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City Fire Stations Now a Center for Youth "Safe Place"

Fire station at Ridge and Dewey Avenues in Rochester
Fire station at Ridge and Dewey Avenues in Rochester

The Center for Youth is announcing an expansion of its "Safe Place" program to 15 fire stations in the city of Rochester.

The program features a Center for Youth team which responds to those locations and offers young people the care they need -- even shelter.

Speaking at the fire house at the corner of Dewey and Ridgeway Avenues, City Fire Chief John Schreiber says the partnership with the Center for Youth started in 2006 at one fire house, and now all city fire stations are participating.

"We want to make our stations available to the youth of this city, in time of crisis...that they can come to the fire stations as a place of refuge," Schreiber said.

Center for Youth Executive Director Elaine Spaull says youth in crisis can now walk into any of those fire houses or hundreds of other locations in the city and get help from the Center.

"Within 20 minutes...we send a team to wherever the young person is. Then you find out what they need, you find out if there's a need for medical care, is there a need for other kinds of support or is there a crisis in terms of counseling or mental health," Spaull said.

She says when you think about safety, fire stations automatically come to mind, and in some ways they are already a "safe place."

Overall, there are about 350 safe place sights in the city -- 235 of them are RTS bus stops.

Each location displays the yellow and black Safe Place sign.

Center for Youth Executive Director Elaine Spaull and representatives of the Rochester Fire Department
Center for Youth Executive Director Elaine Spaull and representatives of the Rochester Fire Department