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STANDUP FOR KIDS - Phoenix Fall Events Raise Awareness and Resolution for Youth Homelessness
This fall STANDUP FOR KIDS - Phoenix will launch three significant events to bring awareness to and support for its programs that work to prevent and resolve youth homelessness. The events are “24 Hours on the Streets”, the first annual Family Festival STANDUP-A-Thon and the display and sale of photographic art created by street youth in local galleries. All funds raised during these events will go directly to Phoenix STANDUP FOR KID programs.
“24 Hours on the Streets” challenges valley business and community leaders to spend 24 hours on the streets without money, cell phone or food to live a day in the life of homeless youth. Participants spend 24 hours on Phoenix streets in a group, with STANDUP FOR KIDS street outreach volunteers and a former homeless youth guide. Each participant group is provided a web page to raise awareness and funds for STANDUP FOR KIDS - Phoenix programs leading up to their night on the street. On September 29, leaders from Cox Communications will join STANDUP For Kids Executive Director Shawn Duncan for 24 hours on the streets. Their stories and experiences will be chronicled in an upcoming article entitled STANDUP Phoenix! as we kick off a valley wide challenge to business and community leaders to join together to spend 24 hours in the streets to raise awareness and funds to resolve youth homelessness.
Please be sure to save the date for the first annual Family Festival StandUp-A-Thon on December 2nd, a day festival with live music, food, and children’s activities at the Scottsdale Civic Center Plaza. Volunteer participant teams from local schools, businesses and community groups will be participating in a StandUp-A-Thon at the event. Teams will remain standing during the event and disseminate information to raise awareness and support for resolving youth homelessness. Each team’s goal is to raise $1000 leading up to and during the event to support STANDUP FOR KIDS - Phoenix programs.
Stunning photographic images taken by homeless youth will be displayed in local galleries starting in October. Homeless youth are donating all proceeds of their artwork to further the programs of STANDUP FOR KIDS including the development of the new Phoenix Outreach Center that is planned to open in 2008.
Awareness and funds raised at the events this fall will strengthen vital programs, cultivate essential resources, and advance the number of homeless youth that street outreach volunteers will be able to provide resources and resolution to in their struggle to survive in the streets everyday in Phoenix.
Please volunteer your time or be a sponsor for a STANDUP FOR KIDS - Phoenix event this fall and be the face of change for kids growing up in the streets. Sponsorship can be in the form of funding to support event costs or in-kind donations to be raffled during the StandUp-A-Thon. Please call us at (602)743-9643 or email us at phoenix@standupforkids.org. To become an on-going partner with STANDUP FOR KIDS or to volunteer your time for an event or program, please send an email request to phoenix@standupforkids.org.
With your help, we will continue to help turn an uncertain future to one of hope, one youth at a time.
The Arizona Department of Economic Security reported in 2004 that there is an estimated 1,780 homeless youth under the age of 18 living on Arizona streets on any given day. The National Runaway Switchboard reports between 1.3 and 2.8 million runaway and homeless youth under 18 live on the streets of America each day. STANDUP FOR KIDS is a national, 501(c) (3) not-for-profit organization whose mission is to help homeless and street kids. This mission is primarily carried out through street outreach, in which volunteers build lasting friendships with homeless youth while they are living in the streets, and assist them in working toward life off the streets. The STANDUP FOR KIDS mission is furthered through prevention and resource programs. All facets of this mission are guided by the mandate that our volunteers shall tell every kid they care about them, and then at every turn, prove it.
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