About two weeks ago, Judith Olds picked up the Safe Place hotline and a girl from Brown County was on the other end.

She had recently lost a family member. She was grieving. She was depressed. She had heard about the Safe Place hotline and decided to call.

Olds is the executive director of Youth Connections and also a grief counselor. She was able to give the girl coping skills to try. The girl had told Olds she was also being bullied because she had been feeling depressed.

The next morning, the phone rang again at 7 a.m. The girl was on the bus, on her way to school.

“She said she had tried some of the things that I had recommended and they helped. She felt a lot better,” Olds said.

On March 28, schools in Brown County Schools were officially designated as the first Safe Place sites in the county. Superintendent Laura Hammack and building principals were given their Safe Place signs and packets.

Safe Place is a nationwide network of youth-friendly businesses, hotels, schools, fire stations, libraries and other public buildings where children and teens can go when they have a problem. They’re marked with diamond-shaped, yellow Safe Place signs.

“We are very excited about this new designation,” Hammack said.

“From the beginning when we talked to our partners at Safe Places, we felt a great responsibility to our community to be able to offer our schools as a Safe Place. I am really impressed with their comprehensive program. It’s a wonderful option for boys and girls who might find themselves in trouble.”

Beyond giving children a safe place to go, the program trains volunteers to quickly connect children with a designated person who can talk to them and get help for their problem.

Dawn LaPlante is the Safe Place/host home program coordinator for Youth Connections. Now that the schools have been designated as Safe Places, it means she can do presentations in the schools on what Safe Place is and how students can use it.

“They can call any time for any reason. We have everything from ‘I’ve been kicked out of the house’ to ‘Mom and Dad are fighting I don’t know what to do,’” LaPlante said.

Another component of the plan is to start a host homes program, where young people can stay while they are in crisis or don’t have a place to go. Host homes are similar to foster homes, but “a family opens up their home out of the kindness of their hearts for these children,” she said.

Safe Place will also do intensive referrals for counseling, or they work with the Department of Child Services if a case needs to be opened.

However, Safe Place can’t take every child in. “There are stipulations, because it has to be a voluntary program. They have to be wanting to do it. They to want to have a change. Parents really do need to be on board,” LaPlante said.

If a child is close to turning 18, parent involvement is not as necessary.

“We want to reunite the family as much as possible, too. But the community now has an avenue to use, if you have a homeless child who comes to the gas station and they don’t know what to do; they can call, which is wonderful,” LaPlante said.

Sheriff Scott Southerland attended the Safe Place site designation March 28. His department is set to receive its sign and designation next. Brown County YMCA Executive Director Kim Robinson also attended; the YMCA also will be designated as a Safe Place.

But the schools needed to be designated as Safe Place sites first so the kids could know what the program was about.

LaPlante said she is also working with the Nashville Police Department, and that she has spoken with 15 businesses in Brown County about being possible Safe Place sites. Three Access Brown County buses also will be Safe Place sites.

“It’s very crucial to have transportation involved, too, because some of these kids don’t know how to get around,” LaPlante said.

Safe Place can provide a bus voucher for a limited amount of time to help cover the transportation costs.

It takes around $22,000 to $24,000 a year to have Safe Places in Brown County. Olds said the program arrived in the county partially funded at $15,000, thanks to grants from the Brown County Community Foundation and Smithville Charitable Foundation.

“I am just excited about this,” LaPlante said.

“This is a wonderful start with getting Brown County going.”

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Do you have a spare bed and want to open your home to a young person in crisis for up to 21 days?

Contact Safe Place/Host Home program coordinator Dawn LaPlante at 317-738-3273 or email her at [email protected].

Training and a home inspection will be required.

Safe Place also needs ambassadors to meet kids at Safe Place locations and wait with them until they can be picked up by Youth Connections. Contact LaPlante for more information on how to volunteer if interested.

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