Everett’s Cocoon House Raising Awareness In Spite of Massive Funding Cut

From the Things You’d Rather Not Hear File…

• The average age of a teen experiencing homelessness in Everett is 14.7 years old.
• On any given night 300 teens have no warm safe place to sleep in Everett and Snohomish County.
• Snohomish County schools list 2500 students as homeless this year.

Today folks from Cocoon House set up an eye-catching display in the plaza on the Snohomish County Campus in downtown Everett. Their message was simple. “The outdoors is no place for a teen to sleep.” Julio Cortes, a community relations and legislative coordinator with Cocoon House, explained the purpose of the display. “We need to raise awareness of teens experiencing homelessness in Everett and Snohomish County,” said Cortes. “There are teens tonight that will be sleeping in alleys and under bridges.” In addition to providing the statistics noted above Cortes also explained the biggest misconception about teens on the streets. “These kids aren’t troublemakers, they’re in school and are trying really hard to stay in school and out of trouble,” said Cortes. He went on to explain that many of the teens served by Cocoon House come from broken homes. The family can no longer longer provide for the kids and they have to find a way to make it on their own. In many cases they’ve basically been abandoned.

Recently Cocoon House lost $200,000.00 in funding from government grants that no longer exist. This was money used to conduct street outreach to kids in Everett and Snohomish County. To fill this void a benefactor has pledged to match donations during the month of February 2 – 1. So you donate $100 and the donor gives $200 for a $300 total donation. That can add up fast but this match will expire at the end of the month. If you’d like to donate right now you can do so by clicking here.