WICHITA, Kansas -- A new project is uniting thousands of dollars of donations, hundreds of volunteer hours and ten months of planning, all to protect our city's teens from a hidden predator.Work being done today to start helping area teens tomorrow.
"We're a target primarily because of location."
Project organizer Jennifer White says Interstate 35 and Interstate 70 put Wichita in the crosshairs of a human trafficking highway.
The most vulnerable victims she says, are teenagers.
"These teenagers are often overlooked in our community, they get taken advantage of, we thought it was great to be able to provide them with a place to come in the daytime where their needs can be uniquely addressed," explains Nola Brown of Volunteer Kansas.
The Youth Resource Center.
A refurbished safe haven.
"The idea behind this project is to reach kids before they into a situation that could possibly become a trafficking situation," explains White.
Brown says, "We thought today would be a great day to finish up the project, being MLK day...volunteers have been scrubbing, cleaning, organizing."
All visible improvements to combat a hidden problem.
"There's laundry here, there's showers here. Street Outreach Services with the Wichita Children's Home is moving their offices over to this space. This will be a daytime resource center for homeless teens," says White.
The new Youth Resource Center opens Wednesday.
To start it will run 5 to 6 hours a day, three days a week.
