Open Arms Transformation Living is a relatively new resource helping youths, primarily females between 12 and 20. Now, it needs help, in the form of a building to call its own to give these youths a safe haven.
“We’re new, but the problems we address are not new at all,” said Fonda Royster, founder and executive director of Open Arms, a nonprofit that began March 21, 2022. The problems are homelessness, being human trafficked, exploited and dating violence – some of which she’s experienced.
Open Arms addresses these by “providing essential resources like food, clothing, hygiene products and housing assistance,” its website said. But it goes one step further, educating youths on the nature of healthy relationships.
“We work with the mothers because poverty and homelessness are generational,” Royster added. “Kids repeat what they see and what they know.”
She said, “Homelessness affects kids’ self-esteem. Who wants to sleep in a car or in a tub that serves as a bed? They’re going to be frustrated, and not want to go to school because they’re dirty. If they do go to school they don’t do well, and without an education they won’t get a decent job.”
Royster said Open Arms has a board of directors and a team of volunteers. Youths come to Open Arms by requesting help through the website — oatltoledo.square.site — or referrals. “Teachers, school bus drivers, nurses – they reach out to us,” Royster said. She meets with youths in libraries or other public spaces.
Now, Open Arms needs a house or other building to call its own. Royster said ideally it would be in Toledo’s north side: Manhattan Boulevard, Stickney Avenue, East Central Avenue, and Lagrange Street. “We’re trying to meet the kids where they are,” she said, noting that Open Arms has relationships with Woodward High School and Longfellow Elementary School.
Such a brick-and-mortar site “would serve as a drop-in hub. When you are homeless, you do not sleep at nighttime. Anything can happen,” she said. “This would be a space for them to come, get clean, eat and rest.” It also would be a place where they could get free legal services or mental health care.
To help raise money and awareness for a building, Open Arms held the “Brick by Brick Fundraising Gala, Building Hope, Rebuilding Lives” on Nov. 7 at the Premier on Heatherdowns. Royster said more than 100 ticket-buyers attended and were treated to music, food, raffles, a silent auction and addresses by two of the youths who Open Arms is helping. It also is to promote awareness of teen homelessness, teen dating violence and human trafficking – some of which Royster knows of firsthand.
The Toledo native said she experienced homelessness at 14, and was exploited in order to survive on the streets. Eventually a maternal aunt – “my second mother,” she said with pride – took her to live in New Jersey, where she grew up, graduated high school and college, got a social services job, and raised a family.
Royster moved back to Toledo, where she continually visited, to start over. She is a domestic violence resource specialist in Lucas County Juvenile Court. But she wanted to do more for youths.
“I said I’ve got to do something. I don’t believe that God saved me to sit [around] and not pay it forward.” So she founded Open Arms.
Her message for parents especially is that they need to be educated on the problems these youths face. “Everybody can play a role in being a solution to ending youth homelessness, teen dating violence, and human trafficking” – issues she said does not discriminate by race, gender, or socioeconomic status.
For now, though, the main thing is to get a brick-and-mortar place of their own. “If anyone knows someone who has a house in an urban area that may not be using it, it would definitely be a blessing.”
