Covenant House

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Covenant House is the largest privately-funded childcare agency in the United States providing shelter and service to homeless and runaway youth.

It was incorporated in New York City in 1972 by Father Bruce Ritter and has since expanded in the United States to:

Anchorage
Atlanta
Atlantic City
Detroit
Fort Lauderdale
Houston
Los Angeles
Newark
New Orleans
Oakland
Orlando
Philadelphia
St. Louis
Washington, D. C.

and, outside the United States, to:

Toronto
Vancouver
Guatemala
Honduras
Mexico
Nicaragua

In addition to food, shelter, clothing and crisis care, Covenant House provides a variety of services to homeless youth including health care, education, vocational preparation, drug abuse treatment and prevention programs, legal services, recreation, mother/child programs, transitional living programs, street outreach and aftercare.

[edit] Nineline

For quite some time, it has had the toll-free telephone number (800) 999-9999. It ran commercials on radio and TV telling people in need of its services to "call 1-800 and then just keep pressing 9". They also maintain a Nineline website where people can post on their forums.