What is Safe Place?
"Until our streets are safe...
Until families can understand each other...
Until drugs and violence disappear...
Until no young person needs to run away or feel afraid...
There must be Safe Place."
Mission
Safe Place provides access to immediate help and supportive resources for all young people in crisis through a network of sites sustained by qualified agencies, trained volunteers and businesses.
Vision
Safe Place will be universally recognized and used by youth across America as the place to go for immediate help and safety.
Guiding Principles
Young people are valued and...
- are capable of initiating the helping process and taking an active role in creating a healthier living situation.
- are more likely to seek help in places that are familiar, safe and identified by a standard, recognizable logo
- have access to services on a nondiscriminatory basis.
Service to Young People...
- focus on immediate interventions to address issues at the earliest possible stage of a crisis
- include advocacy and access to safe, supportive resources
- are evaluated on an ongoing basis.
The Community
- takes an active, cooperative role in assisting young people in crisis
- benefits when a young person can access safe, supportive assistance rather than dangerous alternatives
- must be educated concerning issues relating to young people in order to improve the quality of services.
Safe Place is a national youth outreach program that educates thousands of young people every year about the dangers of running away or trying to resolve difficult, threatening situations on their own. This easily replicated community initiative involves the whole community to provide safe havens and resources for youth in crisis.
Safe Place creates a network of "Safe Place locations" - youth friendly businesses, schools, fire stations, libraries, YMCAs and other appropriate public buildings that display the distinctive yellow and black Safe Place sign. In many communities the local transit system takes part, designating buses as mobile Safe Place sites.
These Safe Place sites extend the doors of the youth emergency shelter or youth service agency throughout the community. Youth are easily able to access immediate help wherever they are.
Most Safe Place agencies reach out to youth between the ages of 12 to 17 years old. Some agencies serve younger youth.
