Without easy access to school breakfast and lunch, youth can be vulnerable to victimization. In our Survivor Care, we do all kinds of activities with youth. In the summer, requests for visits to include food definitely go up. We also sometimes give grocery gift cards to families, and connect them with other community resources to address food insecurity, so youth don’t feel pressure to provide for their families or find other ways to get their basic needs met.

Every day being different is hard for many people — that can be even more true for children with special needs, mental health issues, and/or trauma. Love146 keeps showing up throughout the changes summer brings, and we make a special effort to not make big changes to a youth's care plan during summer months.

For youth who’ve struggled, summer may bring anxiety about ending one year or starting another school year – and this is the time when, statistically, many teens drop out of school forever. When a survivor is wondering, “What if I don't succeed?” your donations ensure that trepidation is met by somebody who can encourage them. With the help of Love146, many children in our Survivor Care also use summer as a time to get a job that builds confidence, security, and career skills. 

Boredom might not seem like a serious problem on the surface, but for an adolescent, it can cause vulnerabilities. When youth don’t have things to do and healthy ways of getting an adrenaline rush (ropes courses, sports, etc.) they’ll sometimes explore riskier ways to seek excitement (like meeting someone they’ve been chatting with online.) Traffickers use a child’s boredom as an opportunity to engage, groom, and potentially exploit them. Our Survivor Care program pairs a child with a trauma-informed social worker who will help them find safe ways to have fun.