UTurn Transitional Home is celebrating its one year anniversary in The Friendly City.
The program provides a positive environment for youths aged 16-18, who are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless.
Regina Youth for Christ (YFC) are responsible for getting the program up and running by providing a combination of parenting and running a boarding house.
“There has been a learning curve over the past year,” Uturn Transitional Homes manager Heather Sanderson told the Times-Herald. “It’s been a bit of a struggle and harder than anticipated, but with great staff and house parents it’s been positive and really great.”
U-Turn is the house parents home as well, which means they live alongside the youth. All tenants must apply to get into the U-Turn program. Tenants must want to be in the program and work on a personal development plan. Involvement in U-Turn requires individuals are either working full-time, looking for employment or enrolled and participating in schooling and education.
“Great people have really taken to the program and have benefitted a lot; it really is like a family,” Sanderson said.
According to YFC’s site, “Strategies that change lives is our focus. Impacting today's culture, training tomorrow's leaders and caring for Canada's youth requires never ending creative strategy development and YFC is committed to being on the "cutting edge" of change.”
The Uturn Transitional Home only provides shelter for five youths at one time. “We have an 18-year-old member leaving this month, and the position will be filled quickly,” Sanderson said on the programs age requirement of being 16 to 18.
Since the 1940's, Youth for Christ has served to reach out to the youth of Canada by offering the message of the gospel. YFC states, “Over the years, thousands of young lives have been touched. Today, many of the leaders in our communities and our churches have been influenced by YFC and their lives have been shaped through the influence of the gospel.”
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