Bloom House Youth Services is getting increasingly busy in its second full year of serving teenagers in crisis.
Founder and Executive Director Clara Corn says times have changed since the shelter at 301 West 11th opened up early last year to homeless and runaway youths under age 18. Corn says the first youth was in the shelter by the end of March last year. There have been 10 individual shelter stays so far this year.
Corn says there has been at least one teenager in the shelter for 77 days as of Friday — better than half of the calendar days so far this year. Teenagers come to Bloom House for a variety of reasons.
Bloom House has a pair of community events coming soon. On Thursday, it will be involved in an Unbound Gravel shakeout ride sponsored by GRU Energy and led by Unbound men’s champion Yuri Hauswald. The ride begins at Eighth and Commercial at 9 am. Residents can register online through unboundgravel.com.
On June 16, Bloom House is hosting a ’90s prom at 627 Event Space to help celebrate Pride Month. Tickets purchased before June 15 are $30 a person of $50 a couple and include a taco buffet, two drink tickets, a prom photo and music.
Corn says Bloom House has a good number of volunteers, but it still needs help filling several time slots, including 6-8 pm Mondays, 6-11 pm Tuesdays and 9-11 pm Fridays. Corn also asked residents to donate food, both perishable and non-perishable, for its food pantry, as well as PS4 and Wii video games.
For more information about Bloom House and its work, go online to bloomhouseks.org, find the agency on social media or call 620-208-1199.
