At 26, Tanya Ocampo is the picture of accomplishment. She’s a medical assistant for an orthopedic surgeon in Everett. She serves on the board of directors for Cocoon House, the local agency that helps homeless teenagers. Her teen years were a vastly different picture.
From 14 to 17, she was homeless. Ocampo said she once slept on buses, in motel rooms, and under bridges.
She was back outside Monday morning until early Tuesday — for 25 hours. Her bed Monday night was a sleeping bag on a blue tarp on the ground. With Cocoon House CEO Cassie Franklin and Sean Straub, vice chairman of the agency’s board, Ocampo took part in the organization’s “25 Hours in Honor of 25 Years.”
They camped outside the Cocoon House headquarters on Everett’s Pine Street. The event was staged to raise awareness of teen homelessness and to bring in donations to the agency, which was founded in 1990 by Sarri Gilman.
Near the trio’s sleeping area, a sign said: “This is no place for a teen’s bedroom.”
Julio Cortes, Cocoon House public relations manager, said teens on the streets come from across the economic spectrum. “They’re hard to see,” Cortes said. “They’re couch surfing or moving around in cars. It’s a challenge to raise awareness.”
Along with this week’s camp-out, Cocoon House has another initiative to bring attention to kids without safe places to stay. Back-to-school shoppers at Everett Mall are seeing four mannequins, known as “Somebodies,” that at first appear to be teens wearing sweatshirts and jeans.
One faceless figure, dressed in a sweatshirt that says “I’m Too Afraid to Go Home,” sits next to a Cocoon House sign stating that “over 40 percent of homeless youth have been physically abused by a caretaker.”
The mannequins, which Cortes said will be at the mall through Monday, shed light on the many reasons teens might become homeless. Part of a Cocoon House campaign called “Take a Closer Look,” the figures were displayed last summer in downtown Everett.
Describing its mannequin effort and the plight of many area youth, the Cocoon House website says 2,500 students were reported as homeless last year by Snohomish County schools.
Ocampo remembers being a homeless girl.
In this column a year ago, she told how she was 14 when she left her Snohomish-area home. She said she experienced violence and didn’t feel safe. She called Cocoon House for help, but left the shelter many times as she resisted its rules and structure. During those high-risk years, she slept where she could, including on the floor of a place where others used methamphetamine.
By the time she was 17, her mother had died. Determined to build a better future, she accepted the help of Cocoon House, which became her home. She got serious about education and completed her medical assistant training.
Early Tuesday, Ocampo, Franklin and Straub made a short video about their 25-hour experience. “Some of the fear came back,” Ocampo said on the video, recalling times when she was truly homeless. During the camp-out, she missed having a shower, a toothbrush and a place to sleep comfortably.
“But that’s just a fraction of the reality of what some people have to go through every single day and every single night. I’ll never forget that,” Ocampo said.
Franklin, who is also an Everett City Council member, knows that spending one night outside the agency she leads is nothing like what kids served by Cocoon House have experienced. “We had safety just a few steps away,” Franklin said Wednesday. During the hours outside, Franklin thought of some 30,000 young people who have been helped during the quarter-century of Cocoon House. The agency provides housing, homelessness-prevention programs, a drop-in center, a home for young mothers, and more.
“What’s heartbreaking is to think what they have been through, what’s at risk,” Franklin said. “I had these images, and the names of all these kids. I hope we can continue to make a difference. I hope we can do more.”
Julie Muhlstein: 425-339-3460; jmuhlstein@heraldnet.com..
How to help
Learn about Cocoon House or donate to the nonprofit at: www.cocoonhouse.org/
“An Evening in Silk,” the 11th annual dinner and auction to support Cocoon House, is scheduled for 6-9 p.m. Sept. 30 at Tulalip Resort Casino, 10200 Quil Ceda Blvd., Tulalip. Tickets $100 at: www.cocoonhouse.org/silk-2016/
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