Savior Of The Streets
On a dark night, near a dimly lit backstreet in the heart of downtown, Kenneth Brown walks where few of us would choose to venture. He is neither a law enforcement officer nor a firefighter, but he traverses these areas of Savannah on a regular basis. As director of the Street Outreach program, a department of Park Place Outreach, his mission is to help young people on the street who have “lost their way.” Brown's goal is to basically help homeless, abused or runaway teens find a way off of the streets and reunite them with their families. “I go wherever I'm needed,” he calmly says in his baritone voice.
Obviously, the need for help is tremendous, to say the least. With Brown's efforts and the generous support of local organizations and individuals, the Park Place Outreach Shelter has helped over 6,000 individuals. The process is fairly straight forward, yet effective. After canvassing the city's shelters, homeless camps, and various sites that are deemed “target areas,” Brown and case manager Latrell Ferguson “assess and intake” these desperate teens, who receive everything from a warm bed and three square meals a day to family counseling, tutorial, and crisis intervention services. “We offer young people who are experiencing unfortunate times another option in life, the option to get back on their feet,” Brown adds.
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