Evergreen Youth and Family Services has received an $8,000 grant from the AT&T Foundation to help support its Youth Crisis Shelter for youth experiencing homelessness in the Bemidji area.
Written By: Pioneer Staff Report |
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BEMIDJI — Evergreen Youth and Family Services has received an $8,000 grant from the AT&T Foundation to help support its Youth Crisis Shelter for youth experiencing homelessness in the Bemidji area.
The grant will be used to support the shelter’s daily meal program for youth. The Evergreen shelter serves three meals and two snacks daily, every day of the year, to approximately 275 youth who stay at the shelter annually, a release said. Healthy meals are made by shelter staff in the commercial kitchen and served family-style to the youth in residence. Food is purchased from local grocery stores, meat markets and the North Country Food Bank.
“Our mission is to strengthen youth, preserve families and build relationships across northern Minnesota. We work hard to provide a welcoming, safe and supportive home away from home for those youth in our area who are experiencing an immediate personal or family crisis,” Ebony Warren, executive director of Evergreen, said in the release. “Part of that is providing healthy meals and snacks for our youth. We are pleased to receive this AT&T Foundation grant that will support our shelter’s food budget into next fall.”
Evergreen’s Youth Crisis Shelter provides emergency shelter, food, clothing and personal hygiene supplies to youth ages 9-17 who stay at the shelter. Located in Bemidji, the shelter serves 15 rural counties in northwest Minnesota — an area where homelessness, including among children and youth, continues to be higher than the state average, the release said.
The Evergreen shelter is the only early intervention crisis shelter for runaway, homeless and high-risk youth and their families within northcentral/northwestern rural Minnesota.
“AT&T Foundation is proud to support Evergreen Youth and Family Services and its mission to help youth experiencing homelessness in the Bemidji area,” Paul Weirtz, president of AT&T Minnesota, said in the release. “The Evergreen shelter not only provides a safe home away from home but also supports the overall health, school attendance and performance of youth in need.”
Evergreen Youth and Family Services is a community-based organization committed to strengthening youth, preserving families and building relationships with an emphasis on those living in northern Minnesota.
“The $8,000 AT&T Foundation grant is part of AT&T’s philanthropic giving efforts to support our local communities,” AT&T said in the release, “We invest our company’s resources and knowledge to advance access to education and training, improve lives, and strengthen the communities in which we live and work.”