ROCK ISLAND, IL - On August 5th from 3:00-5:00pm, Theplace2b invites the community to an open house (1600-2nd Avenue Rock Island) and art sale to celebrate two years of service to our community's youth and their families.
Art created by our youth, as well as art donated by members of Handmade City, will be for sale at the open house. All proceeds from the sales will serve as the starting funds for our new Youth Entrepreneurial Program.
Miriam Prichard, our new associate director, will be speaking at 4:00pm about what has been happening at theplace2b recently.
Refreshments and hors d'oeuvres will be served.
Background: Theplace2b opened its doors in August 2010 to help meet the needs of the rising numbers of at-risk, displaced and homeless youth of our area. It came into being through the involvement of persons from the social services, financial supporters, concerned citizens, and religious institutions who saw the issue an opportunity and responsibility of the entire community to come together and open a center.
The first youth who entered our doors in 2010 was 17-yrs-old and came all the way from Arkansas, homeless and sleeping under someone's bed. We began helping just one youth, and from there we have evolved to helping over 100 youth in the Quad City area. We provide youth with a meal, job skills, and a safe place to hangout. For many of youth that have come in here we have provided resources to other services in our community such as housing programs and referrals to other agencies. We have been lucky to have the support of our community through donations of food, clothing, and having generous volunteers.
According to a 2011 Quad City Times Article, over 400 youth in Davenport School District and 140 in Rock Island/Milan School District were reported as homeless (9/5/11 "Counting Q-C's homeless teens hard").
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