When a child at Nevada’s only shelter for Native American youth found out that she would have to leave because the facility would soon close, the young girl’s reaction broke Yvonne Mori’s heart.
The 13-year-old came to Mori, the director of the Stepping Stones Emergency Youth Shelter but “Mama Bear” to its residents, and asked if she could give the money her tribe had set aside to support her to keep the shelter open.
“‘I’ll give you all of that money so you can save our home,’” Mori recounted. “She goes, ‘This is the only place that I feel safe.’” It was the girl’s fifth time staying at the shelter.
But Mori said she didn’t have a choice, she didn’t have the staff to safely keep the facility open.
“I had to have four children removed, and now we’re just waiting,” Mori told The Nevada Independent during an early August tour of the facility. “I’ve had phone calls in the last month from tribes trying to place children here, and I have to tell them, unfortunately, I can’t take any kids until we get funding.”