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 Tumbleweed Center for Youth Development
is a private, nonprofit agency founded in 1972 by
several civic service organizations to provide emergency
shelter and services for runaway youth. Our mission is
to serve abused, abandoned, troubled and neglected youth
in our community. Our goals are to assist these youth in
understanding and achieving their individual potential,
increasing their personal and social skills, and
creating the opportunity for them to become self
directed, socially responsible, and productive citizens.
 The Youth Crisis Shelter, a short-term crisis
intervention program for homeless and runaway youth ages
9-18, opened in 1975. This program provided the only
emergency shelter for non-system youth in Maricopa
County. Tumbleweed’s services expanded in 1980 to
include a detention alternative group home for boys and
in 1986 independent living for homeless youth was added.
We began street outreach services for homeless youth
living on the streets in 1990. In 2004 Tumbleweed began
developing group home unification services for Homeland
Security’s Office of Refugee Resettlement for
Unaccompanied Minors. We now have more than a dozen
direct service programs that provide a continuum of care
for over 3000 homeless, conduct disordered,
abused, abandoned, neglected, and at risk youth
annually, ages 11-22. In 2005, Tumbleweed was
awarded a contract to be the lead local agency in a
national project called Safe Place. National Safe Place.
Place is a nationally known organization that provides
access to immediate help and supportive resources for
young people in crisis through a network of sites
sustained by qualified agencies, trained volunteers and
businesses.
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