Wind Youth Services Expanding With Help From Golden 1

Downtown Sacramento will have a new 24-hour homeless youth counseling center later this year.

Wind Youth Services - a program that helps homeless people ages 12 to 24 - says it's getting a major contribution that will allow it to move from its Oak Park site to a location at 8th and S streets. Wind's Suzi Dotson says the downtown site will be about five times bigger.

"It's really going to let us expand and strengthen the services that we already offer," says Dotson.

Services such as a health clinic, shelter, laundry services, employment assistance and more.

"More counseling services, we're going to have an onsite health clinic," says Dotson, "and we will be introducing this prevention and early intervention program which is really about making sure that young people who find themselves in a crisis never ever have to spend a night on the street."

Golden 1 is contributing the money - $1 million over the next three years. Erica Taylor is with the credit union:

"We really can see this as a way to reduce the number of young people who become homeless and decreasing the length of time that youth spend on the streets," says Taylor.

"Homeless youth in Sacramento face a real lack of services available to them and long waits for solutions," says Taylor. "This type of center will serve as a triage center. It will provide a variety of services from Wind and partner agencies."

The new center is expected to open in the fall.