I have Karen Gruenberg with me from The Dayton Foundation. I would love to start with asking how long have you been involved with Daybreak and how did you get connected with us?
That’s a great question. Thank you very much for having me here. I’m involved with Daybreak in two different ways. I have a professional history with Daybreak and then I have a personal history as well.
I became aware of Daybreak I’d say a few years back when I started my career here at The Dayton Foundation. I participated in helping organize the nonprofit capacity building which is a community initiative that The Dayton Foundation has.
Daybreak was a participant in that program and so I was able to learn how Daybreak operates and how they service so many at risk and unhoused youth. It was fantastic and then I was able to go on and use that knowledge when I organized the YMCA of Greater Dayton. They have a Junior Leadership Program. I was in charge of organizing that in the year 2023 and I chose Daybreak for the youth to go and visit.
It was actually our home base that morning and then that afternoon. It was amazing to have the youth of the program, they’re all high school juniors, to have them learn that kids in their community needed these services.
It was very eye-opening to the kids that were in the program to understand what Daybreak offers and then how they can help so many kids. It was kids their ages so it was really relatable for me to have chosen Daybreak for those high school juniors to experience. So, that was really neat.
Those are my professional contacts that I’ve had with Daybreak, but then personally I joined Junior League of Greater Dayton last fall and as a new member of our class, we actually have to do a service project. The ladies in the group—we voted to collect feminine hygiene supplies. They said, “Well, where should we donate them?” And I said, “Oh, I have a great place. It’s Daybreak. If you don’t know about Daybreak, this is where our supplies need to end up.”
Once I gave them a little Daybreak spiel on how you help so many kids and get them back on their feet or steer them in the right direction for jobs, then everybody was fully on board, and it was a unanimous vote.
It was great that I could take my professional knowledge and then help personally.
Yeah, that’s amazing! We definitely appreciate advocates like you who think of us when that comes up because that’s something we always need is feminine hygiene supplies.
I know you’ve gotten involved with Daybreak somewhat recently in the past few years but how have you seen it change or grow since you first found us?
I can’t think of any major changes just because I already learned what Daybreak does and all the services that they offered and then you’ve expanded on them so I just figured you had everything already figured out.
I can’t even imagine how you could change now.
Yeah, there will definitely be ways, though. That’s one of the one of the things we say is, “the constantly evolving needs of the Dayton youth.”
That’s true, too. Thinking David’s Place started as a need because the LGBTQ+ community needed a place to go. I guess that would be a change that’s happened.
Yeah, for sure! What’s surprised you the most in the time since you’ve known Daybreak?
I’d say there are two major surprises. Number one is the large number of youth that Daybreak serves. I mean, you can serve kids that are 10 years of age and then you go up to 24.
I didn’t realize that. I was just thinking it was teenagers. So, I was surprised about the large number and then the age variety of that.
Then the second thing that surprised me is that Daybreak doesn’t just offer emergency housing. You have a Drop-In Center, too. And that I think is more utilized in your residential program. So many youth can go in for a hot shower and a meal.
That just really surprised me that so many people and so many youth use the Drop-In Center.
What do you most enjoy about Daybreak and work we do in the community?
I’m going to take something right off of your website, it’s the Daybreak Collective Effort.
I absolutely love that five arm holistic approach that Daybreak has with helping young people with Housing Solutions meeting their current basic needs, the education, and the employment component is huge. That’s what the youth need to not be unhoused anymore. Then, it’s amazing the services that you provide for mental health and physical health. Kids that need dental work, you line them up. The kids that need to go and get their vaccines, you’re there. And then mental health which is so important to this generation’s youth.
Then those life skills that you give them in that personal development. You can teach them how to get that job interview. You can teach them how to pay your water bill on time.
It’s those little skills that they have not learned that Daybreak can offer those youth. I love that holistic approach; it really sets the youth on the right path.
Thanks! That’s what we try to do because it’s great to get a job but if you don’t know how to pay your bills, that’s going to be a problem. Humans are complex and homelessness is complex, so we try to answer it with a complex answer.
Daybreak does a fantastic job!
Thank you! Well, thank you for your time today and all the work that you do promoting us in the community and advocating for us. We very much appreciate you and our partnership with The Dayton Foundation.
You’re very welcome. Thank you for choosing me to be one of the 50 people for 50 years of Daybreak. That’s fantastic! Continue with the great work.