I spoke with Meg Robertson from the Chaplaincy this morning. She provided me with abundant useful information. She will be officially working at the youth drop-in until Feb. 4th, but will be in the Bay Area possibly until April or May. Her replacement at the drop-in is a woman named Diana that used to work at the Cole 81 Clinic in San Francisco, so she has a lot of experience operating clinics for youth.
The “big wigs” involved with the youth clinic effort are focusing on trying to establish a Larkin Street type set-up in Berkeley. So there meetings will be focused on funding and finding a location. Suitcase Clinic will probably only be able to play a minimal role in this process.
Meg Robertson still thinks it would be an excellent idea for the Suitcase Clinic to explore the possibility of establishing an evening drop-in for youth that had professional services. She thinks a set up similar to Tuesday night would enable youth to be off the streets one evening per week and would make services available to them. She cautioned that safety issues need to be thought through thoroughly before beginning such a clinic. She also thought that the professional services should be offered in one area and the drop-in (food, television, SHARE-type meetings?) should be offered in another area. First Congregational Church is not willing to offer space at this time. A search for a clinical space seems like the number 1 priority at this time.
Suggestions:
I) Talk to Wendy Georges today and get her suggestions. She once wanted to have Suitcase Clinic at the Trinity Church drop-in. This may still be a possibility.
2) Lutheran Church on Haste and College.
3) Newmann Center on Dwight and College.
4) YWCA on Bancrfot.
5) Trinity Church on Bancroft.
6) Episcopal Church on Bancroft.
7) First Presbyterian Church on another evening.
Others?
Note: The process of trying to garncr enough funds for a Larkin St.-type program could take years. The establishment of a Suitcase Youth Clinic could serve as an intermediary step
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