling, officials said.
Daybreak is a community- based, 10-bed shelter that provides emergency shelter and crisis-counseling services to abused, neglected, runaway, throwaway and otherwise homeless youths age 11 to 18.
Though capacity is 10, no homeless youth who shows up at the door is turned away, said Daybreak program director Jan Baharis.
She said the average daily resident census has been eight or nine the past few months. There is no maximum amount of time a resident may stay at Daybreak, but the average stay is about two weeks, Baharis said. “We serve about 200 kids and youth a year.”
Daybreak opened its doors in 1976 and since then has served about 8,000 young people. The staff consists of three full-time and about 13 part-time employees.
The facility provides food, clothing and shelter 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Services include counseling, educational assistance, recreational and cultural-enrichment activities and after-care services. All services are provided to children and families free of charge.
“Our goal is to reunite children with their families or when that is not possible, find some other safe alternative,” Baharis said.
Family Service Agency, 535 Marmion Ave., is a non-profit, multiservice, mental- health agency founded in 1908. Services include family counseling, financial education, rape information and counseling, employee- assistance programs, elderly guardianship and HIV/AIDS counseling.