CITY House Emergency Teen Shelter

 How we got started 

 In the late 1980s, two Plano school teachers noticed some of their students arriving at
 school with all their belongings in trash bags.  The students would store the trash bags in
 their lockers during the day and take the bags with them when they left school at the
 end of the day.  Upon investigation, the teachers discovered these students were
 homeless. 

 ‘Not in this community!’ 

 The teachers’ reaction was ‘not in this community!’  The thought of homeless youth was
 intolerable to these teachers.  They immediately began working on ways to provide a safe
 shelter to these homeless teens.   The community rallied to the cause and the first
 facility opened in 1989 - a 6 bed shelter in a house owned by the First Baptist Church. 
 That was the birth of CITY House. 

 Collin Intervention to Youth, Inc. 

 CITY House, incorporated as Collin Intervention to Youth, is a 501(c)(3) non-profit
 organization founded to address the needs of homeless teens in Collin County.  CITY
 House provides intervention services to youth in crisis and their families.

 Today CITY House runs a 15 bed emergency shelter located in a large Victorian house
 near downtown Plano.  CITY House is the only emergency shelter in Collin County serving
 homeless, runaway or abandoned youth. The shelter serves 10 to 17 year olds in Collin
 County and the surrounding counties of Dallas, Tarrant, Kaufman, Denton and Rockwall.   

 Besides a home-like atmosphere and a warm bed to sleep in, CITY House residents
 receive:

• Meals

• Clothing

• Medical care

• Case management

• Counseling

• Continuation of their education in local schools

• Legal services, when needed

 In 2005, 91% of the children who stayed at CITY House were safely returned to their
 homes or other family members.  Others went to foster homes or long term facilities.

 Chelsea Stanford, a fifth grader from Plano published an exciting book Runaway Hotel    

 which deals with the pangs of growing up that touch everyone. Take a minute to visit the

 full details at http://www.runawayhotel.com/index