Beyond Shelter: A Bold New Vision for the Children's Receiving Home.

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If a child in our community had nowhere safe to go tonight, where would they sleep?

I'm speaking with Glynis Butler-Stone, CEO of the Children’s Receiving Home of Sacramento, and Amber Robbins, a nonprofit leader whose own childhood was spent navigating violence, foster care, and multiple stays at the Receiving Home. Together, we explore an 80-year legacy that has quietly supported tens of thousands of kids in their darkest moments—and the funding crisis that now threatens that work.

Glynis shares how the Children’s Receiving Home evolved from a World War II–era shelter into a six-acre campus offering crisis shelter, residential mental health treatment, a trauma-informed preschool and suicide prevention outreach. Amber brings the lived experience—what it felt like to be ripped from her mother’s arms, to land at the Receiving Home in the middle of the night, and to finally feel safe enough to sleep.

We also talk honestly about the policy changes that now limit them to serving just 16 children at a time, leaving 70+ beds empty while kids in our region sleep in cars, police stations, and out-of-county placements. And we dig into the bold vision to reinvent the campus as a housing and healing hub for transition-age youth and families in crisis—if the community can help bridge the funding gap.

If you care about foster youth, childhood trauma, or what real safety and dignity can look like for kids, this conversation will stay with you.

We'll cover:

• How the Children’s Receiving Home grew from a wartime shelter in 1944 into a mental health and healing campus serving an estimated 80,000 children over 80 years
• The reality of abuse, violence, and protective custody from a child’s point of view—and why Amber says the Receiving Home was the first place she truly felt safe
• The current continuum of care: emergency shelter, residential treatment, the Sprouts trauma-informed preschool, and suicide prevention and housing support for foster and former foster youth
• The impact of federal and state legislation that capped capacity at 16 youth, leaving dozens of beds empty while need is rising
• A collaborative effort with nine local nonprofits to map gaps in services and reimagine the campus for transition-age youth (18–24), survivors of domestic violence, trafficking, and other crises
• The dream of a “Life Academy” where young adults can learn the basics of living on their own—financial literacy, cooking, cleaning, job readiness, and more
• Why private philanthropy, corporate partners, and individual donors are essential to raising $1.5 million in bridge funding to carry this vision into 2026

Learn more & get involved. Visit the website https://crhkids.org/

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