START-Support To At Risk Teens works to promote healing through Christian service and advocacy with youth who are hurting, displaced and forgotten.

Description:
Support To At-Risk Teens, or START, is the youth-serving area of Lutheran Metropolitan Ministry and operates five programs designed to serve teens. All of the programs have in common service to vulnerable populations, they respect the youth they work with and work to build on the teens’ positive assets.

1. After School Prevention Resources: a drop-in after-school program serving primarily low-income teens, ages 12-17, with recreation, art, music, conflict management skills, Rights of Passage curriculum, substance abuse and STD education.
2. Next Step: Westhaven crisis shelter and mental health services for runaway/homeless/thrownaway teens (ages 12-17) and teens referred by the county’s Department of Children and Family Services.
3. Next Step: Independent Living teens aging out of the foster care system or returning to the community from juvenile institutions. Mental health services are provided along with life skills training, education and job-seeking assistance.
4. Youth Employment Program: Life skills training, pre-employment training, training for certification as a state-test nursing assistant, job placement and retention assistance. Target population is older out-of-school youths up to the age of 22.
   
   



History:
For 43 years, Lutheran Metropolitan Ministry (LMM) has responded to Micah’s call to do justice by building right relationships in community. LMM’s conception was a reaction to the pain of the urban unrest of the 1960s; specifically the upheaval in the Hough area of Cleveland. The All Lutheran Pastoral Conference of Cleveland was held in 1967 to consider an appropriate response. Clergy and lay people worked together to form a cooperative arrangement involving the major Lutheran Church bodies. Rev. Richard E. Sering was called to direct the grassroots effort, which became Lutheran Metropolitan Ministry. The social ministry grew as it created programs to serve with people who are ‘left out’ in society and whose voices are not often heard. Today, LMM serves and advocates with persons involved in the criminal justice system, youth at-risk, people with disabilities, people with long-term care needs and people who are homeless. In 2010, nearly 200 staff and 4,000 volunteers worked to enhance the lives of more than 10,000 people through LMM services.


Contact people:


Ralph Pitman, Assistant Director, (phone), (email) Mark Brauer, Executive Director, (phone), (email)


Main office number: (216) 696-0370
Office fax number: (216) 696-3317

Address:


1468 W 25th Street Cleveland, OH 44113 (See a map)


Web Site: http://www.lutheranmetro.org

Directions:

START is located at the Richard R. Sering Center for Right Relationships; 1/2 block south of the intersection of Detroit and W25th   Nearest Metro/Subway Stop: W25,   Walk distance (in minutes): 15   Nearest Bus Stop: Detroit and W25, 2 minute walk

Last updated on June 13, 2012