DAYTON -- There are a staggering number of teenagers living on the streets in America, 1.6 million by some counts, and many of them are right here in the Miami Valley.
"I had to spent the night in a park," Anthony Williams, now 22, told us." Luckily, it wasn't cold. So I guess it wasn't too bad but it wasn't where I wanted to be, because it's a park, not a hotel. That bench was pretty hard."
Williams was 18 when he says his home life got so bad he actually felt safer living on the street being homeless.
"It's as hard as it sounds," Williams says. ''Food's hard to come by. You literally have to worry every day where you're going to lay your head at."
Anthony heard about Daybreak, a Dayton shelter for homeless teens. So he went to their emergency shelter, and it ended up being the best decision in his young life.
"It was a relief, a relief," Williams recalls. "It was warm. I always had something to eat. They hooked me up with a therapist here so with going through so much I always had someone to talk to and kind of get my heavy chip off my shoulder."
Anthony enrolled in school again, and took part in Daybreak's programs that train teens to become responsible young adults. It's at Daybreak where he met Brynne Foster, a friend turned girlfriend.
Brynne was just 17 when she knew she had to get away from home.
"I'm not saying that I didn't want any guidance,'' Brynne, now 19, told us." But overall it was just a bad environment overall for me to be in."
She also found Daybreak.
"Once I'm stressing I don't eat so once I got here I felt relieved," Brynne said. ''Like a weight off my shoulders. And the next thing I know I gained like 8 pounds in two weeks."
Daybreak is a place where teens can temporarily call home; in fact, the center helped more than 1,800 teens last year.
"You know, they're kids," Linda Kramer of Daybreak tells us. "They come with similar yet different stories, but they're stories that have made it impossible to live in the home at least for the short term."
If a really young child comes in -- Children Services immediately comes in to help them find a safe home. Social workers try hard to keep kids and teens with family members, but sometimes, especially for older teens, there just isn't a place for them to go.
"Most of those cases, those kids are not going back home,'' Kramer says. "Then we have to work towards the most independent and self-sufficient route and hopefully get them on the way to becoming productive, young adults."
Brynne is now living on her own and wants to be a nurse. Anthony now holds down a job and is exploring higher education. They both have come so far and are still carving out their paths far away from that park bench.
"Definitely have got a stronger spirit and a better head on my shoulders," Anthony proclaims proudly. "I'm not foolish acting and I can actually say I'm not where I want to be in my life, but I'm on track."
"I had to spent the night in a park," Anthony Williams, now 22, told us." Luckily, it wasn't cold. So I guess it wasn't too bad but it wasn't where I wanted to be, because it's a park, not a hotel. That bench was pretty hard."
Williams was 18 when he says his home life got so bad he actually felt safer living on the street being homeless.
"It's as hard as it sounds," Williams says. ''Food's hard to come by. You literally have to worry every day where you're going to lay your head at."
Anthony heard about Daybreak, a Dayton shelter for homeless teens. So he went to their emergency shelter, and it ended up being the best decision in his young life.
"It was a relief, a relief," Williams recalls. "It was warm. I always had something to eat. They hooked me up with a therapist here so with going through so much I always had someone to talk to and kind of get my heavy chip off my shoulder."
Anthony enrolled in school again, and took part in Daybreak's programs that train teens to become responsible young adults. It's at Daybreak where he met Brynne Foster, a friend turned girlfriend.
Brynne was just 17 when she knew she had to get away from home.
"I'm not saying that I didn't want any guidance,'' Brynne, now 19, told us." But overall it was just a bad environment overall for me to be in."
She also found Daybreak.
"Once I'm stressing I don't eat so once I got here I felt relieved," Brynne said. ''Like a weight off my shoulders. And the next thing I know I gained like 8 pounds in two weeks."
Daybreak is a place where teens can temporarily call home; in fact, the center helped more than 1,800 teens last year.
"You know, they're kids," Linda Kramer of Daybreak tells us. "They come with similar yet different stories, but they're stories that have made it impossible to live in the home at least for the short term."
If a really young child comes in -- Children Services immediately comes in to help them find a safe home. Social workers try hard to keep kids and teens with family members, but sometimes, especially for older teens, there just isn't a place for them to go.
"Most of those cases, those kids are not going back home,'' Kramer says. "Then we have to work towards the most independent and self-sufficient route and hopefully get them on the way to becoming productive, young adults."
Brynne is now living on her own and wants to be a nurse. Anthony now holds down a job and is exploring higher education. They both have come so far and are still carving out their paths far away from that park bench.
"Definitely have got a stronger spirit and a better head on my shoulders," Anthony proclaims proudly. "I'm not foolish acting and I can actually say I'm not where I want to be in my life, but I'm on track."
