Youth Non-Profit Friends of Youth Celebrates New Headquarters in Kirkland

Moving the heart of its 60-year mission of serving young people in need to Kirkland, the non-profit group Friends of Youth celebrated on Friday the grand opening of its campus in the Totem Lake/Kingsgate area.

Friends of Youth's stated mission is to help young people — mainly on the Eastside — who face challenging circumstances to get their lives back on track. The youth services charity offers a residential treatment program for boys ages 12-18 on a six-acre campus in Renton. It also operates the only emergency youth shelters on the Eastside in Bellevue and Kenmore and transitional and subsidized housing in Seattle across the Eastside for young adults.

The facility broke out in snacks, cake, and goodwill last week at the new site of the former church Grace Chapel at 13116 NE 132nd Street. The new facility includes counseling and housing support programs, administrative offices and storage for donated program supplies. Staff members moved from former offices in Redmond to the new building at the end of December, and volunteers planted landscaping around the building on March 17.

The group is still finishing up its Youth Haven transitional housing, where it will consolidate other facilities to better serve Eastside Youth under 18 who need help to transition back to family life where possible, Pottmeyer said. The home, expected to open by summer, will have room for 5 girls and 5 boys.

Friends of Youth bought the site last year from Grace Chapel, which experienced a decline in its congregation size and moved to Snohomish County.

The acquisition was part of Friends of Youth’s strategic plan which calls for a more visible “heart” of its operations, the consolidation of its Youth Haven program for young people in crisis and, in the near future, additional transitional housing for formerly homeless young adults working toward employment and educational goals.

"We are saying, 'Look, no questions asked, you need a safe place,'" Pottmeyer said, adding that King County Libraries recently completed Safe Place training, currently a major outreach focus of Friends of Youth.

For more information, contact Friends of Youth at 425-869-6490 or visit its website at http://www.friendsofyouth.org.