4619 R6A CH Corporate Annual Report.Indd
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COVENANT HOUSE CROSSING THE BRIDGE FROM DESPAIR TO HOPE… COVENANT HOUSE 2014 ANNUAL REPORT “Covenant House was never a program to me. It was my home... Before coming here I didn’t have the confidence to speak out. But with all the new situations and all the new people I’ve met here, it’s easier now to express myself. I’m no longer afraid to say what I feel. And that feels great.” “My parents got divorced suddenly when I was 12. My mom just didn’t want me anymore... she kicked me out. I ended up on the streets. I felt so lost, until a stranger brought me to Covenant House. Thank God they found me.” “I never had a real home. Never. I ended up alone on the street for three years. Then I had a baby. Thank God, a stranger brought me to Covenant House. The way the staff treated me, the way they listened and respected me, it really threw me off at first. I thought it was fake, you know. It was too good to trust. But then I started to believe people really cared. It took some time, but I started to feel better about myself. And the way people were so patient here with me, that taught me to be more patient with my baby. I’ve made up my mind he’s not going to have the kind of life I have.” “I came to Covenant House after being in NY for about 8 months. I was admitted to the hospital the night before. I was beaten up by a crack dealer. When I walked through your doors I had hit a bottom that was indescribable. You gave me shelter, food, clothes, safety and hope. I still have the robe I wore that first night and also the rosary I made while I was there. Later, after living in a group home and re-hab my parents accepted me back into their home. Since then I have finished high school, and I work as a supervisor. I have also gotten married and bought a house. My life has made a complete turn and CH was the start of making that happen.” “We are the children you wished you never had, the mistake, the problem, the pain.... We cried for milk and you hit us. We held up our tiny arms in hopes of being held, you left us alone, cold, scared and hungry. We cried out for someone, something, anything to love and care for us and not beat us and leave us when we are in pain. We were born into this world to make it a better place, not to have the world turn its back on us. We are special. Covenant House has given me and many other “mistakes, pains and problems” a place to become who we are: Angels of God and people who are of worth, to grow in love and peace.” Covenant House Mission Statement We who recognize God’s providence and delity to His people are dedicated to living out His covenant among ourselves and those children we serve, with absolute respect and unconditional love. That commitment calls us to serve suering children of the street, and to protect and safeguard all children. Just as Christ in His humanity is the visible sign of God’s presence among His people, so our eorts together in the covenant community are a visible sign that eects the presence of God, working through the Holy Spirit among ourselves and our kids. DEAR FRIENDS, From the first moment I walked through the doors of Covenant House that we can do more as a people to help these kids, to bring them to in the fall of 1992, Covenant House was a revelation to me. I had never safety and shape futures of hope and promise. We can and must be the dined with teenagers grappling with despair, until that Thanksgiving visible sign of God’s love in their lives. when I met three boys who had just learned at our health center that they had tested positive for HIV and were singing bits of pop songs that I’m equally committed to the belief that those who hurt our kids—those they wanted played at their funerals. who traffic them, and exploit them, and throw them away—must be stopped. The people who hurt our kids—the pimps and the predators, I had no idea that thousands of vulnerable children were lured by pimps the gang leaders and drug dealers, and the child traffickers—have earned and drug dealers and human traffickers, bought and sold and discarded. I our contempt. just didn’t realize that so many young people were homeless and alone. In this report you’ll read about our programs and the progress we’ve At Covenant House our calling, our mission is to help young people made both on the streets and in the halls of leadership in this country transcend this violence and rejection that has identified their whole lives. on behalf of our kids. You’ll see that Covenant House is a force of love— To transform the lives of young people who have been suffering alone on pure, hope-filled unconditional love. the streets for months, sometimes years. We have much work to do. But we have the programs, the experience, Covenant House is all about encouraging people of goodwill to believe and the commitment of so many good people. I am convinced that what they can make a difference in the lives of homeless kids, helping them we do—from Managua to Anchorage—is the most powerful human on their way to a brighter future. rights movement for children in the world. And it begins and ends with love. I don’t think it’s possible to understand what these kids are going through unless you’ve walked in their shoes. As a father myself, my heart Is our work difficult? Yes, but what I’ve been blessed to learn… and what breaks with the suffering our kids needlessly endure. Their strength is our staff, volunteers, and supporters learn very quickly… is that caring inspirational. Their dignity is absolute. But their desperation grows with for our kids, helping them cross that bridge from despair to hope, is not each night on the streets alone. a burden. It is a gift. If we don’t respond with love and protection and the promise of a better tomorrow—we will lose them. I’m committed to the unshakeable belief Thank you for loving our kids. Kevin M. Ryan KEVIN M. RYAN President Our Continuum of Care WHEN A KID IS OUT ON THE STREET AT 2 AM, ALONE AND SCARED TO DEATH, YOU DON’T TELL THAT KID TO COME BACK LATER. THEIR NEEDS CAN’T WAIT: CLEAN CLOTHES, A DECENT MEAL, A BED TO SLEEP IN… AND SOMEONE WHO CARES. OUR PROGRAMS ARE SPECIFICALLY DESIGNED TO RESCUE KIDS FROM THE STREETS AND TO HELP THEM BUILD NEW LIVES. OUTREACH CASA ALIANZA Our staff searches the darkest and toughest street corners, and Casa Alianza, our sites in Latin America, provide home and hope to provides food and counseling (and most importantly, an escape) to homeless and orphaned children while fighting for their basic rights. homeless kids lost and trapped on the streets. SERVICE CRISIS CARE Our volunteers come from many different backgrounds and from all Everything we do to help a homeless child begins with Crisis Care. With across the country. What they have in common is their love for our kids a door that never closes, and a commitment to any child with no place and the commitment to making the world a better place. else to turn, we have a promise that says very simply, “We’re here for you.” ADVOCACY & RESEARCH Covenant House is the most powerful human rights movement on RIGHTS OF PASSAGE behalf of kids in the Americas. Through our advocacy and research Our Rights of Passage long-term residential program is based on the efforts, we strive to be the voice for the children who have been simple belief that all children have the right to pass into adulthood forgotten. without being abused and homeless. WE CARE CRISIS CARE...WE ARE HERE FOR YOU. You’re 16 and you’re hungry. You’re alone. You have no home to go back to. If you are lucky, friends or relatives might help at first. But they have their own lives. And soon you’re on your own again... On the streets, you get exactly the kind of help you don’t need. You feel yourself spiraling downward. You want to climb out, but you’ve got to find a place to stay that takes money, and getting a job but you don’t have the education or skills for anything decent so how will you eat... and where will you live? CRISIS CARE Robert’s Story Robert’s parents died 6 months apart. It left him with no place to go. “I didn’t know what to do. My parents were all the family I had and I didn’t know where to turn.” Robert stayed with friends when he could but, in his own words, “that can only last so long.” He says that soon he was sleeping on the beach or at bus stops. Robert ended up living on the streets for two months. “I was living anywhere At Covenant House we open our doors to every kid in crisis without and everywhere I could,” he says now.