As the new NEPA Youth Shelter takes shape, executive director John W. Rosengrant says he can see the “light at the end of the tunnel.”
“When I got here…I was having a hard time seeing the forest through the trees,” he said. “Now, I’m beginning to see…there’s an end in sight.”
Rosengrant stepped into the role of director in the middle of several changes. Founder Maureen Maher-Gray was retiring, and the shelter’s after-school Teen Center was moving to a new home on Providence Road in Scranton after months of searching.
Construction on the new space is still underway. Rosengrant originally hoped it would be open by the time Scranton’s students went back to school.
“Normally I'm a very forward type of thinker, but this job has had me be very much in the moment,” Rosegrant said. “It's really been just focusing on the construction and making my number one priority to get it done as quickly as possible.”
The teen center now occupies a 3,500 square foot warehouse on Providence Road, across the street from the Glider Diner and a short walk from Scranton High School.
On a recent afternoon, Rosegrant and a small group of volunteers sorted through clothes and added more seasonal items to the center’s clothing closet. The closet is in the front half of the space, which is mostly complete.
There’s a food pantry stocked with snacks, drinks and hygiene items like deodorant and toothpaste. Now that school is back in session, Rosengrant says they’ve been giving out snacks and food in the parking lot after school.
“We go through a lot of snacks,” he said.
A couple of weeks into the school year, he said they’re seeing 60-70 students stop by every day, especially if they walk home from the high school.
Big shoes to fill: Director leading NEPA Youth Shelter into next chapter
Maher-Gray founded the NEPA Youth Shelter in 2016 to help homeless young people of all backgrounds find affordable housing and opened its Teen Center to create a safe space for teens from Scranton and West Scranton high schools.
Rosengrant served on the organization's board of directors and is the most recent president of the board. He says working with Maher-Gray closely over the years has helped him step into leading her creation.
“I have a lot of familiarity with the organization. What I was missing was the day-to-day stuff,” he said.
“Having to replace Maureen (Maher-Gray)…I think anybody coming into this position would be in an unfair position having to fill those shoes the way she did,” he said.
The Teen Center has been under construction throughout his tenure so far. Maher-Gray found the Providence Road location after Meals on Wheels of NEPA decided to sell the shelter’s original building on Wyoming Ave. in 2024.
Rosengrant has been able to do more than oversee construction since starting as director. For one, he said he has secured a partnership with Midwest Food Bank to help keep the food pantry stocked.
He hopes to continue finding those types of partnerships. He says the shelter has a strong “donor base,” who will give what they can or buy items from their Amazon wishlist, but he wants to make sure they have other organizations they can rely on.
“We don't want to 100 percent rely on our donors, because, you know, it's, it's a large undertaking,” he said. “So certainly the food bank partnership has helped in that regard.”
He said 80 percent of the organization’s funding was coming from donations when he started, and he was concerned about keeping donors loyal, especially in challenging economic times. But his concerns faded quickly.
“We are finding that a lot of those donors are still here because they believe in the mission,” he said. “We want to make sure that we’re not totally relying on our donors, but still being there to thank them when we need to.”
Volunteers look toward growth once construction dust settles
Anthony Pauline’s bike sits just inside the entrance of the teen center, surrounded by boxes.
He bikes from Moosic along the Lackawanna River Heritage Trail every day to volunteer at the NEPA Youth Shelter.
“I’ve been coming here over the summer, stopping by, helping put up the clothing areas, painting walls…sorting out the snacks and stuff and bringing the tables outside,” he said.
Pauline went to the original Teen Center on Wyoming Avenue when he was in high school. He said he can’t stay away from helping now that he’s graduated.
“It's like where I grew up when I was in school and stuff,” he said. “I just can't leave it.”
The new teen center, when it’s finished, may be a bit smaller than what Pauline experienced, but he’s hoping it will give current students the same comfort level he found.
“It gave me…people that I could talk to,” he said. “The workers, they would actually talk to me like they … care for me.”
A warehouse space in the back of the Teen Center is still unfinished. It’s where the center’s kitchen, lounge, pool table, air hockey table and recording studio will live.
The kitchen and cabinets are installed, but there’s still work to do on some of the walls. Tables, chairs and other furniture are piled in the middle of the space, waiting. Rosengrant says the area will soon look like the “hub” that Pauline would remember from the building on Wyoming Ave.
Rosengrant is looking forward to revealing the teen center’s new home to the community that has supported the NEPA Youth Shelter through its move. Then, once the dust settles, he has his eyes on expanding the shelter’s housing program.
The organization has always offered to help clients find affordable housing. They also own a three-apartment building in Scranton that they are able to provide at an affordable rate for youth at risk of homelessness.
“We can serve up to three kids because we own an apartment. I want to be able to serve 30 kids,” Rosengrant said. “That’s the kind of stuff I’m looking at. We’re going to have to explore different ways to be able to afford to do those type of things.”
For now, though, Rosengrant is watching the Teen Center come back to life with every strike of a hammer or buzz of a saw. The organization’s board is planning an open house to reveal the finished product to the community. Rosengrant hopes that it will happen by November.
“I’m really looking forward to how our service is going to transform from three tables outside under a tent to now having this entire space and being able to interact with the kids,” he said.
