4 Troubled Teens Blog

For some kids, following in dads footsteps means board meetings and corner offices. For Alex Siniari and his brothers, following their father put them on the streets and in other less-than-desirable locations, all in the effort to locate and identify homeless and runaway teens in and around Atlantic City, New Jersey.

A June 21 column by Monica Yant Kinney of the Philadelphia Inquirer told the story of the Siniari brothers and their father, Steve, who is an Albanian Orthodox priest:

For years, Father Steve, who lives in Haddonfield, took his kids to work with him. "I told my wife I was in the chapel," he says. "She never knew I was taking them into housing projects and hanging around prostitutes."

Mike, the oldest, became a history professor. Alex never finished college, drifting between bartending and selling cars. "Nothing I was doing had any meaning or value."

In 2005, Alex applied for a job at Covenant House secretly, not sure he wanted it or how his father would react. [Covenant House is a privately funded program that serves homeless teens and young adults. Father Steve has worked there for years].

Since then, the younger Siniari married a coworker and landed a promotion. Today, as outreach coordinator, Alex is technically his dad's boss.

"Father Steve knows the streets, the kids, the issues," Covenant House New Jersey site director Brian Nelson told the Inquirer. "I see him mentoring Alex to take over."

Labels: homelessness, outreach

Posted By: Aspen/CRC