Thunder Valley Youth Shelter is an emergency shelter for at-risk children ages eight to twelve on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. It is designed to accomodate 12 children (six boys and six girls) at one time. The purpose of the shelter is to provide emergency and short term housing to asist children in re-uniting with their Lakota relatives. This target population is comprised of youth involved in suicide attempts, truancy, drug/ alcohol abuse and violence. These youth typically come from multiple living situations due to parental problems with drug and alcohol abuse, criminal activity, marital/relationship discord, economic stressors, and mental illness. These youth may have also experienced the death or long-term incarceration in jail or prison of a parent.
The Pine Ridge Indian Reservation encompasses one of the poorest counties historically in the entire United States. There is a direct linkage between this systemic poverty and the historic trauma suffered by generations of Lakota since the first treaties were signed. Resulting from this is a multitude of social stressors including housing shortages, overcrowding, substance abuse, sexual abuse, teenage pregnancies, teen suicides and violence. Too often, young children are victims of dysfunctional and abusive environments and are in dire need of emergency shelter, care, kindness, and protection.

The Thunder Valley CDC Youth Shelter seeks to fulfill this need.