Our Mission
Seton Youth Services shall provide a safe haven, counseling and outreach services, 24 hours per day without charge, to assist youth in crisis throughout Hampton Roads, with the goal of reuniting families.
Picture this: It’s almost midnight. Your friends have gone home and you are left walking the street alone. You can’t go home–or won’t–because of the terrible fight you had with your parents. They have been yelling at you for months now; you can’t do anything right. School is a waste; you are failing most subjects and giving up hope. Maybe you just ought to runaway.
This is a familiar tale told by many of the teenagers coming to Seton Youth Services. They are teenagers in crisis. They end up at Seton Youth Services because of the hope offered to them and their parents. We offer hope of reconciliation, understanding, and love. In over 90% of cases, reconciliation is successful.
Seton Youth Services leads the way in delivering critical help to teens in crisis throughout Southside Hampton Roads. The caring staff offers hope and confidence to teens and parents while creative implementation of programs provides added capability.
You can be a part of the success story at Seton Youth Services. Contact our CEO, Jennifer Sieracki at jsieracki@setonyouthservices.org or at 757.963.5795 ext. 0105#. Seton Youth Services is dedicated to making a difference one teen at a time
Our History
Seton Youth Services was established in 1985 as Mother Seton House, Inc., by three local clergy and a few citizens who were concerned about the vulnerability of runaway and homeless girls living on the streets. The agency was named after Mother Elizabeth Ann Seton, the first native-born American to be declared a Saint and a daughter of charity who provided shelter and schooling for orphaned girls and boys.
Initially, girls were sheltered in the homes of host families but soon the number of girls needing assistance grew to the point that St. Nicholas Catholic Church in Virginia Beach’s Kings Grant community, stepped forward to provide the use of their rectory to house up to 11. In 1999, St Aidan’s Episcopal Church provided a free land lease and a second shelter was opened enabling Seton Youth Services to provide shelter, counseling and support for boys in crisis.
Currently each of Seton’s shelters provides emergency shelter, counseling and support 24 hours per day without charge to youth ages 9 through 17 who are in crisis.
Soon after the second shelter for boys was opened, street outreach services were launched with a weekly Teen Drop-In Center at the Oceanfront, and mobile Street Outreach vans providing hot food, counseling and education throughout selected neighborhoods on the Southside and the Virginia Peninsula.
In 2006, the Mentoring Children of Prisoners Program was established to provide one-on-one positive role models for children ages 4 to 18. This program compliments the other positive youth development approaches that are core to the shelter and street outreach services. Building upon the potential of each young person, and supporting the development of the skills necessary to become productive and self-sufficient members of their family and our community, is the linking philosophy of all Seton services.