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END YOUTH HOMELESSNESS
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Covenant House is one of only a handful of centers for youth overcoming homelessness and survivors of human trafficking that offer residential services and holistic care to young families. If you are a young parent in need of care, see below how we can help; then visit the Our Houses page on this website to find a Covenant House near you. Please note that not all Covenant House locations offer services for young families.
Today, we are launching new initiatives to provide an enhanced model of comprehensive care focused on improving long-term outcomes to break the cycle of homelessness for the young families in our care.
Covenant House is committed to helping young families transform their lives — not just for the time they are with us, but for a lifetime.
Homelessness is extremely traumatic for young families, often leading to serious and lifelong effects for the child and the parent. Young children are particularly vulnerable as the first five years of a child’s life are critical for brain development. Early experiences of homelessness place parents and children at a higher risk for a range of challenges, from pregnancy-related deaths, to chronic illness, to developmental delays, to repeated bouts of homelessness as they grow older.
Pregnant and parenting youth need 24/7 support to heal from the traumas that led to their homelessness. More than half our young parents and their children emerge from our crisis care program to independent and stable living situations; that figure rises to more than 75% for those young people who journey with us from short-term residency through our longer-term transitional living program, known as Rights of Passage. Our experience — and our data — demonstrate that when young people remain with us for an extended period of time and feel supported in our care, the more likely they are to achieve independence.
Pregnancy and parenting are common among young people facing homelessness, more so than among their stably housed peers.
About 44% of young women and 18% of young men, ages 18-25, who face homelessness report being a parent or pregnant. Every year hundreds of thousands of children — up to 1.1 million in the U.S. in a recent year — live with a parent who is unhoused or facing homelessness. Yet young families experiencing homelessness find there are few options for safe shelter and services for them.
When we welcome a young parent into one of our houses, we provide a host of wraparound services that both respond to their immediate needs and support them while they work on acquiring skills and knowledge that will allow them to build a stable life for themselves and their children.
The trauma-informed care our highly trained staff offers is the product of more than 50 years of experience serving young people facing homelessness. Each Covenant House site that operates a young families program tailors their services to the parents and children in their care.
Help Provide housing and care for young families
Your gift today can provide direct care, housing, and wellness to young families facing homelessness.
Donate NowYet, young families experiencing homelessness find there are few options for safe shelter and services for them. They need everything—food, clothing, shelter, medical care, and safety, plus education, vocational training, and life skills to achieve a secure future for themselves and their children.
Care is critical. Without it, their children are at higher risk for a range of issues, from developmental delays to repeated bouts of homelessness as they grow older, and the young parents themselves go untreated for the trauma and other issues that drove them to and have kept them homeless.
Covenant House is one of only a handful of youth homeless shelters that offer housing and holistic care to young families.
When we welcome a young mom or dad into one of our houses, we provide a host of wraparound services that both respond to their immediate needs and support them while they work on acquiring skills and knowledge that will allow them to build a stable life for themselves and their children. Last year, we welcomed 314 young parents and 387 children and babies to houses across our network.
Family services typically include:
Case management
Child care
Child immunizations
Clothing
Crisis care and short-term housing
Early intervention referrals
Education
Emotional/social support
Family reunification, if safe and desired
Financial literacy
Food
Health assessments
Health insurance
Job readiness
Legal documents
Life skills
Medical/mental health care
Parenting skills
Substance use treatment
Transitional and permanent housing
Workforce development
Success Stories:
Our commitment to caring for young families is making a remarkable difference. Learn about some of our young parents and their children who transformed their lives: