Sen. Patrick Leahy recently announced that a $100,000 grant was to be awarded to the Spectrum Youth and Family Services to aid at-risk and homeless youth in Burlington.  Spectrum is a nonprofit organization founded in 1970, to help youth and families get back on their feet. 

Bad economy leads to funding cuts

Mark Redmond, executive director of Spectrum, said that for the past 14 years, the agency received $200,000 in federal monies annually.

Spectrum also received money from the Runaway and Homeless Youth Act.  Both grants were administered through the Department of Health and Human Services.  This year, the $200,000 was revoked from Spectrum because there wasn’t enough money to give out to nonprofit organizations, Redmond said.

Spectrum is located on Pearl street and helps young people ages 14 to 22. (Photo by Lucia Suarez)

“I was apoplectic when I got the phone call,” Redmond said.  “But of course I called the senator’s staff after hearing this dreadful news and they were instrumental in terms of helping replace some of the money so I am extremely grateful to them for securing that and at least we got half of it back."

Leahy’s grant will be helpful in terms of running Spectrum, but the organization is fighting tooth and nail because of these budget cuts, Redmond said.

“The problem is that there is not a lot of fluff, if you start cutting, you’re cutting into the bone,” Redmond added.  “In this economy the number of families and the number of kids who are in stress, who now need social services is increasing, so this is not the time to start cutting funding when they are needed more then ever.”

After hearing about the budget cuts, Redmond said the regular donors of Spectrum stepped up to the plate and gave generous amounts to the organization. 

“We are lucky in Vermont because we have a group of people who care about the poor and care about the disenfranchised, and they do what they can to help them,” Redmond said.

Money put to good use

The money from the grant is used to help homeless youth, Redmond said.  There is a shelter on Pearl Street that contains six beds for boys and six beds for girls. On Maple Street, there is a shelter that holds nine beds, he said.

Jennifer Kerns, 2007 alumna started working at Spectrum in September.  Kerns is an Americorps worker and is in the process of doing one year of volunteer work for the nonprofit organization.  Most of her work is done at the drop-in center. 

Young people stopping by Spectrum's One Stop center to kick back and relax. (Photo by Lucia Suarez)

 “At the drop-in, young people can come in and get a free hot meal, do their laundry, get a clean change of clothes and they can just hang out and feel safe,” Kerns said. 

In the drop-in building, there are educators, mentors and counselors.  There are high school teachers who help young people get their high school diplomas and also teachers who help them get into college, Redmond said.

“We not only give them a place to live for the night, but give them the skills, training and education they are going to need to live self-sufficiently and live independently,” Redmond said.

Redmond added that at the drop-in center the employees take a holistic approach towards their clients.  They make a plan for each individual and set them on a path that will hopefully take troubled youth off the street for good.

“I was walking on the St. Mike’s campus last Thursday, and I bumped into one of our former kids.  I was so happy when I saw him because it’s amazing to go from living on the street to being enrolled into college,” he said.

Spectrum has an outreach team who walks around Church Street everyday.  The team gives out sandwiches, sleeping bags, and also gives free HIV testing, Kerns said. 

Kerns said Spectrum typically helps young people ranging from ages 14-22 because that is the cap the federal mandate puts on the organization—but the Outreach program is allowed to help people up to age 24.

“I’ve been learning a lot about myself here.  This experience has been really rich and powerful for me because I’m working with people around my age,” Kerns said. 

Volunteers are welcome

Volunteer work at Spectrum is a major part of the organization.  According to its Web site, last year 142 community volunteers gave 11,485 hours of work, which saved Spectrum $172,275.

“We have around 70 or 80 volunteers each month.  Quite a few are student volunteers but we have a lot of adults as well,” said Deanna Cameron, volunteer coordinator for Spectrum.

To volunteer at Spectrum, there is a paper application or an application that can be filled out online.

A hot meal is provided to the young people at Spectrum. (Photo by Lucia Suarez)

“We see what the person is most interested in and from there we have an in person orientation. In that meeting the person meets with the direct supervisor and hopefully get them started to volunteer,” Cameron said. 

Kerns said she likes when young people volunteer at Spectrum because its peers working with people their own age.

“Students realize that they could be in the other person’s shoes,” Kerns said. 

Junior Jackie Curley said she has never volunteered at Spectrum, but believes that she may in the future.  She also supports Leahy’s decision to give Spectrum the $100,000 grant because Spectrum isn’t the only non-profit organization loosing money because of the recession.

“I think that is very unfortunate that Spectrum lost half of its budget money,” Curley said.  “But it’s awesome that Leahy cares about the kids and provided some sort of funding.”