One out of every four students in Manchester drops out of school, a rate above the state average.
In response to the high drop rate, the city has developed several programs to help students make it through high school.
But one that kept teens of the street and helped them work towards a diploma recently ran out of funding and was forced to shut its doors.
New Hampshire Public Radio’s Rebecca Kaufman has the story.
On any other Friday afternoon, the Hot Couch drop in center on Manchester’s Elm Street would be filled with teenagers.
They might be painting or using the dark room in the back…they might be lounging around, gossiping on the couch, or running down the street for a slice of pizza.
Track 1 1:48 music…..
But on this Friday the center was closing its doors…
Track 1 1:16
Woman: what’s happening to the hot couch?, guy:I don’t know, woman: what’s happening to the sign?, guy: I don’t know, woman: ebay
There were many unknowns, as a few Hot Couch staffers and volunteers moved out couches, pieces of art, and the piano.
But even in the half empty room, the feel of the center isn’t lost.
Track 5 1:22 they really wanted to make the physical space as compatible to the emotional space the kids needed
That’s Hot Couch’s program coordinator Seth Bunke.
He says making the center feel more like a bedroom than a classroom was a big draw.
The teen’s colorful and expressive paintings and murals lined the walls.
Even the ceiling tiles were individual works of art.
They created a mosaic that Bunke says, always got a reaction from visitors.
On one wall, the kids have marked their heights…the tallest: Jesus Christ, but no one actually saw him come in.
The purpose of Hot Couch was to keep teens off the street after school and away from drugs and violence.
But once they got there, Seth Bunke says the structure was loose.
They could do art if they wanted, but they never had to.
Track 3 :39 some kids sleep, some kids hit the papers, some kids did their homework, some kids chat with my assistant, Chris and I, there’s no typical day, someone called it an extended high school lunch, kids in that stress free atmosphere, in that in between time
Bunke says over 350 teens came to Hot Couch at one time or another last year.
And Bunke believed about one third of them seriously struggle with drugs or alcohol.
But he says they won’t hear the classic “don’t do drugs†speech they might get at school or at home.
Track 3 2:10 this place was low impact help, it wasn’t the idea like we were “hello son, you have a problemâ€, we identify, get to know the kid and the kid would be like, I’m doing coke, and I’m like why are you doing coke, and they are like I don’t know, and you try to talk to them and get them help, you break down the walls with trust, not methodology
That worked for 17 year old Matt.
His former girlfriend introduced him to Hot Couch a year and a half ago.
Track 1:50
I’m in recovery from drug addiction, and this place has helped me stay clean for this past year pretty much, so sad to see it go, these are my real friends, all the kids that come here, if it wasn’t for this place I don’t know where I’d be today, my high school is right up the street, I know I can come down here and hang out in a drug free environment with other kids who have the same problems as me
At Hot Couch, Matt got interested in drawing and even built a studio in his basement.
Matt’s father Patrick now volunteers as a tutor at Hot Couch.
He says with many of these teens, it’s pay me now or pay me later.
Track 4 1:52 they all say there’s not enough funding for this, but if you send a kid to YDC you’re spending 200 dollars a day and if we save two kids out of the hundreds and hundreds that were served here you got the budget for this place, it’s really money well spent
Hot Couch had an operating budget of 125,000 dollars a year.
It was funded by a three year grant from the state department of Health and Human Services or HHS.
When that money ran out six months ago, the organization, the Alliance for Community Support picked up the bill.
But they recently decided that they could no longer support Hot Couch.
Alice Bruning from HHS’s division of alcohol and drug abuse prevention and recovery says Hot Couch was one of the more innovative projects that received grant money.
But Bruning adds that from the beginning, she worried about the program’s sustainability.
Track 3 1:15 A drop in center if it’s purely a drop in center is going to have a difficult time getting and sustaining funding from a program like ours that is really targeted on delivering alcohol and drug use behavior change outcomes, I think the same would be true if you were looking for injury prevention money or teen pregnancy prevention money
Bruning says that doesn’t mean Hot Couch didn’t serve a valuable purpose.
Track 4 1:23 I’ve heard stories of young people asleep on the sofa at hot couch and they may be sleeping there for four hours and that may seem like its not a good use of hot couch resources but you discover that this is a child that hasn’t gone home for three days because of what’s going at home or a child who was asked if she wanted a hamburger and she hadn’t eaten in 2 or 3 days
Bruning suggests that city businesses and community groups concerned with the health of area teenagers are better funding sources for “safety net†programs.
The organization “For Manchester†is one group working on raising money to re-start the center.
“For Manchesterâ€â€™s Jane Beaulieu is asking teens what their vision of the program is.
But Beaulieu says it’s unlikely to be another Hot Couch.
Track 6 :10 if their vision is to remain unstructured and it remains structured the way it has been for the last year or so I don’t think the adults I’ve been working with will continue the program
Beaulieu says it will have a different name.
And it won’t be located downtown next to the cafes and pizza parlors…a definite perk for many of the teens.
They will need 10,000 dollars just to get into a new place.
To make a dent, they are planning on selling Hot Couch’s art work at an auction in early June.
Many teens are working hard to convince the city that a place like Hot Couch is an asset to the community.
But people like 17 year old Matt still aren’t sure how to occupy their time while they wait.
Track 3 1:40 you know right after school I have the last two classes off and I jet right down here, stay until 7:30, I don’t know what I’m going to do now, go home I guess, I don’t know, I really lost a big part of my life, after school
For NHPR news, I’m RK
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