Chicago Tribune, 9-2-99

TEEN'S ANGEL

By Janna L. Graber

For the past four years, Tamara White has pursued a most unusual

passion: hanging out with homeless teens and loving every minute of

it. White, 36, is director of the Prodigal Coffee House, a place she

describes as a "surrogate living room for Denver's street kids."

It is a job that fits her perfectly, White says. Yet there was a time

when she never would have imagined such a calling. Growing up in

Wichita, Kan., White says, she had aspirations of becoming a counselor

or missionary. "I didn't picture myself as a leader. And I never,

ever, wanted to become a youth worker."

Then a move to Chicago in 1982 opened White's eyes to the benefits

and challenges of life in the inner city.

"I came to Chicago to attend Moody Bible Institute," White says. "They

encouraged community involvement, and I started volunteering in

Montgomery Ward & Co.'s tutoring program at Cabrini-Green. A few other

students and I saw the need for more than just a tutoring program. So

we started up our own Big Bro/Big Sis mentoring program."

White met often with a little girl from the Chicago housing project.

"Maybe I was naive or just bold," White says, "but I often went to

Cabrini-Green alone. One day, I was coming down a stairwell and came

face to face with a known gang member. We were alone, and I was

afraid. But then he said to me, `You're Tamara White, the one who's

been teaching my cousin to read?' I nodded, and then he told me,

`Thank you.' He said I'd always be safe when I was at Cabrini.

"A few months later, I was in the yard playing with some kids when

someone ran up and told me that I should leave right away. A few

moments after I left, a gang fight broke out. That gang member kept

his word to me."

After her volunteer experience at Cabrini-Green, White knew that she

would never be able to spend her life pursuing a regular office job.

Instead, she wanted to continue working with the underprivileged in

the inner city.

"The people at Cabrini touched me as much as I touched them. I met

some of the most incredible people there, people living in difficult

situations showing strength and dignity. Women carrying groceries and

laundry up flights of stairs because the elevators were too dangerous,

people who took pride in handing down verbal stories and traditions.

They invited me so warmly into their homes."

But White's work wasn't easy. She was stalked, assaulted once and

surrounded by gangs. Watching such human suffering lived out by those

she cared for took its toll on White and her Christian faith.

"Here I was studying theology at Moody and then trying to reconcile it

with the human suffering I saw," she says. "It made me question my

faith, but I didn't believe God would abandon me in my doubts. Finally

one inner-city pastor told me, `Tamara, life is messy. Get dirty! You

can't keep things clean and controlled. Real faith has to touch

people's lives in their sorrow.' "

White kept that belief after she left school at Moody. She and two

friends started a group home in Chicago for single mothers and their

children.

Then four years ago, White moved to Colorado to begin graduate school.

She soon noticed the hundreds of runaway and homeless teens who live

on the streets of Denver. When someone suggested that she contact Mile

High Ministries, a non-profit coalition of suburban and inner-city

churches ministering together to the city's underprivileged, White

knew she had found a group with the same passion as hers.

"I began working with Mile High just as they were completing their

renovation on a row of former crack and prostitution houses. Someone

talked about putting a coffee shop into one of the homes. I got wind

of that and told them of my dream to start a coffeehouse for kids with

nowhere else to go," she says.

With the strong support of Mile High and hundreds of local volunteers,

the first floor of one of the renovated homes became the Prodigal

Coffee House. Filled with colorful murals, art supplies, comfy couches

and a gas fireplace, the cozy shop makes teens feel safe and welcome.

To staff the coffeehouse, White enlisted the help of trained

volunteers. Their only job is to befriend the teens most people want

to avoid.

But when the Prodigal opened on May 5, 1995, no one came.

"I wrote up coupons for the coffeehouse, and every night I went down

to where the kids hung out for a feeding. I'd hand coupons out and

invite kids to come," White says. "But no one showed up for two weeks.

Finally, four of the teens I had invited came by. One of them lectured

me for walking alone at night on the streets. We talked till 1 a.m.

"They told me their stories, tagged their names on the fireplace and

wrote up the rules of the coffeehouse that night. By the end of the

summer, kids knew about the Prodigal as soon as they hit the

streets."

White describes the Prodigal as a place where hurting and confused

kids can find refuge from the drug dealers, abuse and hassle of the

streets. The coffeehouse is open six nights a week, and each day 40 to

60 teens come in to talk, eat snacks, drink hot coffee, read and

listen to music. The coffeehouse celebrates Thanksgiving and Christmas

with huge sit-down dinners. And with the help of volunteer sponsors,

many of the teens go on an annual ski outing or take a camping and

rafting trip.

The Prodigal is open until only 10:30 p.m., and the young people are

not allowed to sleep there. Still, White and the staff are committed

to helping the youths (who range in age from 11 to 21) find ways to

meet their needs.

"We refer the kids to resources for housing, education, health and

counseling," White says. "We want to give them hope to pursue these

things. We don't want to be just one more referral line."

For many homeless Denver teens, White is part of the only family they

acknowledge. "The kids have called me their street mom. That is quite

an honor," says White, who is single.

Most of the homeless teens at the Prodigal have been on the street for

at least a year and don't use their real names. Many use drugs. Some

are pregnant or ill. Few are in school, and some are runaways. Almost

all of them live on the streets, under bridges, in abandoned

buildings. Many runaway or homeless teens mistrust adults, and they

have few places to turn for help. White's goal at the Prodigal is to

interrupt this destructive lifestyle by providing redemptive

friendship.

This year, the Prodigal and Mile High Ministries, which depend on

donations to operate, are hoping to open another coffeehouse on the

east side of the city, near many of the small motels that cater to

transients.

"You can't do anything in the midst of a sorrowful situation without

putting yourself at risk. You can't minister from a distance.

Sometimes the loss of certain kids affects me. Other times they make

me laugh. The kids are very generous. It makes me have hope for my own

life and goals when I see them pushing for theirs. I love watching

them give back. Several are quite creative: good pianists, poets, and

artists.

"The biggest reward is to see hope come alive in their eyes. Some seem

so vacant and hardened when they come in. To see them courageously

drop that mask at the coffeehouse is great. It's an honor to be a part

of this generation of youth. Many are wounded, but are loyal and

gifted. It gives me hope for what they will become."

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Mile High Ministries, 1520 Marion St., Denver, CO 80218, 303-839-5198