01/05/2022
Please pass this along and share it with as many people and Facebook Feeds as you can if you live in the Greater Fort Wayne area or are originally from here. We want to get the word out as far and wide as possible about our vision to help teens who are hurting and lost, abused and neglected, abandoned and rejected. They can have hope and a future, but only if someone steps up for them. Let that be us.
When I grew up in the Bloomingdale Neighborhood of Fort Wayne in the late '70's and early '80's, the poverty level was bad. It is horrific now, as is the violence and abuse these teens are living with. Something has to be done to break that cycle. There are Agencies which provide for immediate needs if their parents can even be bothered going, and they are so valuable and needed, but we also need to take steps to ensure these teens do not become the next generation of parents to raise their children with poverty and abuse and who need their services.
Having found my own path to doing that, I believe part of doing that is to open a place where they feel safe spending time, where they know no one is going to hit them, yell at them, or call them names. This is something these teens rarely experience. We need to open a place where they can be around adults who were once like them but found a way to break free to find hope and a future. It is time Fort Wayne quits writing these kids off because they are poor, dirty, smelly, and abused. It is time Fort Wayne steps up and opens a place dedicated to helping them find a way to a better future.
That is my dream. I want to see a Teen Outreach Center opened north of downtown Fort Wayne to reach teens who are not being reached or helped because they cannot or will not go south of downtown to places such as Boys and Girls Club. We need to go where they are instead of thinking they will come to where we want to put something.
I was once one of them. I grew up in the same poverty. I was abused every way you can imagine. My mind was shattered and I have severe mental illnesses because of it. But I broke free because a family took me in just as I was when I was 15. They showed me a different life and helped me go on to earn a Master's Degree in Business Administration. And if I can do it, any of these teens can if only given the help I was. That is the vision and mission of The Remnant Teen Outreach Center. We want to open just such a place in their neighborhood so they can have a place to feel safe and where they can be around people who were once just like them but found that hope and a future. What we did, they can too if only someone will show them they matter enough to care about. Will that person be you?
To learn more about what we see the Remnant Teen Outreach Center becoming and being able to do to break the cycle of poverty, violence, abuse, and neglect for Teens in the Bloomingdale and Nebraska neighborhoods and ultimately all across Fort Wayne, please check out our website: www.theremnantfw.com. We are also on Social Media under Remnant Outreach, or RemnantFort on Twitter.
We are currently in the stage of working to move from this being a vision to help teens who have never had anyone help them to a reality of trying to spread the word far and wide of what we believe is possible. That is why we are asking everyone to share this and pass it along to your friends.
We are also seeking those who are willing to discuss serving on our Board of Directors to help us figure out how to move from vision to reality. And Teens from these neighborhoods to be on a Teen Council to advise us on what teens want to see in the Outreach Center so that it is their place, not that of the adults working or volunteering there.
We can help these teens who believe no one will ever help or care about them, but only if all of us in the Fort Wayne area join together to do so.
Outreach to teens and young people who have suffered trauma, abuse, neglect, poverty, or homelessness, Youth Outreach
