Greensboro, NC-- Act Together Crisis Care is in danger of closing because of budget cuts from the Department of Social Services.
Act Together Crisis Care is the only youth homeless shelter in Guilford County. After losing $250,000 in funding they are on the verge of closing and won't be able to serve the 200 plus youth they see every year.
On Wednesday afternoon, News 2's Liz Crawford toured the shelter with Program Manager, Kristin Weldon.
Weldon spends most of her day with the youth, offering recreational and educational services for the kids and teens.
There were seven youths inside the shelter on Wednesday. Weldon explained they come from different backgrounds, all with their own story and unique needs.
"We're going to see youth that most of the time are experiencing abuse, neglect sometimes. We've got youth sometimes that are coming to us because of what we lay people might consider traditional homelessness issues where perhaps a parent or a caregiver has lost their job," said Weldon.
Weldon, who's worked at Act Together Crisis Care for five years told News 2 that it never gets easier seeing young people come in. Sometimes the abuse is visible like a broken limb or bruised skin, other times, the trauma is internal.
Weldon said, "The youth that come in with trauma in their background or some type of mental health or emotional issue that maybe is not as visible as a black eye or a broken arm or something like that but it's still there and it's still tremendously impacts that youth."
For Weldon and her co-workers, the thought of the shelter closing is scary because she understands firsthand how much teens in the area need the resource.
"It's almost scary to think about where some of these kids might be. I know for some of them that can't access these resources, it means they're going back to the streets or they're going back to living in situations where they are abused or neglected or mistreated in some way."
WFMY News 2