GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — A new partnership in Grand Rapids is creating a path forward toward stability for youth experiencing homelessness— making it easier to connect them with vital resources to thrive.
AYA Youth Collective works to create a safe space with free laundry facilities, lockers to keep belongings and the chance to stock up on basic needs.
“We don’t want more youth to experience homelessness,” AYA Youth Collective CEO Lauren VanKeulen said. “We have two free meals a day. We have shower facilities…We have a nurse’s station. We have connections to mental healthcare, physical healthcare, psychiatry services.”
AYA Youth Collective says, since July, the amount of youth sleeping outside in the Grand Rapids area has increased to more than 200 every month. Reasons range from abuse and neglect to sexual orientation and more.
“We see, in this space here, between five-and-600 youth every single year. The young people that we see here are incredibly talented and resilient individuals who have run into some really difficult life situations,” VanKeulen explained. “Our goal is to just walk alongside young people wherever they’re at and support them on their journey to stability.”
Now, AYA is getting help from the Department of Health and Human Services, which now has a dedicated specialist working on site.
The partnership has already seen success in just its first three weeks— helping a young woman battling depressing and struggling to get access to benefits.
“She was able to get her healthcare crisis taken care of. She was able to get access to food benefits and many of our youth, including this particular young person, they were able to get food benefits often the very next day,” Vice President of Programs KJ Tucker said.
What was once a lengthy process and difficult to navigate is now much more promising on creating a path forward to stability for young adults.
“We’re able to reduce youth losing their access to healthcare and losing access to food benefits,” Tucker added. “And we’re also having youth being able to connect to these really amazing community resources now that we have [a partnership] with MDHHS.”
AYA Youth Collective helps people from ages 14-to-24. If you’d like to learn more about it or donate to it, click here.
Check out our list of community resources available to help in West Michigan.