By Greg Woodman
Not every act of love makes the front page. In fact, some of the most meaningful stories are the ones that never get told – not because they’re not powerful, but because they’re too tender, too personal, or too complicated to share in a headline. But if we want to understand what nonprofits like the Centre County Youth Service Bureau (YSB) really do for our community, we have to look at these quiet moments. The ones filled with heart.
Recently, I heard a story from the team at YSB that stopped me in my tracks. A young adult who had once lived in one of their safe shelter programs passed away. Years had gone by since he’d been under their care, but when first responders found the Youth Service Bureau as the last known support system in his life, they reached out. The call came in unexpectedly as YSB’s CEO, Christine Bishop, was arriving at the office one morning last fall. Without hesitation, she drove to Bedford County to collect his personal belongings and returned to organize a small celebration of life for him. She and her staff wrote his obituary and gathered to remember and honor someone who had once called YSB his home and their youth advocates his family.
There was no funding line for that. No recognition, no press release. Just compassion. Just love.
It’s that kind of quiet, unwavering leadership that has carried YSB forward, even as the challenges grow. Funding is tighter than ever, and government support becomes less reliable by the day. Still, under Christine’s guidance, the organization continues to do the kind of work that can’t always be measured in metrics or showcased in annual reports.
While YSB runs a wide range of visible, vital programs – from shelter and counseling to parent education and mentoring – there’s a deeper layer that many in our community never see.
What most of us don’t realize is that Christine and her team aren’t just serving kids at community events, a week-long camp, or even over the course of a school year. The true, life-changing impact of their work comes through their ability to connect with children and teens who honestly thought that no one really cared about them. And that’s exactly what’s at the heart of their work. Once a child believes that there is at least one adult who cares about what happens to them, wants to know what they think, and takes the initiative to spend time with them, everything changes. Something shifts. New doors open. The trajectory of their whole life can change.
A common occurrence at any gathering of YSB youth is for everyone present – staff, volunteers, and youth – to share something positive, even if it feels small in the moment, as a way to focus on the good things in their lives. At a recent party held at the YSB office for youth who were gearing up to graduate high school, one young woman’s positive statement had the whole room in tears. After hearing a peer talk about finally passing their last math class, she very genuinely shared that before she came to live in YSB’s independent living program she honestly didn’t think she’d make it to her high school graduation. Not because she didn’t think she would pass her classes, but because her life had been so hard that she didn’t think she’d live past the age of 18. She literally couldn’t picture being an adult. And now here she was, ordering her cap and gown and planning her next steps after graduation.
These moments can be hard for an organization to talk about themselves. They involve privacy, nuance, and sometimes pain. But these stories also reflect the best of who we are. They remind us that a nonprofit isn’t just a place that provides services – it’s a place that offers dignity, hope, and human connection.
The best part of Christine’s job is when she’s speaking in public or chatting about what she does at a networking event. Often, someone sticks around to talk with her more privately. They share their own story of how YSB changed their life. These stories include the man who now owns a small business in our community who shared that having a YSB youth center to go to after school during his middle school years helped keep him out of trouble while his single parent was at work. They also include the professional close to retirement who called in to share how living at YSB’s group home while she finished high school and connecting with a Big Sister who kept in touch long after graduation meant the difference between dropping out of school and realizing her dream of becoming an educator. And then there’s the previous Big Brothers Big Sisters mentee who reconnected with the agency as an adult in order to help ensure that these services remain available to today’s youth stating, “(YSB) showed me what unconditional love is all about.”
There are dozens of stories like these coming out of the Youth Service Bureau. Each one is a reflection of what it means to lead with love. It’s not always flashy. It doesn’t always come with a photo op. But it changes lives, and it holds our community together in ways we don’t always see.
As neighbors, volunteers, donors, and champions, we can help lift up these stories. We can be the ones who say, “Look. This is what love in action looks like.” And we can make sure organizations like YSB never feel invisible in the incredible work they do.
To learn more https://ccysb.com/
