Our Story
While the TRY Program opened its doors in December, 1997 this was after 7 long years of planning, fund raising and preparation. The program evolved as a result of a combination of care for young women overlooked on the streets of the City of Buffalo.
In 1990, on her way to visit parishioners in St. Mary of Sorrows Parish on the east side of Buffalo, Sr. Mary Augusta Kaiser SSJ, a veteran high school teacher and parish minister, began meeting young girls on the streets who "all looked like they were looking for something." She discovered in her conversations with these young women that, as a result of various troubles in their lives, they were all prostituting themselves to survive. While their past experiences differed, they all had one thing in common: they were all homeless and without hope.
Listening to their pain and seeing these young women daily, Sister met with the Buffalo Police Department Vice Squad to discuss possible intervention. The police set up an undercover operation, and subsequently 177 prostitutes were arrested within a 2 month period in that area of the city. Fearing that this lone action would not address the young women's' need for a safe recovery of life and dignity, Sister set up an Advisory Board including social workers, educators, block club members and a former prostitute to address the question of what could be done to assist the young women. While the police action was a great start, most of the girls would end up back on the streets after serving their two months in jail. The conditions of their lives—their homelessness, their lack of hope and self-worth—remained unchanged. They needed a different path to regain their lives as contributing young people in the community. This led Sr. Mary Augusta, along with dedicated helpers to do something about the situation, to create a new model for a program which would support realistic recovery and save the lives of these young women who saw a prostitutes violent street life as their only option for survival. And this is how the TRY program began.
Obviously, the first need was to find a shelter to convert to a residence for the program. It took seven years to find a building (a former convent), to raise the $53,000 required to buy it from the Diocese of Buffalo, and then to raise close to $250,000 to bring the structure up to code. Finally, another $35,600 was raised for the furnishings. The Teaching and Restoring Youth (TRY) Program, began as a project of the Fillmore-Leroy Area Residents, Inc. and opened its doors in December of 1997. Now as in those early days, the mission of TRY remains the same: to empower committed young women to rebuild their lives and become productive members of society.
Within one year in 1998, TRY saw a need to expand the program. The first ten residents were court mandated young women with arrest records for prostitution. Every one of these young women had been sexually abused as a child before she became involved in prostitution. TRY expanded the scope of the program to extend the preventative arm of service. The young women who had suffered the street life informed this expansion; their stories called for early intervention in the lives of young women who suffered abuse and exploitation therefore, becoming at risk of being drawn into the violent cycle of prostitution. This recovery and preventative mission underpins the TRY Program's work today. Today, the TRY residence includes ten individual bedrooms, a community-centered environment with spaces for group and individual recreation, counseling, intervention workshops, shared meals and study. TRY comfortably shelters homeless young women between the ages of 16 and 21 who possess a desire to change their lives. Take a photo tour of our facility on this page.
TRY residents are court-mandated, agency-referred or self-referred. Many of these young women left home to escape abusive situations or were put on the streets by their parents or other family members. Over half are victims of child incest; many are suffering from alcohol or drug addictions. Some of the young women come into the program with sexually transmitted diseases which they are unaware they have contracted. When they enter the program, ninety percent of the women do not have a high school diploma, GED or positive job experience. Once they enter the program they commit to returning to school or a GED program. Generally, girls stay in the program between 6 months to a year. In this safe home, young women rediscover dignity, begin to trust relationships and work with a caring staff which enables them to make positive decisions resulting in independent lives. Here at TRY, young women have a chance to reflect on their lives safe from the streets, bolstered by their own personal commitment to make a better life for themselves through education, medical and psychological care, recreation, exploration of arts, and participation in meaningful community service. They interact daily with peers and adults—staff members and volunteers—who encourage growth, change and good humored well-being.
Since TRY opened its doors in 1997, close to 390 young women have been in residence. Many other young women have been interviewed and referred elsewhere. The young women who are accepted into the TRY program are those who realize that they need to make a positive change in their life and are motivated to do so in TRY's structured living environment.
In 1990, on her way to visit parishioners in St. Mary of Sorrows Parish on the east side of Buffalo, Sr. Mary Augusta Kaiser SSJ, a veteran high school teacher and parish minister, began meeting young girls on the streets who "all looked like they were looking for something." She discovered in her conversations with these young women that, as a result of various troubles in their lives, they were all prostituting themselves to survive. While their past experiences differed, they all had one thing in common: they were all homeless and without hope.
Listening to their pain and seeing these young women daily, Sister met with the Buffalo Police Department Vice Squad to discuss possible intervention. The police set up an undercover operation, and subsequently 177 prostitutes were arrested within a 2 month period in that area of the city. Fearing that this lone action would not address the young women's' need for a safe recovery of life and dignity, Sister set up an Advisory Board including social workers, educators, block club members and a former prostitute to address the question of what could be done to assist the young women. While the police action was a great start, most of the girls would end up back on the streets after serving their two months in jail. The conditions of their lives—their homelessness, their lack of hope and self-worth—remained unchanged. They needed a different path to regain their lives as contributing young people in the community. This led Sr. Mary Augusta, along with dedicated helpers to do something about the situation, to create a new model for a program which would support realistic recovery and save the lives of these young women who saw a prostitutes violent street life as their only option for survival. And this is how the TRY program began.
Obviously, the first need was to find a shelter to convert to a residence for the program. It took seven years to find a building (a former convent), to raise the $53,000 required to buy it from the Diocese of Buffalo, and then to raise close to $250,000 to bring the structure up to code. Finally, another $35,600 was raised for the furnishings. The Teaching and Restoring Youth (TRY) Program, began as a project of the Fillmore-Leroy Area Residents, Inc. and opened its doors in December of 1997. Now as in those early days, the mission of TRY remains the same: to empower committed young women to rebuild their lives and become productive members of society.
Within one year in 1998, TRY saw a need to expand the program. The first ten residents were court mandated young women with arrest records for prostitution. Every one of these young women had been sexually abused as a child before she became involved in prostitution. TRY expanded the scope of the program to extend the preventative arm of service. The young women who had suffered the street life informed this expansion; their stories called for early intervention in the lives of young women who suffered abuse and exploitation therefore, becoming at risk of being drawn into the violent cycle of prostitution. This recovery and preventative mission underpins the TRY Program's work today. Today, the TRY residence includes ten individual bedrooms, a community-centered environment with spaces for group and individual recreation, counseling, intervention workshops, shared meals and study. TRY comfortably shelters homeless young women between the ages of 16 and 21 who possess a desire to change their lives. Take a photo tour of our facility on this page.
TRY residents are court-mandated, agency-referred or self-referred. Many of these young women left home to escape abusive situations or were put on the streets by their parents or other family members. Over half are victims of child incest; many are suffering from alcohol or drug addictions. Some of the young women come into the program with sexually transmitted diseases which they are unaware they have contracted. When they enter the program, ninety percent of the women do not have a high school diploma, GED or positive job experience. Once they enter the program they commit to returning to school or a GED program. Generally, girls stay in the program between 6 months to a year. In this safe home, young women rediscover dignity, begin to trust relationships and work with a caring staff which enables them to make positive decisions resulting in independent lives. Here at TRY, young women have a chance to reflect on their lives safe from the streets, bolstered by their own personal commitment to make a better life for themselves through education, medical and psychological care, recreation, exploration of arts, and participation in meaningful community service. They interact daily with peers and adults—staff members and volunteers—who encourage growth, change and good humored well-being.
Since TRY opened its doors in 1997, close to 390 young women have been in residence. Many other young women have been interviewed and referred elsewhere. The young women who are accepted into the TRY program are those who realize that they need to make a positive change in their life and are motivated to do so in TRY's structured living environment.
Nettie:Sometimes I think about what I accomplished while being at TRY and even I cant believe it. I know I never would have graduated high school and college would still be a dream. I think I've learned to trust people and trust in myself. I'm planning on coming back and helping with TRY fundraisers because I think it would be really cool to have a whole bunch of TRYs all over the neighborhood!
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Laura:I never valued my life as much as I do now ---no one around me cared if I was a good person or not. That is an incredible pain---and I know that pain each moment as I still try to trust myself and others. Yeah, I have a GED and I have completed some rehab and I am at TRY, taking some college courses I have been clean for a while, I have done my jail time and most of all I'm alive.
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Stephanie:My experience at TRY changed the way I look at myself and my future. After living at TRY with the staff and the residents, I was able to overcome some huge obstacles I'd been dealing with for a very long time, and TRY was the reason I'd started my journey. The staff taught me the skills I needed, like how to communicate effectively, balance a budget, manage my time, and in general, organize my life. But more importantly, TRY empowered me to make the changes in my life that I desperately needed to make, and because of the program and the extremely caring staff, I can say that that I'm happier and living a much more fulfilled life than I ever thought I could have.
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