By Lorraine Meier

Dawn and Ron Stueckle, the brains behind Sunset Youth Services (SYS), got the inspiration for the non-profit organization when they were youth pastors at a church, where many young people were facing arrests and ongoing family conflict.

The Stueckles supported these young people by following them into systems – including juvenile justice, child welfare and foster care – that were affecting them. It quickly became clear the needs exceeded what the church alone could provide.

So, in 1992, they started SYS as “a response to the things we saw that were lacking in the lives of kids and families we were working with,” Dawn said.

The mission of SYS is to foster long-term stability and growth in high-risk youth and families through caring relationships and supportive services.

Working primarily with youth – ages 14 to 24 years old – and young adults and families, this support system focuses on teenagers, young adult parents and parents of teenagers.

“A lot of our work is supporting kids in finishing their probation commitment, and many of the programs are focused on how to get life skills and livable wage opportunities into the hands of kids, so they don’t make bad decisions,” Dawn said.

One of SYS’s programs is Roots and Recipes, a cooking program SYS has developed for youth in juvenile hall.

“The kids all choose a recipe that is meaningful to them,” Dawn said. “It can be a dish made with their abuelita or an auntie. They discuss what comfort is, why this dish means home. They talk about it; they tell their stories and then each week they cook one of those recipes.

“Cooking is great because not only does it provide them with skills to get restaurant jobs, but it also gives them the skills needed to take care of themselves and eat healthy,” Dawn continued.

These recipes, and the stories behind them, are being documented and collected into a cookbook.

“The kids will all have a copy of the cookbook,” Dawn said. “This is a project that they can be proud of.”

Part of the goal of SYS is for youth receiving these services to be able to be competitive with peers in the marketplace. Other programs inside juvenile hall include a music studio where they offer courses in beat-making, songwriting and recording for very young parents.

“The studio gives them access to technology that they often don’t have,” Dawn said.

Another piece of what they do is the Sunset Sound Academy.

“It teaches the kids how to run a live stage and sound for festivals,” Dawn explained. “They are getting first-hand experience with putting together the stages for all the night markets and both stages at the Union Street Fair.

“Because SYS own stages and sound gear, the kids learn to put the stages up, set up and run the sound and MC if needed,” Dawn said. “Those skills could eventually lead to jobs in the theater district and possibly union jobs for stage production.

“A lot of what we do is relational and then we have these things that we offer for support,” she said. “We have a grief circle called The Art of Grief where we work specifically with bereaved youth and families focusing on loved ones lost, racialized grief and young people that have experienced street violence and incorporating art into the sessions.”

The nonprofit, which has been based on Judah Street and 44th Avenue, recently opened a new location on Moraga Street and 38th Avenue that focuses on family support. It hosts a weekly diaper bank and a place for parents to drop in at a certain time with their children, offering the kids a place to play with toys they do not have at home and an opportunity for the parents to get some respite.

Sunset Youth Services has served approximately 500 individuals; among them nearly 100 young people who were engaged in job training and employment, 100 families accessed family support services and 134 youths participated in digital arts programs while in juvenile detention, according to latest information released from the 2021 fiscal year.

More than 95% of formerly incarcerated young people who receive community services, such as those offered at SYS, do not reoffend.

SYS is funded by grants and donations. Currently they need food support, Dawn said, with Safeway and Target gift cards being preferable.

Sunset Youth Services is located at 3918 Judah St. More information is available at sunsetyouthservices.org.