SailFuture reveals next steps

SailFuture hosted a “Welcome Home” party on July 16 at Sarasota Yacht Club for their new sailboat. The boat was donated to the organization and was docked in Turkey. It recently finished its journey to Florida.

Despite the boat not being able to make the journey from St. Petersburg to Sarasota for the event, donors, volunteers, graduates and friends of the organization enjoyed a night of celebrating the accomplishments and next steps of SailFuture.

An alternative to incarceration for at-risk youth, SailFuture was founded in 2012 by Michael Long.

Long announced to the crowd that SailFuture will now be a partner of Eckerd, one of the nation’s largest child and family service organizations that partners with case management groups.  Long said that on the path for at-risk youth, one that includes adoption and foster care, SailFuture sits toward the end. They aren’t a jail, but they aren’t a foster home.

“We come in when nobody else does,” he said.

In addition to their new partnership, SailFuture is also building a home on the bay of St. Petersburg for their participants. The house, which will be completed in August, will be open to participants following their time on the boats until they turn 18.