REACHing Out to Homeless Youth

The following guest column by Mark S. Pritchett, President/CEO of Gulf Coast, appeared in the December 15 edition of SRQ Daily:

I hope you’ve heard the good news that the Sarasota YMCA recently received a federal grant for a program it calls Street REACH. A project of the Y’s Schoolhouse Link program, Street REACH provides case management, mental-health counseling, and help with basic needs like clothes and transportation so unaccompanied homeless youth in our community can stay safe, find stable housing and become self-sufficient. REACH stands for “Reconnecting Employment, Academics, and Community Housing.” It represents another vital strand in the safety net for teens and young adults with no place to call home.

I’ve written about Schoolhouse Link in this column before, but there’s never enough space to do justice to the life-changing work led by program director Ellen McLaughlin and her staff. Through Street REACH alone, Schoolhouse Link aims to serve 130 homeless teens and young adults next year. With as many as 400 homeless 16- to 24-year-olds in Sarasota County on any given night, the program promises to meet critical needs.

The $132,000 grant secured by the Y is the latest achievement in a collective effort to create a true system of care for Sarasota’s homeless young people. The funding will sustain and expand start-up work that had been funded in part through Gulf Coast Community Foundation by a generous donor over the past two years.

Read the rest of Mark’s column in SRQ Daily…