Shari Silva-Compton, 50, gets goosebumps when she thinks about how desperate her life was in 2003. In fact, she said it’s a miracle she survived to tell the story.
It’s not an easy story to tell, as she said it carries a stigma with it. Silva-Compton is a survivor of domestic abuse and a hurricane of events that almost destroyed her family.
She said her ex-husband’s relapses with drugs and alcohol left her, a Bellevue mother of three, emotionally wounded, badly beaten, near homeless and facing financial ruin. During this chaos, her teenage son lost his will to live and attempted suicide – twice. Local police and school staff recognized the signs of abuse in the boy’s self-destructive and illegal behavior.
But today, Silva-Compton’s family isn’t broken. Far from it.
Thanks to counselors at the nonprofit, Youth Eastside Services (YES), her family was able to get free counseling to help heal, legal services for Silva-Compton’s divorce and protective orders, and advocacy to allow the woman and her children to get back on their feet.
In front of 800 audience members in a Hyatt Bellevue banquet room, Silva-Compton shared her story at the YES annual fundraiser – Invest in Youth Breakfast – Tuesday morning. If it hadn’t been for the free YES services, the engineer assistant at Puget Sound Energy said she may not have recovered from the trauma.
“When I met (YES counselor) Marsha Meyers [she] became my biggest fan and advocate, the only person during this time in my life who never walked away from or abandoned me and my boys,” Silva-Compton said.
One of the largest providers of youth and family counseling in Puget Sound, YES relies on donations to be able to provide its programs free of charge, which include substance abuse treatment, counseling, education and prevention. Last year, YES assisted 23,000 Eastside children – many of whom would not have had the means to pay. The nonprofit operates out of its Bellevue, Kirkland and Redmond locations, in addition to offering services in the Lake Washington and Bellevue School Districts and a few teen and community centers.
This year’s breakfast fundraiser was record-breaking for the nonprofit: more people attended and more donations came in than ever before, said Cami Keyes, YES Marketing and Communications Manager. With funds still coming in, YES has raised $455,000 so far, surpassing its $425,000 goal.
She said the fundraiser is also important because YES saw an unprecedented 28 percent increase in the cost of uncompensated care last year. In addition, key prevention programs lost funding due to government budget cuts.
Because of the stresses of the global recession, many problems in families such as depression, suicidal behavior and substance abuse in youth as young as elementary and middle school have only intensified, said YES Executive Director, Patti Skelton-McGougan.
Corinne Freeman, 18, was one of those young people. Freeman, another speaker at the event, described her struggle to find her self-worth that accompanied her former behavior, which included cutting and abusing alcohol. After dropping out of high school, she said it’s the nonjudgmental counselors and advocates she found at YES that have inspired her to pursue studies in psychology as a freshman at Bellevue College.
University of Washington Huskies Coach Lorenzo Romar, the third and final speaker, shared his story of reconciling his love for his father with the man’s alcoholism. Romar hopes to begin a project to assist struggling families and at-risk youth by opening a foundation similar to YES.
He also touched on his philosophy of guiding his Huskies to to be good people as well as great athletes, including the young man under investigation earlier this year. “The easy thing is to kick them off the team when they fall off track” the hard but important work is to help them make healthy, positive decisions, he said.
Donations for YES are still being accepted at www.youtheastisdeservices.org. Gifts of $500 and over made before May 15 will be matched dollar-for-dollar by other generous donors.
