February 21, 2026 • 14 mins
It's been a frigid, unforgiving winter, but sometimes, that doesn't matter if you're a young person in an unsafe situation and feel you need to get away, quick. Instead of leaving them on the streets to suffer in the elements, "Bridge Over Troubled Waters" is working overtime to make sure homeless, at-risk, and runaway youth have a secure, warm place to stay. Executive Director Elisabeth Jackson returns to the show this week to talk about her team's efforts on the front lines and why so many youth find themselves without a safe place to go.
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Speaker 1 (00:07):
From WBZ News Radio in Boston. This is New England Weekend.
Each week right here, we come together and talk about
all the topics important to you and the place where
you live. Good to be back with you this week.
I'm Nicole Davis. The weather here in New England has
been downright brutal this winter. For the first time in
many years. We've already had a couple feet of snow
over most of the state. More storms are on the way.
(00:30):
Temperatures have often been below zero. This is really not
a good time to be without a warm and safe
place to stay. Unfortunately, young people around the Commonwealth often
feel it's safer for them to brave those elements and
be home with their families, significant others, or anywhere else
they might be staying. That is where Bridge Over Troubled
Water steps into help. We've had executive director Elizabeth Jackson
(00:51):
on before talking about their resources for at risk, homeless
and runaway young people. She's back here on the show
this week, and Elizabeth, it is really good to have you. Bet.
Before we get into the core of what we're talking
about today, give us a quick rundown about your work.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
Ringeovia Tova Waters is a multi Service youth agency that
works with homeless and at risk youth.
Speaker 3 (01:10):
We work with young people.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
We see last year we saw over two thousand, four
hundred young people that come to different services Bridge. So
I always say with a university of life skills for
young people, because we have counseling, we have day program,
we have housing, medical education, and so we have an
in depth of services for our young people self, so
abuse counseling and so forth. And so we want our
(01:34):
young people to be successful in the long run and
provide all those intensive services now. And it's all a
card so they don't have to use all of them.
They can use whichever one is specific for their needs.
It's an individual plan. We also work with young people
under the age of eighteen, so we have a basic
center for runaway homeless youth. So we're part of the
Runaway National Hotline. So we provide a continuous services for
(01:57):
our young people to get them to a different path.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
This time of year especially, I mean if it's the
summertime and you're somebody who is unhoused, it's a little
bit easier. It's certainly not safe, don't get me wrong,
but it's a little easier to be outside in summer weather.
In the wintertime, especially the cold we've had lately. What
are you seeing happening on the streets right now?
Speaker 3 (02:17):
It's you know, a bridge.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
We have f and flows of like how young people
uses our programs.
Speaker 3 (02:23):
But after.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
Halloween, from November all the way like March or April
is the toughest part of our programmatic for a couple
of reasons. As you say, when it's warmer, people hang out,
but also during the holidays, people go home, they celebrate
with families, everybody's cheering, there's buying gifts, and so the
presence starts to set in. Young people are realizing they
(02:47):
really can't go back home, or they don't have a
home to go to, or they really burn that bridge,
that it's going to take more time, and then it's
like a frozen everything's for everything outside is cold. They
can't even stay outside for too long to smoke cigarette,
the things that relieve their stress. They can't go to
the movie theater, or the trains are not working or
something's happening. So it adds a whole different layer to
(03:09):
their depression and anxiety.
Speaker 3 (03:12):
And it's so.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
Cold out and then when they don't have the right boots,
when they don't have the right socks, when they don't
have the right gear to be warm, and now they're
just in a space where they can't really express those things.
It makes it hard for them. So for us, it's
the most challenging times and we try to make these
times the best as we can. We work very hard
for no disruption, So if the trains is not working,
(03:35):
we make sure we send our staff and uber back
and forth so they can get here. So they can
be here because we have, you know, around three hundred
young people that are living with us and throughout a
lot of different programs, So we have to make sure
that heat's working. The Wi fi has to work with
everybody's on it, and they have no places to go.
We have to have activities. There's a lot that goes in.
I call it a production, like the whole production that
(03:56):
has to happen to keep not only staff safe and warm,
but also are young people that don't have anywhere to go.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
It is kind of like you're conducting this big orchestra
of all these different moving parts and noises and things
going on. And you know, with young people, I think
that there's this impression of runaway youth and young people
who are unhoused as lazy or not working or just
for whatever reason not able to get it together. Well,
that may be the case for a few, that is
(04:24):
really not the way it is for the vast majority.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
Correct, yes, correct, I would say the national According nationally
to the chapin Hall Voices you've count survey, one in
ten young adults ages eighteen to twenty five will experience.
Speaker 3 (04:39):
One night of homelessness.
Speaker 2 (04:40):
One in thirty adolescents ages thirteen to seventeen were experienced
one night of homelessness, and the course of a year,
that data indicates that homelessness can be just as pervasive
in the rural and the urban areas in Boston. If
you translate that data, that will mean around eleven thousand
young people and young adults in Greater Boston that experiences
one night of homelessness. So just picture it this way.
(05:03):
In a classroom, one and thirty young people in our classroom.
That can be one person, one young person in the
football team, one in a basketball team, they can be
one in the soccer team. They are young people all
over in school doing stuff and it's hard and when
you don't have the support system, even with our own
who's at home with parents and struggling. Still, it's hard.
(05:26):
So imagine somebody that doesn't have the support, that doesn't
have the foundation or the bridge to get them for
one into another, so you've Homelessness doesn't look like someone
pushing a cart on the street or having a bunch
of bags. These are young people bagging your groceries. They're working,
they're serving coffee or your favorite baristas. They're on the
team next to you, sitting and you will not even know.
(05:48):
So Bridge always really wants to take that that view that, oh,
these are they're lazy, they're using drugs. Let me tell you,
I would be using a lot if I had to
be out there for more walking from South Station to
my office.
Speaker 3 (06:06):
I don't want to do it. It's cold, it's really cool.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
It breaks your skin, and so I need to be
very numb to be dealing with that. So that's not
our first interaction with our young people. We understand that
it's cold, and we understand that it takes a while
for us to really support them to what their trauma
is going to.
Speaker 1 (06:24):
And not to mention if you are a young person
who would rather be outside than at your home, or
with your parents. That is a decision you have likely
made for your safety. And I want to make it
clear that a lot of young people are not homeless
because they want to just do their own thing. It's
a safety measure, it's a safety concern for them.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
Yeah, seventy six percent of the young people we serve
last year under the age of twenty one.
Speaker 3 (06:50):
That's young. They didn't choose to be out there.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
There are many reasons individually why they're out there, and
seventy nine percent of them from the City of Boston.
They're here right and the wrap around service. It's difficult
time for young people to be out there and it's
not something they choose. They they will probably be couch
surfing or staying at a friend's house and then that
doesn't last for long or you know. I always say
(07:16):
to parents, if you have this friend that's always staying
over your house, your son's friend or a daughter's friend,
you should ask some questions because they don't probably don't
have a place to go. These young people are working,
they're trying to get better, and they'd say, I'm eighteen,
I think I can do this by myself.
Speaker 3 (07:31):
Yeah, then live where I'm staying and being hurt.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
They're now eating, they're not understanding that it is cold
out and even those things, it is better for them
to be out. And that is a hard decision for
a young person to make, and it's not something to
take lightly either.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
No, it's not so when people are when you interact
with these young people, tell me a little bit about
what you can do for them and what kind of services.
You said, you've got all sorts of wrap around services.
What are the ones that people are leaning on most
right now?
Speaker 2 (08:03):
You know, we have a lot of activities we call
them we have increased activities because it's so cold out
they can't go out, and how many movies can you watch?
Speaker 1 (08:12):
And a periods at.
Speaker 2 (08:14):
That day that we do have a lot of like
life skill activities where they're learning balance in check books,
or they're learning arts and craft, they're learning how to cook,
they're learning how to make flowers, all these great activities
to have them use their their brains and their hands
to create something. It's always great here. And then we
(08:36):
also have psychotherapy groups where young people can talk about,
you know, their anxiety, their anger, how to deal with
the boss, how to deal with the situation they end,
but in a fun setting that they've created that they
feel safe.
Speaker 3 (08:47):
We do yoga.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
It's like and while they're doing yoga and talking about
the upper dog or little dog or whatever they talk about,
but talked to them about in their language and their
musical what does it means to distress? Finding another the
way to be stress they're being in the streets or then.
Speaker 3 (09:03):
Either drinking or using what they need to.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
Don themselves is really teaching them those activities and those
go on all day and we do it if for
only one person shows up, a twenty young people show
up and they really enjoy it. And we have a
lot of groups of young people for the winter times.
We went from twelve beds to over thirty four beds
this year with a wait list of sixty young people
(09:26):
at night. Wow. And that is a constant challenge of
trying to figure out not just young people that are
staying with us, but those sixty that don't have a place,
and how to find them a place for one night
and come here during the days, stay here, be part
of the activities and the groups, and then wherever we
found that you are safe in that you could stay
(09:46):
there for one night and really there's a lot of
coordination behind that as well.
Speaker 1 (09:50):
I'm sure you've got to have quite the team behind you.
I mean, you yourself are a force of nature, but
you've got to have quite the team behind you to
get all this done.
Speaker 3 (09:56):
I have to say my team is really amazing.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
I say it to them a lot, and you know,
it's pretty amazing for them to just constantly, you know,
young people leave their coats behind and so we the
next day they come in and what swater, what happened
to your cot? Here's another coat, here's another pair of gloves,
here's another hat.
Speaker 3 (10:16):
If it's not attached to their head, take a look.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
It's just so we just there. My team is just excited.
They come up with different ideas, how to make it fun.
Let's try this, and I'm like, nobody's gonna do painting
next to you know, there's twenty people doing painting. I was,
and then it goes what I know, So they make
it fun for young people. So and they they really
into the food, adding different cultures, the super Bowl, let's
(10:41):
watch it, let's popcorn, and just let's create a movie
theater inside. They're so creative and I'm so grateful for them.
And they also understand when they see a young person
they haven't asked for a pair of boots and they're
walking around and sneakers, to just be like we're giving
out books today and not send them calling that person
by themselves because it's the only one, and really giving
(11:02):
the boots and really given out gloves. And we go
through a lot of that gloves, boots and hats and stuff,
and not because our young people want to throw them
away or anything, but just do it, just like every
young person does.
Speaker 1 (11:15):
We all lose stuff. I think I lost a glove
two days ago. I mean it's the season, you're shoveling,
you're moving around, your stuff gets lost. And that's going
to be my next question for you. What do you
need the most right now?
Speaker 2 (11:27):
Patience people to understand, I wish they have more beds
for the young people on our wait list, but those
are alwaish.
Speaker 3 (11:36):
What do I need right now?
Speaker 2 (11:37):
Coats, especially in larger sizes will be great.
Speaker 3 (11:42):
We would need clubs. Oh my god, we go to gloves.
We just go through gloves.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
Food are young people like to eat a lot, and
you know we cook a lot. So if anyone is
interested in putting, we want our young people to like
I said, with the University of Life skills, So we
don't want to just buy a meal for them with
here's a menu or here's a directions of how to
make a meal of like a ten dollar meal. So
really creating those menus for our young people so then
(12:09):
when downtime and it's blizzard out, they having a whole
cook fest in here and providing those things for them.
Speaker 3 (12:15):
So that would be great.
Speaker 2 (12:16):
You know, it's an extra sauce because now if we
don't have it, the staff has to go and try
to get in there's a blizzard outside. So really those
care packages are great for our young people to have
gift cards. They like to when they have a free
time and they're strong, they still want to go to
the CBS. So go something that they can buy something
that they like.
Speaker 3 (12:36):
Get a coffee is always good, and a.
Speaker 2 (12:38):
Cup of coffees. You know, they get tired of our coffee.
I know, I've heard many times that our kool aid
is the best kool Aid. They call it the bridge
juice is the best juice ever.
Speaker 3 (12:46):
For the sugar. But they love it.
Speaker 2 (12:48):
And so those are the kinds of things that provides
their daily and not just for the young people before
our staff their way, so and you can go into
our website too. There's different opportunity in our website that
gives you different ideas of what they need and so forth.
But we lose coats here like it's candy well.
Speaker 1 (13:07):
And it's not getting warmer anytime soon, according to the groundhog,
at least from what it said the other day. So
if I'm gonna believe a rodent on this, then yes,
it's not quite again any warmer for at least a
few more weeks. So give us your website, social media,
how people can donate, how people can get a hold
of you and help.
Speaker 2 (13:25):
Bridge over troublewaters dot Org is our website. We also
have Instagram, TikTok and all that stuff, but I don't
know them from the top of my head. But if
you go to our website, you're definitely under volunteering. We'll
have all the information on how to either donate to Bridge,
do any volunteer work, or also provide any other services
(13:46):
or needs that we need for our young people. And
we just keep us in your prayers. It's winter, Groundhouse
says another six eight weeks. That means twelve weeks for us,
we're making it. And so please definitely thank you for
just putting a light on I young people, because they're
young and it's stress for us, even stressful for me
(14:08):
to be stuck in some of us who's like, oh, yes,
no day, we don't have to go to work and
you enjoy where others is like, well, they're still have
to go to work because of their jobs, and they
don't have a place sometimes to just stay home all then,
and that's what we become for them, and so we
want to make it as nice as possible for them here.
Speaker 1 (14:26):
Well, I'm glad you're there for them, and Elizabeth, thank
you for all the work you do. Thank your team
for all the work they do. And again, bridge over
Troubledwaters dot Org. Let's see if we can get you
more gloves as they keep flying out the door. And
have a safe and healthy rest of your winter season.
Speaker 3 (14:40):
Thank you you too.
Speaker 1 (14:43):
Have a safe and healthy weekend. Please join us again
next week for another edition of the show. I'm Nicole
Davis from WBZ News Radio on iHeartRadio.
From WBZ News Radio in Boston. This is New England Weekend.
Each week right here, we come together and talk about
all the topics important to you and the place where
you live. Good to be back with you this week.
I'm Nicole Davis. The weather here in New England has
been downright brutal this winter. For the first time in
many years. We've already had a couple feet of snow
over most of the state. More storms are on the way.
(00:30):
Temperatures have often been below zero. This is really not
a good time to be without a warm and safe
place to stay. Unfortunately, young people around the Commonwealth often
feel it's safer for them to brave those elements and
be home with their families, significant others, or anywhere else
they might be staying. That is where Bridge Over Troubled
Water steps into help. We've had executive director Elizabeth Jackson
(00:51):
on before talking about their resources for at risk, homeless
and runaway young people. She's back here on the show
this week, and Elizabeth, it is really good to have you. Bet.
Before we get into the core of what we're talking
about today, give us a quick rundown about your work.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
Ringeovia Tova Waters is a multi Service youth agency that
works with homeless and at risk youth.
Speaker 3 (01:10):
We work with young people.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
We see last year we saw over two thousand, four
hundred young people that come to different services Bridge. So
I always say with a university of life skills for
young people, because we have counseling, we have day program,
we have housing, medical education, and so we have an
in depth of services for our young people self, so
abuse counseling and so forth. And so we want our
(01:34):
young people to be successful in the long run and
provide all those intensive services now. And it's all a
card so they don't have to use all of them.
They can use whichever one is specific for their needs.
It's an individual plan. We also work with young people
under the age of eighteen, so we have a basic
center for runaway homeless youth. So we're part of the
Runaway National Hotline. So we provide a continuous services for
(01:57):
our young people to get them to a different path.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
This time of year especially, I mean if it's the
summertime and you're somebody who is unhoused, it's a little
bit easier. It's certainly not safe, don't get me wrong,
but it's a little easier to be outside in summer weather.
In the wintertime, especially the cold we've had lately. What
are you seeing happening on the streets right now?
Speaker 3 (02:17):
It's you know, a bridge.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
We have f and flows of like how young people
uses our programs.
Speaker 3 (02:23):
But after.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
Halloween, from November all the way like March or April
is the toughest part of our programmatic for a couple
of reasons. As you say, when it's warmer, people hang out,
but also during the holidays, people go home, they celebrate
with families, everybody's cheering, there's buying gifts, and so the
presence starts to set in. Young people are realizing they
(02:47):
really can't go back home, or they don't have a
home to go to, or they really burn that bridge,
that it's going to take more time, and then it's
like a frozen everything's for everything outside is cold. They
can't even stay outside for too long to smoke cigarette,
the things that relieve their stress. They can't go to
the movie theater, or the trains are not working or
something's happening. So it adds a whole different layer to
(03:09):
their depression and anxiety.
Speaker 3 (03:12):
And it's so.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
Cold out and then when they don't have the right boots,
when they don't have the right socks, when they don't
have the right gear to be warm, and now they're
just in a space where they can't really express those things.
It makes it hard for them. So for us, it's
the most challenging times and we try to make these
times the best as we can. We work very hard
for no disruption, So if the trains is not working,
(03:35):
we make sure we send our staff and uber back
and forth so they can get here. So they can
be here because we have, you know, around three hundred
young people that are living with us and throughout a
lot of different programs, So we have to make sure
that heat's working. The Wi fi has to work with
everybody's on it, and they have no places to go.
We have to have activities. There's a lot that goes in.
I call it a production, like the whole production that
(03:56):
has to happen to keep not only staff safe and warm,
but also are young people that don't have anywhere to go.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
It is kind of like you're conducting this big orchestra
of all these different moving parts and noises and things
going on. And you know, with young people, I think
that there's this impression of runaway youth and young people
who are unhoused as lazy or not working or just
for whatever reason not able to get it together. Well,
that may be the case for a few, that is
(04:24):
really not the way it is for the vast majority.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
Correct, yes, correct, I would say the national According nationally
to the chapin Hall Voices you've count survey, one in
ten young adults ages eighteen to twenty five will experience.
Speaker 3 (04:39):
One night of homelessness.
Speaker 2 (04:40):
One in thirty adolescents ages thirteen to seventeen were experienced
one night of homelessness, and the course of a year,
that data indicates that homelessness can be just as pervasive
in the rural and the urban areas in Boston. If
you translate that data, that will mean around eleven thousand
young people and young adults in Greater Boston that experiences
one night of homelessness. So just picture it this way.
(05:03):
In a classroom, one and thirty young people in our classroom.
That can be one person, one young person in the
football team, one in a basketball team, they can be
one in the soccer team. They are young people all
over in school doing stuff and it's hard and when
you don't have the support system, even with our own
who's at home with parents and struggling. Still, it's hard.
(05:26):
So imagine somebody that doesn't have the support, that doesn't
have the foundation or the bridge to get them for
one into another, so you've Homelessness doesn't look like someone
pushing a cart on the street or having a bunch
of bags. These are young people bagging your groceries. They're working,
they're serving coffee or your favorite baristas. They're on the
team next to you, sitting and you will not even know.
(05:48):
So Bridge always really wants to take that that view that, oh,
these are they're lazy, they're using drugs. Let me tell you,
I would be using a lot if I had to
be out there for more walking from South Station to
my office.
Speaker 3 (06:06):
I don't want to do it. It's cold, it's really cool.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
It breaks your skin, and so I need to be
very numb to be dealing with that. So that's not
our first interaction with our young people. We understand that
it's cold, and we understand that it takes a while
for us to really support them to what their trauma
is going to.
Speaker 1 (06:24):
And not to mention if you are a young person
who would rather be outside than at your home, or
with your parents. That is a decision you have likely
made for your safety. And I want to make it
clear that a lot of young people are not homeless
because they want to just do their own thing. It's
a safety measure, it's a safety concern for them.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
Yeah, seventy six percent of the young people we serve
last year under the age of twenty one.
Speaker 3 (06:50):
That's young. They didn't choose to be out there.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
There are many reasons individually why they're out there, and
seventy nine percent of them from the City of Boston.
They're here right and the wrap around service. It's difficult
time for young people to be out there and it's
not something they choose. They they will probably be couch
surfing or staying at a friend's house and then that
doesn't last for long or you know. I always say
(07:16):
to parents, if you have this friend that's always staying
over your house, your son's friend or a daughter's friend,
you should ask some questions because they don't probably don't
have a place to go. These young people are working,
they're trying to get better, and they'd say, I'm eighteen,
I think I can do this by myself.
Speaker 3 (07:31):
Yeah, then live where I'm staying and being hurt.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
They're now eating, they're not understanding that it is cold
out and even those things, it is better for them
to be out. And that is a hard decision for
a young person to make, and it's not something to
take lightly either.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
No, it's not so when people are when you interact
with these young people, tell me a little bit about
what you can do for them and what kind of services.
You said, you've got all sorts of wrap around services.
What are the ones that people are leaning on most
right now?
Speaker 2 (08:03):
You know, we have a lot of activities we call
them we have increased activities because it's so cold out
they can't go out, and how many movies can you watch?
Speaker 1 (08:12):
And a periods at.
Speaker 2 (08:14):
That day that we do have a lot of like
life skill activities where they're learning balance in check books,
or they're learning arts and craft, they're learning how to cook,
they're learning how to make flowers, all these great activities
to have them use their their brains and their hands
to create something. It's always great here. And then we
(08:36):
also have psychotherapy groups where young people can talk about,
you know, their anxiety, their anger, how to deal with
the boss, how to deal with the situation they end,
but in a fun setting that they've created that they
feel safe.
Speaker 3 (08:47):
We do yoga.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
It's like and while they're doing yoga and talking about
the upper dog or little dog or whatever they talk about,
but talked to them about in their language and their
musical what does it means to distress? Finding another the
way to be stress they're being in the streets or then.
Speaker 3 (09:03):
Either drinking or using what they need to.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
Don themselves is really teaching them those activities and those
go on all day and we do it if for
only one person shows up, a twenty young people show
up and they really enjoy it. And we have a
lot of groups of young people for the winter times.
We went from twelve beds to over thirty four beds
this year with a wait list of sixty young people
(09:26):
at night. Wow. And that is a constant challenge of
trying to figure out not just young people that are
staying with us, but those sixty that don't have a place,
and how to find them a place for one night
and come here during the days, stay here, be part
of the activities and the groups, and then wherever we
found that you are safe in that you could stay
(09:46):
there for one night and really there's a lot of
coordination behind that as well.
Speaker 1 (09:50):
I'm sure you've got to have quite the team behind you.
I mean, you yourself are a force of nature, but
you've got to have quite the team behind you to
get all this done.
Speaker 3 (09:56):
I have to say my team is really amazing.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
I say it to them a lot, and you know,
it's pretty amazing for them to just constantly, you know,
young people leave their coats behind and so we the
next day they come in and what swater, what happened
to your cot? Here's another coat, here's another pair of gloves,
here's another hat.
Speaker 3 (10:16):
If it's not attached to their head, take a look.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
It's just so we just there. My team is just excited.
They come up with different ideas, how to make it fun.
Let's try this, and I'm like, nobody's gonna do painting
next to you know, there's twenty people doing painting. I was,
and then it goes what I know, So they make
it fun for young people. So and they they really
into the food, adding different cultures, the super Bowl, let's
(10:41):
watch it, let's popcorn, and just let's create a movie
theater inside. They're so creative and I'm so grateful for them.
And they also understand when they see a young person
they haven't asked for a pair of boots and they're
walking around and sneakers, to just be like we're giving
out books today and not send them calling that person
by themselves because it's the only one, and really giving
(11:02):
the boots and really given out gloves. And we go
through a lot of that gloves, boots and hats and stuff,
and not because our young people want to throw them
away or anything, but just do it, just like every
young person does.
Speaker 1 (11:15):
We all lose stuff. I think I lost a glove
two days ago. I mean it's the season, you're shoveling,
you're moving around, your stuff gets lost. And that's going
to be my next question for you. What do you
need the most right now?
Speaker 2 (11:27):
Patience people to understand, I wish they have more beds
for the young people on our wait list, but those
are alwaish.
Speaker 3 (11:36):
What do I need right now?
Speaker 2 (11:37):
Coats, especially in larger sizes will be great.
Speaker 3 (11:42):
We would need clubs. Oh my god, we go to gloves.
We just go through gloves.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
Food are young people like to eat a lot, and
you know we cook a lot. So if anyone is
interested in putting, we want our young people to like
I said, with the University of Life skills, So we
don't want to just buy a meal for them with
here's a menu or here's a directions of how to
make a meal of like a ten dollar meal. So
really creating those menus for our young people so then
(12:09):
when downtime and it's blizzard out, they having a whole
cook fest in here and providing those things for them.
Speaker 3 (12:15):
So that would be great.
Speaker 2 (12:16):
You know, it's an extra sauce because now if we
don't have it, the staff has to go and try
to get in there's a blizzard outside. So really those
care packages are great for our young people to have
gift cards. They like to when they have a free
time and they're strong, they still want to go to
the CBS. So go something that they can buy something
that they like.
Speaker 3 (12:36):
Get a coffee is always good, and a.
Speaker 2 (12:38):
Cup of coffees. You know, they get tired of our coffee.
I know, I've heard many times that our kool aid
is the best kool Aid. They call it the bridge
juice is the best juice ever.
Speaker 3 (12:46):
For the sugar. But they love it.
Speaker 2 (12:48):
And so those are the kinds of things that provides
their daily and not just for the young people before
our staff their way, so and you can go into
our website too. There's different opportunity in our website that
gives you different ideas of what they need and so forth.
But we lose coats here like it's candy well.
Speaker 1 (13:07):
And it's not getting warmer anytime soon, according to the groundhog,
at least from what it said the other day. So
if I'm gonna believe a rodent on this, then yes,
it's not quite again any warmer for at least a
few more weeks. So give us your website, social media,
how people can donate, how people can get a hold
of you and help.
Speaker 2 (13:25):
Bridge over troublewaters dot Org is our website. We also
have Instagram, TikTok and all that stuff, but I don't
know them from the top of my head. But if
you go to our website, you're definitely under volunteering. We'll
have all the information on how to either donate to Bridge,
do any volunteer work, or also provide any other services
(13:46):
or needs that we need for our young people. And
we just keep us in your prayers. It's winter, Groundhouse
says another six eight weeks. That means twelve weeks for us,
we're making it. And so please definitely thank you for
just putting a light on I young people, because they're
young and it's stress for us, even stressful for me
(14:08):
to be stuck in some of us who's like, oh, yes,
no day, we don't have to go to work and
you enjoy where others is like, well, they're still have
to go to work because of their jobs, and they
don't have a place sometimes to just stay home all then,
and that's what we become for them, and so we
want to make it as nice as possible for them here.
Speaker 1 (14:26):
Well, I'm glad you're there for them, and Elizabeth, thank
you for all the work you do. Thank your team
for all the work they do. And again, bridge over
Troubledwaters dot Org. Let's see if we can get you
more gloves as they keep flying out the door. And
have a safe and healthy rest of your winter season.
Speaker 3 (14:40):
Thank you you too.
Speaker 1 (14:43):
Have a safe and healthy weekend. Please join us again
next week for another edition of the show. I'm Nicole
Davis from WBZ News Radio on iHeartRadio.
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