Shafer Middle School’s Arctic Club, in conjunction with the Norman Raab Foundation, presented Valley Youth House with a grant for $1,500.00. This unique partnership is a result of the Philanthropy Today program of the Raab Foundation, which offers chosen Bucks County schools an opportunity to learn the efforts and rewards of philanthropic giving.

The program provides the framework for each student club to make funding decisions to nonprofit organizations that impact the club’s community. With a defined granting budget from the Norman Raab Foundation and in an effort to create positive change in their communities, each club makes decisions regarding which organizations to fund and how much to grant to that organization.

Valley Youth House is honored that the Arctic Club of the Robert K. Shafer Middle School chose to provide the Synergy Project with a grant of $1,500.00. These funds will support The Synergy Project, a street outreach program, which is designed to help runaway, homeless, nomadic and street youth in Bucks County.

The Synergy team offers survival supplies, peer support, informal counseling, information and referral services and assistance to get off the streets, if desired. Street Outreach coordinators spend most of their time in the Synergy Project Jeep or walking, kayaking and biking to remote areas to meet with young people who tend to settle in places that are not easily accessible, assisting them to find permanent housing or making it safer for them to be on the streets.

The Synergy Project also offers mobile drop-in centers for youth to shower, receive a hot meal, and find relief from the outdoors.  The mission of the program is to meet the youth where they are – to go to them.  Street outreach coordinators visit freight train yards, transportation stations, tent-cities and homeless camps offering assistance to the many youth who refuse to go to shelters.