‘I just want them to feel like kids’
Shelter employee honored with award for work with homeless, at-risk youth
Whether it’s holding a preteen’s hand during a first visit to the dentist or sliding with kids into a magical laundry machine at Meow Wolf, Doreen McCurley’s mission has been clear: She wants to enhance the lives of New Mexico’s most vulnerable youth.
Almost every kid between the ages of 10 and 17 who stays at the Youth Shelters and Family Services’ emergency shelter in Santa Fe has experienced some form of abuse
or neglect — the kind that often leads to homelessness, substance abuse, juvenile delinquency or even sex trafficking, said McCurley, the center’s care coordinator.
For her, it’s important to see beyond the past, and help guide each child to a better future.
“I just want them to feel like kids,” McCurley said.
McCurley was recognized last week as New Mexico’s Youth Advocate of the Year, praised for her nearly 15-year career at the shelter, where her ultimate goal is to find secure and sustainable placement for each child. Every effort in the interim — from enrolling kids in school to organizing a fun community outing — is a way to help break a cycle of trauma and connect at-risk children to the resources they need to succeed in life.
“You can see such potential, but where they’re coming from it’s hard to see that,” said McCurley. “It’s all of our goal to help them see that potential.”
McCurley, 81, without any kids of her own, said she always knew she wanted to work with young people. Yet, prior to moving to Santa Fe in 2001 — she left New York City at 5:30 a.m. Sept. 11, 2001, just hours before the World Trade Center was attacked — she worked in corporate marketing.
Upon her arrival, McCurley volunteered at the local nonprofit Many Mothers for about a year before deciding to go back to school. She first joined the shelter in 2005 as an intern, while also pursuing a master’s degree in social work at New Mexico Highlands University.
At the time, McCurley, then in her 60s, volunteered two days a week for programs at Youth Shelters and Family Services and eventually was hired as the shelter’s overnight resident specialist, working from midnight to 8 a.m. five days a week. She became the shelter’s care coordinator in 2009.
Since her start at the shelter, McCurley has served an estimated 2,000 youth, many of whom are referred to the center by the state Children, Youth and Families Department’s Protective Services Division or its juvenile justice program, as well as from tribal services.
In some cases, a guardian will bring a child to the shelter as a form of brief respite; on other occasions, schools might make a referral.
There are 10 beds at the shelter on Agua Fría Street. McCurley said it currently has five residents, although that number varies.
The shelter works with children from families who deal with addiction and may have drug problems themselves. Sex trafficking also is a concern. Because many runaway youth are desperate for food and a warm place to stay, it’s not uncommon to sell their bodies “just for survival,” McCurley said.
The ultimate goal is to find “safe, stable placement” — foster care, treatment foster care, a residential treatment facility, adoption or family reunification — within a month of a child’s arrival to the shelter.
“We work really hard to get them out of here,” McCurley said. “It’s not healthy to live in a shelter. It’s just a next step.”
Although there is no such thing as a typical day, McCurley said some of her regular tasks include: contacting juvenile probation officers to follow up on court hearing dates; joining kids on buses to teach them the ins and outs of public transportation; providing educational resources to teach girls about birth control options; delivering medications to kids during school hours as needed; helping them sort through clothes donations or shop for school supplies with vouchers; or meeting with incarcerated parents to get medical release signatures or complete other mandated paperwork.
While the shelter has onsite counseling, McCurley said coordinating external care, such as tutoring, therapy nights at Gerard’s House or Alateen meetings, requires ample planning. That’s also true of facilitating trips to the movies, the library, the Genoveva Chavez Community Center or the Harrell House Bug Museum — things that “give them some normalcy, at least just a taste of it,” she said.
“Having fun is part of growing up. It’s not just being scared and worrying about things,” said McCurley, outfitted in a Betty Boop jacket, with a streak of purple in her hair.
The No. 1 priority during each child’s stay, however, is education, McCurley said. “They have great goals. But the reality is they aren’t going to have any of them if they don’t go to school,” she said. “Education gives them a chance.”
For all her efforts, McCurley was presented the Youth Advocate of the Year Award on Thursday at the Sheraton Albuquerque Airport Hotel during the New Mexico Coalition to End Homelessness Housing for All Conference.
Though McCurley said she feels undeserving of the Youth Advocate of the Year honor, her colleagues disagree.
“She will do whatever she needs to do to connect the youth to what they need,” said Korina Lopez, the shelter’s program director. “She works 10 times harder than anyone else do do that. She really is an amazing advocate.”
But for McCurley, the work stems entirely from passion.
“I just love the kids,” she said. “I’m doing what I love to do.”
“We work really hard to get them out of here. It’s not healthy to live in a shelter. It’s just a next step.” Doreen McCurley, youth shelter care coordinator