National Safe Place Week

LINCOLN, Neb. (KOLN) - This week is National Safe Place Week and advocates say it’s a great time to remind the Lincoln community that there’s a program out there to help teens going through a hard time at home.

The Safe Place Program helps teens ages 13 to 18. Organizers say in the last ten months, the program has helped at least 15 kids in Lincoln. People might recognize the yellow and black signs posted at 58 locations around town. These locations include all U-Stop gas stations, fire stations, Cheer Xpress on Aries Drive, The Bay on Y Street and many more.

These signs tell teens if they can’t be at home for reasons like abuse or neglect, they can go to these locations and someone working there will connect them with helpful “Safe Place” resources.

“So making sure they know that they can go to those sites, those sites can connect them to us, or they can come straight to us and that we are here for them, we are going to work with them, we are going to work through what’s going on and do everything we can to help them move forward,” Jennie Danner, the Safe Place coordinator for the People’s City Mission said.

Danner meets with teens who go to these “Safe Places” to talk to them first and try to get them reunited with their family. If that’s not possible and they are at least 16 years old, she takes them to the mission.

For those 13 to 15 year old’s, Danner may get the police or the CEDARS kids shelter involved if the child’s home is unsafe. The city mission is equipped with four beds, two rooms, for the 16 to 18 year old’s to use if they need a place to stay.