Blog

Agency COVID-19 Update

We are grateful to all of you who have reached out to ask how Haven House is doing, and we wanted to give you an agency update. All of Haven House’s 11 programs – including our Wrenn House youth shelter –  have remained operational during the pandemic and are currently accepting referrals. We are so thankful to our amazing staff for their positive attitudes, innovation, and willingness to embrace technology as we have worked diligently to adapt our programming the past few months to continue to serve youth and families in need. 

Many of the youth and families that Haven House serves were struggling before the pandemic. Now they are facing additional obstacles such as unemployment, loss of child care, risk of homelessness, mental health issues as a result of isolation and/or additional stress, etc. We have been implementing our “whatever it takes” approach to help youth and families get the services and support they need during these difficult times. 

We are pleased to report that our three Crisis and Homeless Services programs (Wrenn House, Street Outreach, and Transition in Place) have received additional county and federal funding to provide targeted COVID-19 support to youth experiencing homelessness.  This funding will allow us to move more youth into housing, provide utility support and rental assistance to youth whose employment has been negatively impacted by the pandemic and to ensure that we have enough PPE on hand for staff and youth to help stop the spread of COVID-19. 

We are also excited to announce that our Second Round fitness-based intervention program will soon be starting outdoor, small group sessions with youth on a reservation basis. The program will also continue to utilize social media to post workouts and stay in contact with youth (picture of Coach Jay Jersey below was taken while making a video to share with youth on social media). 

The health and safety of the youth we serve and our staff are our top priority. We are so thankful for all the support we have received from the community the past few months as we had to adapt quickly to new technologies and new challenges. As always, if you know of a youth or family of a youth who is in need of assistance, please have them reach out to us at 919-833-3312.  If you would like to make a donation to support our youth and programs, click here