Kids In Crisis Find Refuge Through Safe Place Program Offered By QuikTrip, Youth Services Of Tulsa

This week is National Safe Place Week. It's an initiative to make sure kids between the ages of 12 and 17 know about safe places they can go in times of crisis.

Even though National Safe Place Week is only one week long, community partners like QuikTrip and Youth Services of Tulsa are helping these kids out with safe places all year.

QuikTrip has partnered with National Safe Place for over 30 years and works with organizations like Youth Services of Tulsa to get kids to safety when they're in need.

With National Safe Place, if a kid feels unsafe and doesn't want to be on the streets, they just have to go to a designated safe place like QuikTrip or a fire station and tell an employee that they need a safe place. Then, Youth Services of Tulsa will be able to pick up the child and do an assessment to figure out how best to help.

Jeanetta Williams, the Safe Place Coordinator for Youth Services of Tulsa, said places like QuikTrip are great at making sure its employees are prepared when a child comes in for help.

"QuikTrip is really great about making sure all of their employees are trained on what to do because we have community responders that actually go out and get the young people. So QuikTrip knows that they check the IDs and they check the cards," Williams said.

Williams said QuikTrip is also one of the biggest reasons a lot of people know about National Safe Place in the first place.

"They support not only Safe Place but YST in so many different ways. QuikTrip is an awesome community partner for us. And they make sure that all of their employees are trained on how to handle a safe place student if one should come in," Williams said.

Regarding National Safe Place, QuikTrip has said in a statement, "We are honored to support National Safe Place Week and the important work of the Safe Place Program. At QuikTrip, safety is a top priority, and we believe that every young person deserves a safe and secure environment."

In the last year, QuikTrip 24/7 Service Center received 60 Safe Place calls in the Tulsa area alone out of the nearly 400 Safe Place calls overall.