Music legends lend helping hand to teen outreach
Twenty-one years ago, Jeffrey Sitcov began pursuing his passion of helping homeless youths in San Diego.
He enlisted some unlikely celebrities to help him — Billy Joel, Elton John, Ella Fitzgerald, B.B. King, Bruce Springsteen, Jewel ... and the list goes on.
Sitcov calls them his Music Angels.
Keyboards, guitars, banjos and other autographed music memorabilia have been the funding lifeblood of the nonprofit Doors of Change organization he founded.
Its mission is to reach out to transient young people in the transitional 17-25 age group who no longer qualify for most youth care programs.
Two decades ago, Sitcov was working as a physical therapist when he suffered a career-ending spinal injury that launched him on a path of introspection. He wanted to instill more meaning in his life.
“I did some soul searching,” he says. Then he connected with San Diego Youth Services, which runs a youth emergency shelter.
“I did outreach for one night, and it changed my life,” Sitcov recalls.
He encountered many young people who had chosen life on the streets over abusive environments at home. They often were escaping drug-addicted or alcoholic parents or had been kicked out for coming out as gay or lesbian. Many were depressed or suicidal, lacked purpose and were running on empty.
“I decided that night to help homeless kids. Someone has got to help them make better choices for themselves.”
Photography had long been Sitcov’s hobby. In 1997, he had worked as the house photographer at San Diego State University’s Open Air Theatre, where he met and took pictures of performers. In subsequent years, he continued taking photos at concerts and shows around town.
He began sending his photos to the musicians or their agents. He introduced his mission of wanting to help homeless youths and enlist them in music and art programs. Sitcov’s punchline was asking for donations of autographed instruments and memorabilia to auction to raise money for his outreach efforts, then called Photocharity.
Billy Joel was the first celebrity to participate. He provided a signed keyboard. Elton John was the second. The year was 2001, and Sitcov was off and running.
Since then, he says donations from celebrity performers have raised nearly $900,000. Several have been repeat donors.
The late B.B. King helped raise $165,000. Billy Joel has brought in $108,000, closely followed by Sir Elton John at $97,000. Autographed items from the Rolling Stones have have generated $63,700. Blues guitarist Buddy Guy’s memorabilia raised $45,200, while items from Michael McDonald and Keb’ Mo’ attracted $36,000 each.
Singer Chris Isaak’s guitars, with his handdrawn artwork of a surfer, serpent and himself, raised $30,000. Bruce Springsteen and the late Etta James each helped bring in $25,000. The celebrity donor list goes on ...
Every year, Sitcov organizes a concert fundraiser. This year is special because it’s the program’s delayed 20th anniversary celebration. Three Dog Night is performing June 30 at
Moonlight Amphitheatre in Vista — and, of course, there will be instruments to auction.
It has been a tough couple of years. The pandemic sucker-punched Sitcov’s outreach program. For eight years, they had been meeting for free in the Episcopal Church Center in Ocean Beach, where kids gathered for lessons in music, art and jewelry making and for other services. But pandemic restrictions ended the social gatherings and classes.
“Since COVID, everything has shifted,” Sitcov says. “The kids have gone underground.”
Outreach workers have resorted to placing posters in places frequented by youth, primarily in the beach communities. This is especially unfortunate, Sitcov says, at a time when the need for mental health services is spiking.
They concentrate now on remote outreach — linking 17-to-25-year-olds to appropriate shelters, giving them supplies and food and providing them with cellphones and laptops for schoolwork.
Despite the difficulty of connecting and staying connected, there have been some spectacular successes.
Doors of Change reached out to Justine Bethell, who was homeless in San Diego from age 12 to 16. She found the Storefront shelter, began making jewelry in the Doors of Change program, returned to school and enrolled
in San Diego City College. She then went to UC Santa Barbara on a full scholarship and now is studying for a law degree.
The program also helped Tyler De Los Reyes, who went from spending his nights sleeping under the Imperial Beach pier to getting a job as a security guard. Then he became an ambulance dispatcher with a medical services company and has graduated into a supervisory position.
Elliott Guist, who began playing violin at age 7, left home at 14 and started traveling the country — walking, hopping freight trains, hitchhiking with a “road dog” (traveling buddy)
and busking for tips with his violin, even during a Wisconsin snowstorm.
He was living with his cat out of sight in a tree in Carlsbad, where he had strung a hammock about 20 feet high. He periodically visited Doors of Change to seek help and benefits.
“Doors of Change provided a safety network. I had people to talk to and learned how to apply for food stamps,” he says.
Soon thereafter, he began teaching music there. Now 27, he rents an apartment and has a full-time job at a health spa but continues to do outreach work for Doors of Change. His background of homelessness helps him
win the trust of other homeless youths.
“I want to live in a world that is more responsible,” Guist says. “I’m trying to be part of change and the bigger picture so we can actually create movement to fix problems instead of prolonging them and creating new ones.”
Guist will be playing his violin at the VIP reception before Thursday night’s concert.
Tickets range from $49 to $159 and are available at the Moonlight Amphitheatre website, my.moonlightstage.com/events. The show starts at 7:30 p.m.