Advancing Progress Toward Ending Youth Homelessness in the District

Last week, Maggie Riden, our Executive Director, had an opportunity to write a guest post for the Department of Human Services.

Here is an excerpt:

Last year, we got a call from a partner organization. They were working with a young mom of one year-old twins.

She’d connected with them to get help finding a GED and workforce program. Despite a lot of clear challenges, this was a young woman they described as highly motivated. She had a sense of agency and determination. She was thrilled when not only was she able to get into a GED program, but they could also help her access the childcare she’d need to make it possible to attend the classes.

At first, things were okay, but over the course of a few weeks things began to deteriorate very quickly. Attendance at school was slipping. Her twins weren’t making it to child care consistently. Things hit a tipping point, and she revealed to her education coach that she had been placed in one of the emergency motel rooms here in the District.

Read the rest of the post here.