This story is part of The Salt Lake Tribune’s ongoing commitment to identify solutions to Utah’s biggest challenges through the work of the Innovation Lab.
Emily Bell McCormick, president of the Policy Project, likes to use school libraries as an analogy when explaining the concept of a teen center.
Like a library, teen centers should be easy to access. Kids should be able to find useful information. And there should be an adult sitting at a front desk helping to guide and answer questions.
Put simply: a teen center is a place in a high school where kids without a stable place to call home can go and grab food, clothes or other resources but also confide in a counselor. With more than 15,000 housing insecure students in Utah, advocates say the resource is crucial.
Last week, Rep. Candice Pierucci, R-Herriman, along with the Policy Project, asked lawmakers on the Public Education Appropriations Subcommittee for roughly $25 million to fund teen centers across the state. The Policy Project is also fundraising for more than $5 million from donors to supplement state funds. Gov. Spencer Cox also signaled support for the idea — recommending $20 million for “Teen Centers for Students Experiencing Homelessness,” in his 2024 budget recommendation.
The centers could be the connective thread for an often complicated net of social services and make navigating housing insecurity a little easier. They could “help kids understand what their options are,” Bell McCormick said. “Because they’re kids, they don’t know.”
Bell McCormick said she hasn’t found an example of another state codifying teen centers into law or mandated in a state-level directive. “We’d love to be the first,” she said.