For those of you who do not know who I am my name is Victoria and I am currently the Policy Intern here at CCY. I have been working on numerous projects this semester but the biggest project I worked on was our efforts around Runaway and Homeless Youth Month, including the Lighting the California State Capitol Green press event, which was held on Saturday, November 12. It was a huge success, and I’m very proud of what we accomplished. I’d like to take this time to share with y’all a photo blog about the event!

We started our outreach to the California Youth Crisis Line volunteers and invited them to participate in the event.

We also reached out to the Social Work program at Sac State!

Leading up to the event we hung flyers all over Midtown and Downtown Sacramento.

We also asked local businesses to hang green light bulbs in the front of their stores.

We contacted the local AmeriCorps National Civilian Community Corps campus and had 26 Corps members show up to help!

Some Corps members helped us set up at the Capitol while others did outreach with Crisis Line volunteers and Sac State students.

Sacramento definitely turned green that day with volunteers handing out 450 glowsticks!

In front of the Capitol we had a tent set up and in front of it we had our wall display that gave people statistics on youth homelessness as well as shared the stories of a few young people.

Before we lit the Capitol green we had a brief lighting ceremony where CCY was presented with a Resolution declaring November as Runaway and Homeless Youth Month.

The Capitol was lit green after an energetic crowd of around 100 counted down from 10!

Many folks came by throughout the night and stopped to get their pictures taken and gave us the opportunity to talk to them about Runaway and Homeless Youth Month.

The Mayor of Sacramento, Kevin Johnson, even took the time to stop by and take a picture with our Executive Director, Heather Dearing.

Overall the night was definitely a success for CCY and all others who were involved. It started out as just an idea Heather had thrown out at a staff meeting and grew into something quite amazing. There were many lessons learned and I hope this event will only continue to grow and become an annual event.

For more pictures please check out our flickr http://flic.kr/s/aHsjwRJYaJ

For more information about Runaway and Homeless Youth Month in California as well as ways that YOU can get involved please visit ca-rhymonth.org

When you feel alone
You might stay isolated
Trapping all you think
is ugly inside
creating blocks to guard
against your will

When you’ve messed up
you might now know
where the pieces go.
You can’t put things back
the way they were

your old reality is shattered.
Destruction of the past self

under the ruins,
a desire to fix things
to change

you are free now
the excess, the ugliness is gone

you’ve reached the bottom
where your creative work begins

Rearrange
the broken pieces, find new materials
add stability and mold with your hands
Using the strength of your imagination,
you will begin to rebuild

a life fully resembling you
all of your pain, your sweat,  your resolve,
memories you wish you could forget
becoming  something new

Thinking of graduating high school has made me think of the many teenagers throughout Riverside County & the state of California who are currently homeless, or runaways and do not have the opportunity to attend high school or even college. What is being done to insure that this population of youth are able to attend school to receive the education that they need to be successful individuals?

Homeless Youth Are Survivors…

They are homeless because of tragedy

and most have no family.

They live life on their own

and often feel alone.

Most wish this wasn’t the case,

but being homeless is something they must face.

So what can you as a Legislator do?

And how can a change possibly come true?

You have the power to improve and empower the lives of the homeless

to make this number become strongly less.

So what will you choose?

And can you promise me that those who are homeless will not lose?

Only you have the power to help these youth

and tell the legislators the real truth.

So what will be your choice?

Will you give these youth a VOICE?

Other than just connecting you to resources, the crisis line is the place you can call when you just need someone to talk to. When life gets really hectic and you don’t know what to do, when you’re in a shitty situation, the crisis line can actually be very helpful.

When you call the crisis line you talk to a counselor who actually listens to you, gives you positive advice, and offers resources that can help. When you’re done talking to the counselor you just feel so much better, like a burden has been lifted off your shoulders, and you realize that even though it’s hard, you can still handle it, and it will get better.

As we live there is always going to be someone trying to live right beside up us, ahead of us, or even behind us but there is always going to be someone trying to pursue this journey to a certain point in time so that a self definition is then established. When do we know that we are at that point when do we know that we are at the destination of fulfillment.  People are what drive the world and with that every individual that take part in the creation of our tomorrow has a responsiblity to the person beside then because the moment that you gift to someone else could be the moment in which definition of what we see as bad, evil, no good start to stand over the good that can come from what moment could bring into someones life.

I feel strong about the fact that we all play a part in this world and it greater than we know because some of us like to live in the now but neglect that the now is everything. My now is all that could be influence by my writing. Whether they like it or not my know is you and my yesterday is knowledge that could be brought into this moment for us to share with greater purpose.

There will be more to come…………

To the men and women in California: these youth are the future, who do you want them to grow up to be? Please support SB 123 as it will help the future generation!

Not only do the people taking these phone calls hear what others are going through, they also care. To me that is an important thing. While I have personally never called a crisis line before, I have been on the other end. I have been the one listening to a story about what a person is going through. It is sad to know that so many of California’s youth today are going through their own personal crisis, whether it be they are dealing with abuse, victims of rape, dealing with a drug or alcohol addiction, or having family problems.

In my opinion, the person taking the call and giving advice to a person on a crisis line is a hero. The attributes they display clearly are attributes that a hero has. People answering these phone calls are brave,  as they are willing to help a person help themselves. They are patient, as they listen to the story of the caller. They are dedicated, as they try everything under their power to help a person through what they are dealing with. Need I say more? Crisis line counselors are in fact heros!

If crisis lines were not around so many of today’s teens would commit suicide, run away, continue with their drug addiction and harm themselves.

Thank goodness for crisis lines!