Clearlake >> When Bill MacDougall worked as principal for Carle High School, he and teacher Verna Rogers decided they needed to take action to help struggling students. “What was driving Verna and I crazy is we would work with these kids and they would get failing grades,” MacDougall said. “They’d come in a we’d create a strong relationship and bond with them and we’d watch these kids do beautiful things and improve drastically. And then they’d go home or they would have to couch surf, and it broke our hearts.”
For 10 years they envisioned creating a safe and stable environment for these children. “We dreamt, what would these kids be like if they had their basic essential needs met?” MacDougall said. Then, after a long wait, a group finally came together to make their dreams a reality. Seven years ago, the Safe House of Lake County came to fruition.
From the beginning, the safe house has been supported by the Lake County community. A woman donated a three bedroom, two bathroom house and things blossomed from there. “It really was our community that brought this together,” MacDougall said.
The house gives students a safe place to live and an environment that supports their educational pursuits. Sometimes, a kid is not homeless before moving to the house, but their home environment may not be conducive to studying. They move into the safe house until their home gains some stability. “A lot of time, there’s so much friction in the home that the kid’s floundering,” MacDougall said. “If they’re allowed to just take a time out from that house and until things settle down in the house and communication is restored, then they can be reunited and can succeed.”
The house has been fully operational for six years and has seen over 60 kids pass through its doors. Over the years the criteria for living at the house has changed to address specific needs at different times. Right now, teens 16 to 18-years-old who attend school during the day reside in the home. They are under the supervision of two counselors, both of whom lived at the safe house in high school and attend college now. “We had two residents who were so incredible that when they went to college we didn’t want to put them on the streets and wanted to assist them with their future educational endeavors,” MacDougall said. “They’re really great role models.”
The young counselors are considered transition age youth (TAY). While the definition is flexible, MacDougall considers the age range of TAY to span from about 18 to 24. Due to the difficulty of finding a job in the current market and paying for college, “that is the most at-risk group in the United States right now,” he said. “That’s why we’ve shifted to the transition age youth being the students who are the peer counselors. And then we train them and meet with them fairly regularly.”
Adult counselors oversee the whole operation, checking in on the house occupants often. At any time there are between three and five teens living in the safe house in addition to the counselors. Aside from the age requirement, those residing in the house must also be academically minded. “In a sense we used to take just about any kid off of the street,” MacDougall said. “Unfortunately there are so many kids on the street that we now really look at the kids that are attending school regularly, getting passing grades and have good citizenship. And I learned running alternative schools if you set a bar like that … the kids will go, ‘If I want to stay here I will achieve that,’ and they do.”
Struggling kids are usually referred to MacDougall by a school counselor or another adult. Then he or Rogers conduct an interview and decide whether or not the student would be a good fit. “Our success rate is very, very high. One reason for that is we’re selecting students who really, really, really want to put forth the effort to succeed. We’re not taking the kid who gets kicked out of the house because they want to party. That’s not the safe house kid,” MacDougall said. “The kids that we bring in walk into this house and they truly appreciate its beauty, its safety and that it’s quiet.”
According to Aggie Berry, the chief fundraiser for the safe house, the house has fostered the academic success of past residents. They’ve all graduated from high school and many have gone on to college. Others have attended trade school, gone into the military and obtained jobs.
“Kind of being able to assist a young adult to grow emotionally as well as scholastically and to feel safe is a very fulfilling thing to do,” MacDougall said.
Berry recalled a speech by a past safe house resident, a young woman who’d spent a year and a half at the house. She was the valedictorian of Lower Lake High School then went on to attend UC Davis. “She said to God and everybody, ‘if it weren’t for the safe house I would be in the family business,” Berry said. The “family business” meant having two children by her age and flipping burgers for a living. “[She said], ‘Because of the safe house I’m going to UC Davis. When I become a doctor I can come back to Lake County to help the community that helped me.’”
It is through this incident, and many others, that Berry knows the safe house is having a positive impact. “We’ve taken these kids … and converted them into stable, income producing people that are part of the system we’re in,” she said. “It really, truly makes a difference.”
It was about 10 years ago when Berry first heard there were hundreds of teenagers in the U.S. who wake up each morning unsure of where they were going to bed at night. “These kids come from homes where parenting skills are very limited, finances are limited,” she said. “[I thought], wouldn’t it be great if we could take these kids and get them off the street and into a safe environment with lots of rules?”
Growing up in a family where high grades were mandatory, food and clothing was always available and every child attended college, Berry admitted that she had a fairly comfortable childhood. “It was pretty idyllic. We had music lessons, art lessons, all that kind of stuff that kids have if they have parents that can afford to do all those things,” Berry explained. “I thought to myself, ‘what did you do, girl, to ever earn that kind of a lifestyle compared to Crystal [a safe house resident]?’ What did she do that was different than what I did?”
Berry decided her good fortune was nothing but the luck of the draw. “It just doesn’t seem fair to me,” she said. “So that’s why I’m involved in the safe house.”
Though Berry’s participated in numerous fundraising projects since she was a child, helping the safe house beats all other experiences. “This is the one thing that is the most rewarding thing I have ever done,” she said. “If I don’t do this and no one steps up to the plate, what happens to our kids? … So many times you donate to charities and it really doesn’t make a difference … With the safe house, I feel like all the efforts that I do end up being translated into a concrete good thing for some kid.”
Without state or federal funding, donations play an important role in the success of the safe house. MacDougall decided against placing a limit on how long someone could live at the house and as a result, they could not apply for funds. “Those grants have a time frame for how long a kid can stay,” he explained. “We generally want to help them and let them stay until they’ve completed their schooling or they’re in a position where they can successfully reunite with a family member or parent.”
Monetary and material donations from organizations such as the Wine Alliance, the Rotary Club of Clear Lake and an annual golf tournament fundraiser keep the house up and running. “It was really heartwarming to see how much money we could raise for these kids,” Berry said. “All the money goes directly to overhead. No one gets paid to do anything there, it’s all volunteers.”
MacDougall is extremely thankful for the support. “It think [the safe house] is unique to our community because the community itself sponsors this and that says something about Lake County and its resident’s willingness to help each other and those in need, which is my favorite part of Lake County,” he said. “I’ve never been in a place that is so generous, even though it’s a poor county. The generosity here is awe inspiring.”
This year’s golf tournament, dinner and fundraiser takes place Saturday, June 13 at the Adams Springs Golf Course in Loch Lomond starting at 8:30 a.m. Contact Berry at 489-6524 for more information.
Jennifer Gruenke can be reached at 900-2019.
