It is the mission of LA Youth Supportive Services, Inc. to do whatever is necessary to insure that the youth and young adults we serve will have all the professional support, guidance, life-skills, and education they need to successfully navigate through the minefield called adolescence and emerge as successful adults.
Most of our clients are high risk and unattached youth and young adults. They are at high risk for dropping out of school, substance abuse and addiction and especially suicide. We describe them as "unattached" because they have no attachments to responsible, caring adult role models and teachers. Many have been cast out of their families or left, out of self-protection. In having to fend for themselves, they are being robbed of their adolescence by being forced to become adults long before they have finished being kids.
We believe that all youth should, unconditionally, have food, shelter and loving, supportive parents and elders so that they can concentrate on going to school, dating, having fun and learning the life-skill lessons necessary for later life.
We look at L.A. Youth Supportive Services as being a new family for youth and young adults whose original families have not been able to provide the guidance, life teachings and support necessary for a successful transition into a responsible, mentally healthy and joyous adulthood. Our overriding operating and therapeutic philosophy is that all decisions that impact our clients must ultimately answer this basic question, "If this was my own kid, how would I handle this?"
We act as both caring mental health professionals and surrogate family until we can get them into a stable surrogate family environment. To what ever degree their natural families are not being loving, caring and supportive,we feel it is our obligation to do so.
Here's what makes our program different from other organizations that serve these youth:
1. We use only counselors who are licensed or who are supervised by licensed, Masters'-level mental health counseling professionals.
2. Our professional counseling staff do their own outreach, working right out on the streets where these youth congregate and where many of them live.
3. The youth we serve have 24 hour per day, 7 day per week access to counselors that they already know and trust!
| Who we are | Counseling On Demand - The Secret to Our Success |  |
The Youth Rescue Fund Newsletter | To Donate A Vehicle To The Youth Rescue Fund | How you can help |
Read letters from youth we've helped! |
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"Taking it to the streets"
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| Other Newspaper Articles | Poems by Our Clients | How to Really Win the War On Drugs | Alcohol & Drugs: How Much Is Too Much? |
| Resources for youth and parents | Please Sign Our Guestbook | To View Our Guestbook |
All that you have read about our accomplishments has only been possible because of the gererosity of our contributors who, in the absence of any governmental support, have kept us going and growing for the last five years. We hold our overhead to a bare minimum so that most of your contribution will go into direct services to our youth. Your generous support will allow us to finally reach all our areas' youth that are so desperately in need of our services. |
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If you're a youth in crisisHere's where you can find assistance:
If you're a gay teen who feels like you're the only one, you're not! Here's the Cool Page for Gay Teens that has tons of resources just for people like you! Lots of people to talk to, other gay teens to meet, counselors who can REALLY help, and lots of fun things to do.
If you need immediate assistance, you can call us toll free at l-877-GO LAYSS(465-2977). You can also call Out Youth Austin. They have a hotline you can call for free from anywhere in the U.S. It's staffed, 5:30-9:30PM, CST, by teens who know what you're going through and are trained to assist. Call them at 1-800-96-YOUTH. They also have a message service for street teens to help them get and send messages to friends and relatives. If you're still at home, a call to them will be private and the call won't show up on a phone bill.
If you're a youth engaged in survival sex or prostitution, and are looking for a way out, call us at l-877-GO LAYSS(465-2977), if you are in the Los Angeles, CA area or call the Children Of The Night National Hotline at 1-800-551-1300. The folks there can refer you to local resources to assist you in getting out of that situation.
If you are a young person 25 or younger, living in the Los Angeles, CA metropolitan area, all our services are available to you. We offer:
Call(24/7) 323-951-0401 or toll free l-877-GO LAYSS(465-2977) If you get our voice mail and you are in crisis, you can always contact Jason Wittman, our Executive Director on his cell phone at 213-804-4408(you can call his cell phone toll free at 1-877-44-JASON(445-2766) or by paging him at 323-583-5150 any time day or night!! |
In Memoriam |
Please write to Jason Wittman,the Executive Director with your comments and questions
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