We invite you to listen to a firsthand account from CloseKnit board member Debbie Ryan.
Our Breakthrough Approach…
for addressing youth homelessness is love. We all need love—and young people who are fending for themselves with no stable place to call home especially need love. Of course they also need a roof, and a diploma, and a job, but what they most need is a caring adult who believes in them and will be there for the long haul.
And here’s the thing: those caring people are already in their lives. They’re the adults they turn to that first night they can’t sleep at home—their best friend’s mom, their neighbor, the cousin who lets them crash on a basement couch. We believe these relationships have staying power, and we’re catalyzing system change in order to invest in them.
HOW WE WORK
is it really true that this youth has no one? Learn about our Circle Map exercise.
to youth describe supportive connections forged with adult hosts. Hear what youth told us.
both the joys and challenges that adults who host youth face. Hear what hosts have to say.
innovative strategies to support informal hosting. Learn about our pilots.
how to help youth build circles of support. See how we share.
the healing power of relationships!
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FUND OUR WORK
CloseKnit is grateful for generous support from donors committed to our vision of loving youth out of homelessness!
CLOSEKNIT IN THE NEWS
To ease reentry, help the hosts who offer their couches
Dr Stacey Ault, assistant professor of social work at Sacramento State University, offers her perspective as a scholar working with CloseKnit to analyze our interviews with caring adult hosts–as well as a black mama who has herself hosted many young people grappling with housing instability. Read her opinion piece in Youth Today!
Listen up! CloseKnit is on the air
We welcomed the opportunity to appear on the KFAI public affairs show Truth to Tell. Featuring CloseKnit director Jacqueline White; Cindy Ley, executive director of Open Doors for Youth, a drop-in resource for youth facing homelessness in Elk River; and Amy Perez, who participated in the Twin Cities GLBT Host Home Program as a youth. Now archived: Take a listen!
