STANDUP FOR KIDS'S BLOG
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Standing Up for Kids
- Posted on 10.19.09
Related causes: Youth
A homeless teenage boy sleeps with a group of squatters under a bridge. In the dark, under a cold indifferent sky, the boy cries quietly while sucking his thumb.
The image of this teenage boy still haunts Rick Koca, whose first encounter with homeless children in San Diego, Calif., so moved him that in 1990 he started StandUp For Kids (SFK), an organization that helps homeless kids regain their footing and find new hope. Today, SFK runs 43 volunteer-based outreach programs in 22 states.
“I spent 30 years traveling in the Navy going all over helping all these other countries,” recalled Rick, “and in my own country children were living on the street, sleeping under bridges, and eating out of dumpsters.”
Motivated to help kids that nobody else would, Rick hit the streets of San Diego and began getting involved in homeless teenagers’ lives.
His entry into their world starts with a simple, but effective question that his volunteers still use 20 years later: “If StandUp For Ki...Read More
