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The Youth and Family Alternatives shelter in Brooksville serves Citrus, Hernando and Sumter counties.
By JEFFREY S. SOLOCHEK
© St. Petersburg Times, published August 10, 2001
BROOKSVILLE -- It happened more than 15 years ago, but Jennifer Tweedie remembers running away from home as if she did it yesterday.
"The first night I was away, I slept behind a Dumpster," said Tweedie, 28, of New Port Richey. "There was nowhere to shower, no place to go to the bathroom. You just wander, and if someone says something nice to you, you just cling to them."
After midnight, the police saw her walking the streets and took her to the Youth and Family Alternatives runaway shelter in Port Richey. "I was grateful," she recalled.
Tweedie hopes she can bring lessons from her experience as a 12-year-old to her new job as office manager of the newest YFA runaway shelter that opened Thursday in Brooksville.
"I think it's just a cry for help. Kids run away because they're angry or upset or scared. It's just a way to act out," she said. Now the youth of Hernando, Citrus and Sumter counties have a safe place to go "if they feel like they can't stay at home."
Talked about for close to a decade, the million-dollar runaway shelter became reality Thursday morning when Patrick Howard, Department of Children and Families regional administrator, delivered its state operating license. The city certificate of occupancy was soon to follow, and youths could occupy the 17 beds as early as today. "We've already got people calling us for kids," YFA program director Walt McCreary said.
The shelter, located next to the Hernando County Sheriff's Office, is long overdue, said retired Sheriff Tom Mylander, who helped steer it to fruition during his tenure.
"It gives certainly a safe place and a time out place for our young people to come to so they don't have to be out on the street," Mylander said as he admired the building. "It's not getting any better. We live in a society where there are problems all over."
Before this shelter opened, the Hernando-Citrus region was the area of the state with the largest number of unserved runaways, according to state reports.
"We didn't have any avenue for our children who needed a safe haven," Citrus County Sheriff Jeff Dawsy said. "This to me is proactive. This is not reactive. This is something we need for the future."
Hernando County Commissioner Nancy Robinson noted the sign outside the shelter read, "Help for today and hope for tomorrow."
"All the agencies working on the project have put the words into action," Robinson said.
The shelter will house up to 17 runaways, chronic truants, kids thrown out of home, children involved in domestic violence cases and children in need of court-ordered services. The age range will be 10 to 17, and the average stay is two weeks.
Rooms for girls are painted pink, and boys' rooms are blue. Each has two beds, two closets and a chest of drawers. There's a recreation room with a television and selection of videos, and a classroom filled with textbooks.
Soon, there will be a basketball and volleyball court out back.
"This has been a project that has been long in coming," said George Magrill, YFA executive director. "I'm really happy this day has finally arrived."