{"id":1329,"date":"2025-12-18T11:56:43","date_gmt":"2025-12-18T16:56:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.kidsincrisis.org\/sub\/?p=1329"},"modified":"2025-12-18T12:03:27","modified_gmt":"2025-12-18T17:03:27","slug":"home-for-the-holidays-the-house-youve-driven-past-a-thousand-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kidsincrisis.org\/sub\/2025\/12\/18\/home-for-the-holidays-the-house-youve-driven-past-a-thousand-times\/","title":{"rendered":"Home for the Holidays: The House You\u2019ve Driven Past a Thousand Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\" <\/a>By Shari L. Shapiro, Executive Director, Kids In Crisis<\/p>\n

Every day, thousands of cars pass our little unmarked campus on Post Road. People drive to work, to school, and to holiday parties. They pass with coffee cups in hand and children in the back seat, thinking about their day.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span>
\nMost of them never notice us.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>
\nMost don\u2019t think about what happens behind our quiet walls.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

But this December, something big is happening here: every room at SafeHaven<\/a> is full<\/b>\u2026 a reality that feels especially heavy during the holidays and yet shows that our doors are doing exactly what they\u2019re meant to do.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

And if you\u2019ve never thought about youth homelessness in our community, if it sounds like something that happens \u201csomewhere else\u201d \u2026 you\u2019re not alone. Many families are surprised when they learn we run an emergency shelter for children right here in town. It\u2019s not what people picture when they think of Fairfield County. But it has always been part of our story.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The truth is that instability is everywhere right now. You can feel it in the news, in the heaviness parents carry, and in the phone calls coming into our 24\/7 helpline at all hours of the night. Kids are absorbing all of it, often more than we realize. And for some, home doesn\u2019t feel like a safe place.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

That\u2019s why the SafeHaven Emergency Children\u2019s Shelter exists.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Inside this house you\u2019ve driven past a hundred times; something extraordinary happens each day. A child who hasn\u2019t slept safely in weeks gets their first full night of rest. A teenager who hasn\u2019t felt heard in months sits at the kitchen table with a counselor who listens without judgment. A young person who has been bouncing between relatives finally puts their backpack down somewhere they know they can stay.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHome\u201d is not a building.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s safety.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>
\nIt\u2019s consistency.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>
\nIt\u2019s being welcomed without conditions.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

A few mornings ago, one of our counselors was getting ready to drive a young resident to school. A box of winter clothing had just arrived from one of our corporate partners. She reached in and pulled out a warm, insulated coat, one that looked like it would fit the young boy, and held it out as he slipped his arms through the sleeves.\u00a0<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

He tugged the zipper up to his chin, pressed his hands into the pockets.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span>
\nThen he said, almost to himself, \u201cI\u2019ve never had a warm coat that fits me.\u201d<\/i><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

For you and me, a coat is just something you grab on the way out the door. For him, it was something entirely different\u2026 a kind of permission to feel safe, protected, and cared for. A reminder that he wasn\u2019t an afterthought. That he belonged somewhere.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Behind these walls, that\u2019s what we try to build every day.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

But the need doesn\u2019t stop at the shelter door. Instability isn\u2019t always dramatic. It doesn\u2019t always look like homelessness. Sometimes it looks like a child sleeping at a friend\u2019s house because they\u2019re afraid to go home. Or a teen staying late at school because it feels calmer than the living room they left that morning. Or a parent who calls our Helpline at 10 p.m. because they\u2019ve run out of ideas and don\u2019t want to say the wrong thing to their child.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Here\u2019s something most people don\u2019t know: most of our helpline calls come from parents, not kids. Moms and dads are trying, really trying, to keep up with the emotional weight their children are carrying.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span>
\nYou\u2019re not alone. None of us are.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

And for the young people who do need a safe place to stay, SafeHaven is here, 365 days a year, including every holiday. While the rest of town winds down for celebrations, our lights stay on, our counselors stay present, and our doors stay open. No child in our community should ever have to wonder where they\u2019ll sleep tonight.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

That\u2019s the quiet promise of this little building on Post Road.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

As we head into the new year, I hope we hold onto one truth: the most meaningful part of the holidays isn\u2019t perfection, it\u2019s connection<\/b>. It\u2019s the moments when we notice each other, check in on our neighbors, ask a child how they\u2019re really doing, or offer a listening ear before offering advice.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

We can\u2019t fix everything for every child. But we can build a community where every young person feels there is at least one safe place they can turn to, whether that\u2019s SafeHaven, a TeenTalk counselor<\/a> in school, or our 24\/7 helpline.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

And if this season feels heavy for you or someone you love, please call us. Day or night. Big problems or small ones. The Kids In Crisis 24\/7 Helpline<\/a> is always open at 203-661-1911<\/b>. Sometimes the hardest part is reaching out. We\u2019ll take it from there.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Shari L. Shapiro, Executive Director, Kids In Crisis Every day, thousands of cars pass our little unmarked campus on Post Road. People drive to work, to school, and to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[126,50,27,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1329","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-126","category-article","category-community","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kidsincrisis.org\/sub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1329","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kidsincrisis.org\/sub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kidsincrisis.org\/sub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kidsincrisis.org\/sub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kidsincrisis.org\/sub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1329"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kidsincrisis.org\/sub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1329\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kidsincrisis.org\/sub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1329"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kidsincrisis.org\/sub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1329"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kidsincrisis.org\/sub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1329"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}