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Our History
Origins
Covenant House began in 1969 when a
Franciscan priest provided a night of
shelter from a snow storm for six young
runaways in his small apartment on the
lower east side of Manhattan. From this
modest beginning, Covenant House has
grown into the largest shelter program
for homeless youth in the Americas. In
1990, Fr. Ritter resigned and the Board
of Directors appointed Sister Mary Rose
McGeady, D.C., President of Covenant
House. Sister Mary Rose came to the
agency from her position as Associate
Executive Director of Catholic Charities
of the Diocese of Brooklyn, New York.
Her professional career in human
services and caring for homeless and
disturbed children and their families
spans some forty years.
Mission and Services
Acknowledging the core values of love,
respect, service, advocacy and family,
Covenant House's Mission Statement
commits the agency "to serve the
suffering children of the street, and to
protect and safeguard all
children...with absolute respect and
unconditional love."
In addition to food, shelter, clothing
and crisis care, Covenant House New York
offers a variety of services to homeless
and at-risk youth including health care,
educational and vocational assistance,
drug abuse treatment and prevention
programs, legal services, recreation,
pastoral care, mother/child programs,
transitional living programs, community
resource centers, mental health day
programs, and assistance in finding
long-term living accommodations and
aftercare.
The hallmark of Covenant House is its
policy of 'Open Intake' whereby no child
or teenager is turned away on the first
visit, but rather is accepted on a 'no
questions asked' basis. Only serious
misconduct or refusal to make use of
proffered services limits repeat visits.
In 2004, Covenant House New York
provided residential and non-residential
to over 6,900 youth. More than 3,590
came into the Crisis Center and Rights
of Passage program and another 2,036
received help in our community resource
centers or in aftercare or prevention
programs. Outreach workers served an
additional 1,279 youth on the street.
In 2004, Covenant Houses across the
Americas provided residential and
non-residential services to over 77,000
youth in six countries. Over 15,000
young people came into Covenant House
Crisis Shelters and Rights of Passage
Programs and another 28,000 received
help in Community Service Centers or in
aftercare and prevention programs.
Outreach workers served nearly 34,000
youth on the street and the Covenant
House Nineline (1-800-999-9999) received
over 49,000 crisis calls from youngsters
all over the country who needed
immediate help and had nowhere else to
turn.
By almost any standard the growth of
Covenant House has been dramatic. The
agency's budget is supported almost
entirely (75%) by private contributions
from hundreds of thousands of generous
donors who make this work possible.
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