 We're live. We're back. I'm Jay Feidel. This is Community Matters, our regular show that deals with events and organizations that serve the community and the common good. Today we're going to cover youth outreach, finding a roof for homeless youth, critical. How do they do that? Our special guests for this discussion are Martin Rabet, president of the Youth Outreach Board, and Jane Alexander of Friends of Youth Outreach. YO is a drop-in center for homeless youth and children in Waikiki. It is joining forces with Home Aid on Christmas Eve this weekend to give homeless youth a roof over their heads for Christmas. YO works to raise public awareness and also to raise money to build a center where youth can sleep safely at night. It's a major fundraiser, a sock, a major fundraiser is a sock hop at Stand Share of Center and that's scheduled for this coming April 8th. But we'll hear more about that in a minute from our guests, Martin Rabet and Jane Alexander. Welcome to the show, Martin and Jane. Nice to have you here. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. So what's tell me, somebody tell me, what is a drop-in center? The center in Waikiki is a, it's open four days a week because that's as much funding as it receives from Waikiki Health and Holly Kepa, the two organizations that run this show. And it's only open for the kids from three to six where they can come in and get a hot meal, hot shower, they can get their GED, they can get medical attention. But it's also a safe place for them to be because most of these kids have run away from home for various reasons, either they're sexually abused or their parents run drugs, they're kicked out because they're gay or transgender. But this little drop-in center in Waikiki is a safe place for them to be. And they get donated clothes so they can come in and get new clothes when they want. They can also do their laundry, which is important. And they have lockers, a place to stash their stuff. With their own lock, their own control of the space. Well, the lock is under the control of the yo supervisors, but they have a place to put their things in and feel safe. So what age group are we talking about? Well, there are babies of 14, 15-year-old mothers all the way up to 21. Wow. Does the baby of a 14-year-old or 15-year-old mother come with the mother? Oh, yeah. And the aunties and all those who are kids as well, and the siblings of these mothers, they all take care of each other. It's a clan. And this yo house is a safe place for them to be together. I love the term yo house. It's got all kinds of secondary meaning, yeah. They gave the organization the name. The kids did. Oh, did they really do that? Yeah. It was called youth outreach. Good for you for being sensitive to that. Yeah. It was called youth outreach, and they named it yo. Perfect. Perfect. So I guess, you know, I'm wondering why Waikiki. Waikiki is a neighborhood all of itself. Now we don't want them on the street for a number of reasons in Waikiki, partly because Waikiki is the engine of our economy. And it's a, it's a tawdry to have the tourists look on homeless people all day. That doesn't work. But why Waikiki? Are these kids living in Waikiki? Would they otherwise be on Coleo Avenue? They are living in Waikiki, but they, they feel comfortable there. They can fit in in Waikiki. They don't look homeless because of the donated clothing and backpacks, but they feel safe there. And unfortunately at night, sometimes they have to just walk at night because they can't sleep on the beach until daytime. And one of the kids wrote a story of a class there weekly that helped them to teach their stories. And one wrote about one night he was awakened by police officers three times because he kept moving him. So he just walked at night and then he slept during the day on the beach where he could. But that meant he couldn't go to school. Did he have a family? No. So can, can I, I don't know how this works. Can a kid who doesn't have a family walk into a school and get signed up? There are Carla Hauser who runs the Yo-House from the Waikiki Help portion. Helps them get their IDs, documents so that they can enter a school. And also if there are parents anywhere or guardians anywhere, she gets their permission. But it's often difficult to get that because they're often on drugs. And even, even without permission, she can get them into school. Maybe she has been able to, yes. Okay, it doesn't sound easy actually. No, it's not. Because what happens is we have Child Protective Services to come in to get the kids under 18. And they're supposed to take them back to the parents who might be abusing them so the kids will just run away again. And sometimes the police just bring them directly to Yo knowing that they'll be safe there. Where's the, where's the border between this kind of activity, you know, sleeping during the day and walking the streets at night between that and prostitution on Cuyahua Avenue. Is that, are they linked? Is there some kind of connection there? We'd like to think that there isn't a connection, but unfortunately there often is because the kids then find a place where they can sleep and they also get some money. Yeah, yeah. Young kids too, I know. Yes, yes. Yeah. So these, this is Christmas now. You're, of course, your fundraiser is in April 8th, but you're doing this program on Christmas Eve that we're talking about. And I wonder if you could describe to me the program. How does it work? How do you arrange it and attract the homeless kids to be there? How do you support it? What do you expect from it? Well, last year, Nani Madeira, Sioux Runes, homemade Hawaii here, was the she-spear-headed the whole thing. And we did it at the Aloha Tower in the student lounge of the White Pacific University there. And we told the kids they'd have a place to sleep with the roof over their heads. That's all we said. Come down and there'll be food and you can sleep safely. And all these donations came in food and gifts and sunglasses and certificates. And Ihilani gave all these quilts for the kids to sleep with, which is a huge boon for them. I mean, they love those quilts because they could take them out and use them wherever they find it. Yeah, yeah. And it was the most exciting thing for these kids. And then, you know, the next week when we rode again, they all rode about how happy they were to have this experience. So this year, it's going to be larger at another location. And we're, I just, to see these kids happy was such a gift last year. What's the agenda? I mean, how does the program roll out? How does it work? Well, they start with pizza and food like that. And then they have a table full of gifts that they get to select for other people. And that was apparently the most popular activity last year. They're giving a gift to receive. They are giving gifts. The first time is your life. They can go kick. That's very nice. A table full of gifts that they can give to other people and they get to pick something out and wrap it themselves. They presented to the other person too. Yes. Yes. What one of their colleagues as homeless kids or families or families to sometimes younger, younger siblings and and perhaps even a parent that they feel really sorry for, which happens. So OK, so then they have a program with the gifts. What happens then? The tick, tick, tick. It's like 10 or 11 o'clock at night. I guess. Okay. Yeah. They have game boy. They just and they find things to do. I mean, they're so excited to have this place to come together and Father Christmas comes, Santa Claus comes. And it's just it's a delight. What makes it a delight for me? You know, you you talk about a safe place to sleep. So there are there's, you know, dark shadows around in the sense that there are threats if you if you're a kid and you sleep on the pavement. What would they worry about? And how do you ameliorate that? Well, what happens often for these kids and they tell me their stories is that they will, you know, find a place to sleep and then they'll wake up and all the stuff is gone. So that's not the police either. No, that's other homeless people, other homeless people, adults. So some of them, as we said earlier, give their bodies up to adult homeless so that they can sleep safely while the adults watch them. Oh, no. Yeah. Yeah, it's it's just it's just they're so vulnerable in every way. I mean, not only in having these bad acts visited on them, but in in carrying the scars of a very unpleasant experience for the rest of their lives. No. Yes. And that's one of the reasons that I when I found out about this, because I mean, I grew up here and there were no homeless, little unhomeless kids. And I found out about this place. I thought, well, I want to participate. And I thought, well, I could teach them writing to tell their stories, which is what they come in and do. And at first, you know, they're very leery of adults. It took months for them to see that I was going to be there for them, not for me. And then they came a little by little and they would write and I'd say, you know, can they write? Yeah, I mean, they've had enough school to actually write. Yes. And I say, I don't care about spelling. I don't care about grammar. I care about your telling your story. Why don't you read us a piece? Okay, this I'll just read it a little bit about this one young man who once lived in an apartment, and now he's been on the streets for two years. And it sucks to be in the rain. It sucks not to be able to escape people's constant looks. It sucks to have to sleep with one eye open constantly surveying your surroundings, because you know what is out there. It sucks not to be able to take a shower or use the restroom in private. It sucks not to have a space to do things I love to do like dance, rap, sing, draw. It sucks not to have a quiet place to retreat to to when the world gets hectic. It sucks not to have a roof, a space, a home. Beautiful. So informational. I mean, it teaches you so much about his life. I guess it's a he his life. We're gonna take some picture pictures now. And let's see if you guys can give us a running discussion of what's on the screen. Okay. Okay. What's that? That's our event and that we had last April aboard the USS Missouri. It was a 1940s theme. And that's Carla Houser, who is telling everyone about Yo House. Great. That's Cassandra Peterson, also known as Elvira. And she and Richard Chamberlain were the co hosts for the event. And she flew over on her own dime to be a part of this to help the kids. Okay, this one. That's Ben and it looks like he kind of and then yeah, he had just one of the silent the live auction. Richard's Rolex watch that brand new watch that he donated and Cassandra is presenting. Okay, that's more of the event. More of the event. Ah, that's Fitzgerald, Susie and Dennis Fitzgerald, they're big supporters of Friends of Youth Outreach. And in the in the background, you have by Lou and and that's great that you have such support from the community. And obvious that they're down there. Those are our board members there. Those are your board members, including the the captain. That's me. We just figured that we would dress up. It was a 40s themed event. You play a good captain. I'm impressed, Martin. That's the Missouri. That's some Missouri. That's some guests enjoying it. People really had a good time on that. So some more brass. Yeah, there's Richard Chamberlain on the left with Cassandra myself. He plays an admiral, eh? Yes. Okay, great pictures. I love the Navy thing. Do that again. Well, our sock hop is going to be 50s. So come with your t-shirt, hold up with the cigarette pack. So you follow the theme, whatever the theme is. We want to make this fun for people to come. You know, there's so many events in this town almost every weekend. There's something going on. But we want to make it fun because we believe so much in what we're doing. We really want to get a roof over the heads of these kids. They're good kids. They just need a chance. Well, here's the question, though. You're reaching a certain number of kids. I guess we should find out how many. About 500 a year go through the year. 500 a year. But we know there are more than that. I know, for example, downtown, there are a lot of kids that wander the streets at night here downtown, not the same crowd, different crowd. And they get involved kinds of trouble. And they're exposed and vulnerable in so many ways. And so you'll work actually, Martin and Jane is just beginning. There's a lot more out there. And they for the dark forces, they are the low hanging fruit is what it is. Yes. And the good thing about Holly Kepa is that they have the nighttime youth outreach program, they go out and find kids, bring them food, tell them about the your house, and they come in and they can get all these services. And it's, you know, they're it's unbelievable to see some of these new kids come in and go, How long has this been here? Why didn't I know about it? So it's really an amazing program. We just we need more funds so that we can have a shelter based on there's a shelter in Portland, Oregon, that Carl Hauser wants to create here, where you have different stages of need by these kids, you know, intermediate, immediate, and then longer term, so that we can help them get their GEDs, and then they can get jobs, and then they can support themselves. We're just not trying to find a place for them to sleep at night. We want these people, these youth to become, you know, working members of our society. And they want to I mean, they're one wonderful writer wants to be a nurse. And she had no idea that she had the chance to do that, because she's homeless. Why not? You can, you can go to school. That's the risk they kind of write themselves off. Yes, you have to bring them back. So we're going to come back right after this break. And we're going to talk about bringing them back, we can talk about what happens if you don't bring them back. And we're going to talk about fundraising. Don't forget, Jane, don't forget the fundraising. Okay, we'll be right back. Hi, Aloha, my name is Chris Lethem, and I have a host of show called The Economy and You. The show plays every Wednesday at noon. And on my show, I bring on guests who are interested or working in the technology space. And so I'd like you to come and watch the show and learn with me about all the sort of exciting things that we're doing in Hawaii to build and grow our economy ecosystem. So I'd like to say Aloha and I look forward to seeing you on the show. Thank you. Okay, we have a great discussion going on community matters here on ThinkTech. We're calling it Youth Outreach, Finding a Room for Homeless Youth in Hawaii. Featuring our two guests, Martin Rebet, president of Youth Outreach, the Youth Outreach Board, and Jane Anderson, I misspoke before, of the Friends of the Youth Outreach. Okay, everybody agree with that so far? Yes. Alright, so let's talk about, you know, these kids and their delicate psyches, you know, you need to do something for them with the, they will ultimately have terrible lives and be a burden, and on themselves and on us, and not productive members of society. So we're trying to make them productive, which we're trying in every way. You're not the only agency that's, you know, hitting hard at the homeless. We're trying in every way to minimize homelessness, ameliorate when we find it, and make make them productive. So I just like to know, you know, what happens on Christmas, because on Christmas, it's kind of special, the lights, the colors, the sound of music, dancing, food, all that happiness. Sometimes it's real, not always. But there it is. And so the person who perceives that it's always real. And if you happen to be homeless on the street, it accentuates more than ordinarily, you know, at any other time of the year. Do you see that in working with these kids? December is a really tough month for these kids. It's a really tough month because they see all this joy around them, like you said, and they're not a part of it. Yeah. And that's why having this party for them is absolutely wonderful. It doesn't take a party the last two weeks. It just takes a little party. Make them feel that, you know, this is not such a big disparity. Right. They can enjoy themselves like other people do. Well, they also, they want to be seen. There's one wonderful writer in my class who constantly writes about how lonely he is out there, because people look at him and don't just dismiss him. And he's brilliant. And he's a good soul. And he wants to be seen in this party. All these people coming together is saying, you're worthy. We all want to feel worthy. But these kids especially need that because they didn't have an upbringing like many of us did. Yeah, that's a great loss. And they don't have an identity, a persona, they don't have a place where they belong. So you're offering them a place where they belong. And you're offering a chance to be part of the community. This is all about to make them, you know, working members of the community, productive members of the community, they got to be part of the community. And I think that's, you know, baseline what you're offering them. So what's so wonderful about your house? Sorry for jumping in. But these kids love you so much that when I have them write goals, they say they all want to come back and work for you. They want to get back because there's a statement, isn't it? Yes, yes. There's one girl here who wants to create an organization like you, but not just for old or young people, for everyone. They can come in and that's very creative. You ever give her credit for that? She's amazing. Everybody needs you, Martin. We all need you. I went there because I wanted to give backs in some way. I leave there so augmented that I feel so blessed to be a part of this. Now, what happens on the on the foot side of this? I mean, you must have thought about this. If you don't reach them, they don't come in. They don't take advantage or they don't know about. For some reason, they're not involved in your program and their streetwaves disconnected with their family disconnected with other homeless people really just kids. I wonder out of something out of that's one of the Charles Dickens books, Oliver, Oliver Twist. What happens to them? Just give me a sort of ghost of Christmas future kind of description. What happens to these kids if they don't have your help? You know, the how the homeless population is increasing here. Yes, they're going to be part of that. Yes, and they already are a part of it. Yes, but they're the one part that is not being addressed right now. The under under age 24 group is not being addressed yet. That's that surprises me because we have 100 literally hundreds of nonprofits out there trying to deal with homelessness. But no, nobody's addressing my 18 to 24 year olds. No one. So this is a crucial stage of their development. And yes, it is a lot of these kids are in such pain that they do drugs to numb the pain. That's a one way street. Yeah. So we need to get to them desperately, desperately. Let's talk about money now, Jane. This is your turn. You're the friends. Okay. So he's the friends too. Okay, you're both friends. But talk to me about how you raise money for this kind of organization. We've seen some photographs of some of the people who have supported you. But how does that work? Because it's you know, it's a different, it's a different approach on different charitable organizations, different approach on different missions, different approach, you know, depending how you handle it, how do you handle it? Well, first of all, we've only had our 501 C three since last summer. But we got it in two months time. Really? That's a record, isn't it? Yes, must have done something right. Well, we had a very good attorney who did all this work for us pro bono, Steve Egasol. Very nice. Yes. Shout out to Steve. Yes, Steve Egasol. He's on our board. He's on our board and he did. He did this all for us and got it in two months time. And before that, we were sponsored by Lima Kukua, but we've only been in existence for a little over a year. And we are doing everything we can. We're trying. I mean, we had our big fundraiser about the USS Missouri, and we're having a sock hop at the stand here. I'm too young to know what that might be. No, we're trying to have different sort of venues. We're not having grand balls where people have to go out and spend a lot of money for a gown or a tuxedo or whatever. You don't really need that. It's inefficient, isn't it? Well, those are wonderful events and people enjoy them. But they need something different. And because we have such a different population that we're trying to take care of. And we want to get people really engaged. So who's your target, you know, group of possible funders? Anyone? Anyone? Everyone? Anyone and everyone? You'd say that? Yes. Well, who have you been successful? I don't know name names, but what what groups have been successful, you know, in raising money? I would probably say the same people who give. In general, in general. Yeah, there's just there are people who normally give to and people who have very big hearts. A lot of times you just have to tell the story of the people and as soon as they hear the story about these kids, and the fact that they're caught in this terrible situation, they open their hearts and and they open their checkbooks and something and they're they're ready to now these people who are wealthy people, not necessarily all across the board. They're all across the board all across the board. Do they have personal experience with homelessness and and kids that have left home? I think some of them do, but I actually have someone who cleans for me and she came to me one day and at the end of having worked very hard for four hours and I was ready to give her her money. She said no and she said I had to live on the beach myself when I was 18 years old and she said I want to get the money back to the kids. That's something, isn't it? Isn't that something? Yeah, that's great. Yes. You must have said something that touched her. Well, she saw if she saw me collecting everything for the silent auction. She saw me working like I had a full-time job and she she caught the caught the whole thing and yes, she brings me things all the time for the silent auction. So okay, well, we have this fundraiser coming. Let's talk about that for a minute. What is it? And I guess we know that it's April 8th. We have a flyer. We're going to show the flyers to save the date flyer. Talk about it you guys. What what what do we do to ramp up to April 8th here? Well, it's we're selling tables and we were looking for corporate sponsors which since we're brand new people are just finding out about us but you know if we get the message out there that we're here to create a facility for these kids to sleep safely and to help them progress and become members of society that's what the fundraiser is all about. We're going to have a band. We're going to give you socks and we're going to dance the night away and help these kids. Right. Where is it? At the Stan Sheriff's Center. I knew that. Yes, absolutely. Okay, that's big. You can have a lot of people. We can have a lot of people there. Yes, yes. Easy parking. Do you expect that that you know I guess based on experience are people do they give small amounts, medium amounts, large amounts? Do you have or all three? All three. All three. I know someone who just gave us a check and she has absolutely no money whatsoever but she wants to participate in this. Well, you're you're really reaching them. It's interesting that you're filling a gap um and and that changes the paradigm around homelessness. You know it's like did we realize maybe we didn't that there was this age group that was being underserved or not served at all and now we find that it's there and you can and should and must and will serve it. I think you're absolutely right. We I didn't know about this and I told my friends and now I've got the financial planner and Kailua once a month delivering food to the O house. I've got a classmate from school here once a month delivers food because they need more meals delivered every week to these kids and so more and more people saying well I can bring a meal well I can do this once a week I can do this every two weeks or it's amazing how it's beginning to take some momentum. How would you track the outcomes? What I mean is I mean it's early for you to answer the question how are these kids how do your graduates do in life? I know we'd like to have happened but how you know do you have a sense of how you're going to track that and what you would expect when you do say five years later how these kids are going to be faring any thoughts on this? Right now we see them 12 hours a week we want to see them 24 seven and that's a function of money. That's a function of money we need the money to get the house that's open 24 hours a day seven days a week so that you can really make profound changes and it's pretty hard with only 12 hours a week they do a great job. Will you follow them up from year to year? Will you include them again and again? Will you track their lives? We want to do that but prior to this Carla Hauser says that sometimes the kids just leave because at 21 they age out of this facility we're trying to get that extended to 24 but right now it's 21 and they age out and they disappear but every now and then she'll get a letter saying how grateful they were for her guidance and for Yohaus so they do come back and I think there's one person there now was a Yohaus attendee and now she works there so yes to answer your question we try and track those that we can and some just disappear. Yeah because if they had a good time good enough to want to work for Yohaus that's a happy time in their lives and if you can reinforce that going forward or remind them about it going forward you probably have a secondary benefit you know in their lives as they get older so I'm going to offer you guys both of you the opportunity to talk to the public the public is behind that red light camera right over there and to give them a minute each if you don't mind and you know what what exactly oh I'm sorry Vivian is the camera it's Vivian over there she's to the right we're going to do this correctly so would you tell the public what you would like them to know about Yohaus what would you like them to do to assist in the in the cause? Jane? I'd love to have assistance with donations of meals I'd love to have assistance in helping our board because we need we need help because we've got to we we need help to get a roof over these kids heads and we want to get the roof over their heads as soon as we possibly can they need shelter 24 hours a day seven days a week not just on Christmas Eve because this Christmas Eve means so much to these kids to have a night where they can safely sleep and we want to give them safe sleeping every single day Martin? Friends of Youth Outreach was created to to bring a roof over these kids' arms and lives and to make them feel safe in the world and help them get a leg up where they wouldn't have one otherwise they want to succeed they have dreams of succeeding and we need your support to in any kind of way whether it's a donation of clothing or meals or financial donations and they we have a fund at Hawaii Community Foundation set up to create an endowment that will pay for the new facility that we hope to create very soon so anything you can do to help these kids because we want to stop the tide of homelessness in Hawaii and if we start with the children there'll be fewer adult homelessness in the future thank you Martin Martin Rebet and also Jane Alexander Anderson Anderson thank you both are the friends of Youth Outreach talking today about Youth Outreach finding a roof for homeless youth here in Hawaii thank you so much and thank you for your good work and thank you for identifying and dealing with this problem thank you for thank you so much for having us here