August 7th, 2017 For Immediate Release
Contact: Melissa Ramsey
Public Relations Specialist
757.963.5795 x 103
mramsey@setonyouthshelters.org
SETON YOUTH SHELTERS RECEIVES GRANT FROM MILLION DOLLAR ROUND TABLE FOUNDATION
Seton Youth Shelters Receives Much Needed Funding for Programs and Outreach
Virginia Beach, VA—The MDRT Foundation awarded a USD $5,000 grant to Seton Youth Shelters
for shelters, van-based outreach, counseling, and mentoring. Representing the MDRT Foundation,
Brian Winfield presented this grant to Dr. Maxine Singleton, Vice President of the Seton Youth
Shelters Board of Directors, on July 25th, 2017 at The Seton Youth Shelters’ 2017 Annual Meeting of
the Board of Directors.
Through its global grants programs, the MDRT Foundation is committed to building stronger
families and communities around the globe. This year, the MDRT Foundation will award over $1
million in MDRT member-endorsed grants to more than 200 charitable organizations worldwide.
“We appreciate the generous support of the Million Dollar Round Table Foundation,” says
Jennifer Sieracki, Executive Director of Seton Youth Shelters. “In 2016, we lost $300,000 in federal
program funding. This donation will enable us to continue to reach thousands of our region’s most
vulnerable youth with critical services.”
About the MDRT Foundation:
The MDRT Foundation was created in 1959 to provide MDRT members with a means to give
back to their communities. Since its inception, the Foundation has donated more than $30 million in
more than 70 countries throughout the world and in all 50 U.S. states. These funds were raised by
MDRT members and industry partners. For more information, visit mdrtfoundation.org.
About Seton Youth Shelters:
Since 1985, Seton Youth Shelters has provided emergency shelter and crisis counseling for
youth, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, with the goal of reuniting youth and their families through
solution-focused, reality-based programs at no charge to the child or their family. Each year, Seton
serves more than 14,000 Hampton Roads’ youth. Donations such as this enable Seton’s focus on
prevention, intervention, shelter and counseling, through its shelter, street outreach and mentoring
programs, which reach tens of thousands of Hampton Roads’ youth each year Seton Youth Shelters is
the region’s only organization devoted exclusively to providing shelter, counseling and outreach services
to youth 9-17 in crisis and their families—24 hours a day, 365 days a year, at no charge to the child or their
family.
Seton’s van-based Street Outreach Program travels Virginia Beach, Norfolk, Chesapeake, Portsmouth, Hampton and
Newport News accessing 400 square miles of Hampton Roads. The mobile unit is equipped with two-person teams, providing access to emergency youth services by traveling through these cities seeking areas of high risk where youth congregate. In 2015, Street Outreach Programs reached over 12,000 local youth in our most vulnerable Hampton Roads neighborhoods. With this funding cut, Seton can only hope to reach half that number. The Mentoring Children of Prisoners (MCP) program is FREE and available to youth 4-18 who have been affected by the incarceration of someone, and who live in the Hampton Roads area. Each child is paired with an adult mentor who plays the role of a friend—NOT a substitute parent. A mentor provides regularly scheduled activities with his or her mentee. Mentors can participate in recreational, educational or cultural activities, or just provide a listening ear—whatever is needed.
