What are the demographics of the population served by City Steps?
We serve youth ages 14 to 24, so it’s youth and young adults. Most of them have not finished high school, but they want to. Most of them have had jobs, although they can’t seem to keep jobs. Unfortunately, a significant number of the youth have parented children, both the men and the women. Many of them have experience with the foster care system and have opted out by running away, avoidance or being kicked out of the system for noncompliance. Maybe around 30% are LGBT youth who have not been accepted by their families or who have not found a community that is embracing of their alternative lifestyle. The majority of them are African-American, but it’s not exclusive. We certainly are encountering a number of individuals of color, but there are many white kids too. Probably, across the board, the most dramatic issue that we’re dealing with is some sort of emotion trauma. Almost all of them have experienced the death of a loved one, or they have actually been in front of someone who died
