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| | Overview | Assisting Youth in Crises | Youth Leadership & Action | Counseling and Support | Prevention Services | | Assisting Youth in Crises
 Oasis Center knows that youth and families in crisis often need more than a listening ear. They need an immediate response from caring adults, as well as information on where they can go in the community when they feel there is no place else to turn. Oasis Center offers Middle Tennessee’s only continuum of services for youth ages 13-21 who are in crisis, have run away, or are experiencing homelessness. These services include the areas only Emergency Shelter for youth, Project Safe Place, and a 24-hour Crisis Line staffed by trained professionals who can assist in sorting out problems and identifying possible solutions.
Emergency Shelter
The Oasis Emergency Shelter houses up to twelve young people, aged 13–17, for up to two weeks, at no cost, during which time they receive clinical support and opportunities to nurture body, mind, and spirit, in order to gain knowledge in problem resolution; develop a personal growth plan; and secure a safe living situation upon their departure. From the time the teen enters the shelter, staff work closely with the entire family to help them stabilize, establish appropriate goals, and open lines of communication. For those youth without family resources, planning focuses on the strengths of the individual and the best options for a permanent living situation.
Throughout their stay, residents receive specialized assessments, personalized grade-level education, individual, group, and family counseling, opportunities for fun recreation and exercise, and experiences being of service to others through weekly community service projects. For a sample overview of a week at Oasis Center, click here.
A young person entering our Emergency Shelter is typically in crisis for a variety of reasons which may include strained household dynamics; school failure; peer pressure; bullying; grief and loss; substance use; physical or sexual abuse; lack of effective parenting or role models; drug or alcohol addiction within the family; absent, deceased, or incarcerated parents; homelessness; illness or death in the family; or a number of other stressors and struggles. These stressors can reveal themselves in various ways such as anger, aggression and violence, running away from home, school suspension or expulsion, depression, suicide attempts, eating disorders, self-harming and mutilation, sexual promiscuity, substance abuse, or criminal activity. Whatever the reason, and whatever the mode of expression, it is almost certain that the youth has felt unsafe, misunderstood, rejected, unloved, lost, confused and, at times, hopeless.
Our program effectiveness has far surpassed national success rates; 90% of the youth leaving our shelter have been able to successfully return to their parent(s), guardian(s), or other family members. If you would like to speak with someone in person to learn more about the Emergency Shelter, please contact us and ask to speak with the counselor on duty.
Project Safe Place
Project Safe Place is Oasis Center's most aggressive effort at increasing young people’s access to help. Oasis Center brought Safe Place to Middle Tennessee in 1986—as a critical component of its Emergency Shelter—and since then has seen more than 1,300 youth seek help via one of its 387 Safe Place sites.
The idea is a simple one: communities can increase young people’s access to help by creating portals to safety in the neighborhoods where they live, learn, work, and play. Any young person in Davidson, Williamson, and Sumner Counties can get help through Safe Place by walking into one of the Safe Place sites throughout those counties. The readily recognizable yellow and black signs designate sites.
Project Safe Place works as follows:
- A youth in crisis walks into a designated Safe Place location (identified by a Safe Place sign or decals) and tells the first available employee that they need Safe Place help. The employee will find a comfortable place for the youth to wait while they call the Oasis Center.
- Within 20-30 minutes, a Safe Place volunteer, Oasis staff person, or taxi driver will arrive to transport the youth to the Oasis Emergency Shelter for counseling, support, a place to stay or other resources.
- Once at Oasis, counselors meet with the young person and provide support, shelter, resources and help. Oasis Center makes sure the youth and their families receive the help and professional referrals they need. (Family members or guardians are called to let them know that their youth is safe.)
Most young people hear about Safe Place during school presentations. Each student is presented with a Safe Place information card that has the local toll-free Safe Place phone number. Teens also hear about the program through word of mouth and public service announcements. Safe Place participants are typically between the ages of 12-17 and originate from all walks of life, from private schools to runaways passing through town.
Although Project Safe Place is sponsored solely by Oasis Center, its success is based upon Oasis’ partnership with its 387 Safe Place sites, including Metro Government, private businesses, and the religious community. Safe Place sites include:
- All MTA buses, trolleys and vans
- All Davidson/Williamson County Starbuck's Cafes
- All Davidson/Williamson County Kroger stores
- All Davidson/Williamson County Blockbuster stores
- All Davidson/Williamson County Wendy’s Stores
- All Davidson/Williamson County Fire Departments
- All Davidson/Williamson County YMCA’s
- Nashville Laser Quest
- Sylvan Learning Centers
For a complete listing of current Safe Place sites, click here. If your business or agency is interested in becoming a Safe Place site or if you would like to schedule a Safe Place presentation, please contact Susan Shaw at sshaw@oasiscenter.org.
Transitional Living
Although every young person needs support and encouragement while making the transition to adulthood, many youth are forced to make this transition without the support, guidance, and financial resources they need to be successful. Oasis Center is the only local provider of street-based outreach/assistance and temporary housing specifically geared to the safety and developmental needs of youth. To address this issue, Oasis Center’s Transitional Living Services offers direct Street Outreach and a Transitional Living Program for youth ages 17-21.
The Oasis Transitional Living program offers residential services and support for up to 6 youth at a time between the ages of 17-21. While living at the Transitional Living Program youth make a commitment to work, pursue their educational goals, learn the skills that will help them when they move into their own place and strengthen their connections to their community. Youth under the age of 17 need guardian permission to participate.
Program goals include:
- Provide safe and secure living accommodations while they work toward stability, finding employment, and learn and practice the skills necessary to be self-sufficient.
- Provide daily opportunities for personal growth, life skills mastery, and the development of interpersonal skills that are essential to long-term stability and future success in life.
- Offer substance abuse education; access to treatment for residents who struggle with substance abuse and who are willing to address it; and counseling and recovery supports to residents who are in recovery.
- Help create a holistic physical and emotional health plan that includes establishing primary medical care, dental care, and mental health services (when appropriate); and establishing and working toward individualized goals for personal growth, stress management, and other issues identified by the youth.
- Offer employment readiness training and job placement assistance that promotes finding and maintaining employment sufficient to cover the cost of living without long-term reliance on government supports.
- Provide opportunities for educational and vocational advancement that allow residents to make maximum progress toward their self-selected goals.
- Offer counseling services to address loss, sexual and physical exploitation, and any other mental health issues.
- Offer opportunities for youth to become involved in their community through volunteerism and leadership development activities.
Street Outreach
Intervention with street youth is extremely important to preventing long-term homelessness. In the most recent “Voices of the Homeless: Nashville Davidson County” survey of the homeless, 38% reported that they were 25 years of age or younger at the time of their first homelessness. Oasis Street Outreach services for youth works with youth ages 13-21 who have run away or been asked to leave their homes. Outreach counselors routinely go to locations frequented by youth who may be without a place to live, providing them with information about safe living situations, health care services, HIV/AIDS prevention, personal safety education and resources such as food and hygiene items.
For over 10 years, Oasis Center has operated a Street Outreach program consistent with the intent to prevent the sexual abuse or exploitation of runaway and homeless youth, and to provide them with services that help them leave the streets. Oasis Center Street Outreach objectives are to:
- Increase awareness about and safety of runaway and homeless youth (RHY) by identifying, contacting and establishing relationships youth, homeless services organizations, and local businesses and faith communities in areas known to be frequented by RHY;
- Decrease risk of harm, sexual exploitation and abuse, by providing street-based safety planning, education and prevention services to RHY through street outreach and other activities;
- Increase the likelihood of RHY leaving the streets, by establishing on-going contact through street and Drop-in Center outreach activities, case management and supportive services.
- Increase the likelihood of RHY remaining off the streets by providing support services that assist them in moving and adjusting to safe and appropriate alternate living arrangements, and providing assessment, planning, case management and advocacy to RHSY transitioning to living situations that do not already provide these services.
Jenny Gray, Street Outreach Case Manager, and Ben Griffith, Street Outreach Coordinator, were recently published in the new Nashville homeless newspaper, The Contributor. In addition to their pieces, also included is a memorial which Jenny and Ben wrote to honor one of the youth who was tragically killed in January, 2008.
The Contributor's goal is to provide a diversity of perspectives on the condition of homelessness and to highlight the contributions of homeless and formerly homeless individuals while providing a source of income. All of the vendors selling this paper are either homeless or formerly homeless.
To download a PDF of The Contributor, click the link below.
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