nothin “Welcome Home” | New Haven Independent

Welcome Home”

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United Way volunteers and partners came together Friday to make welcome home baskets” filled with bed sheets, cleaning supplies, and handwritten cards in a day of action to help end youth homelessness.

The United Way Day of Action was held at United Way of Greater New Haven’s offices at 370 James St. in Fair Haven.

The event came at the midpoint of a statewide 100 Day Challenge to End Youth Homelessness. According to a press release put out by United Way, so far 51 homeless young adults and children under the age of 25 have been housed in New Haven since in the last 50 days.

United Way’s full press release about the youth homelessness day of action follows:

NEW HAVEN — United Way volunteers and local agencies joined forces Friday morning to take on youth homelessness in our region. The morning of service, called United Way Day of Action, was sponsored locally by Jordan’s Furniture. It had two major parts: assembling Welcome Home Baskets for formerly homeless youth and strategizing how local organizations can work better together to make sure no young person is living on the streets.

A Warm Welcome Home

The work to start building the Welcome Home Baskets began weeks ago when United Way put out the call to local companies to run drives for both household and personal hygiene items. Yale New Haven Health, Bilco, Laticrete, Burt Process, Village at Mariner’s Point, KX Technologies, Dimeo Construction, PolyOne, United Way’s Women United Group, and West Haven & Orange Chamber’s Women in Business Group all collected items for the drive.

Then this morning volunteers gathered to create the baskets at United Way offices. They organized the items and filled the baskets with essentials we take for granted — such as bed sheets, laundry baskets, and cleaning supplies. Volunteers also took time to write handwritten welcome home cards that were included in the baskets. Then volunteers packed up their vehicles and delivered everything to Youth Continuum’s Drop-In Center for homeless youth in New Haven.

How Do We Come Together To End Youth Homelessness?

While all the volunteer work was happening in one part of the United Way offices, another group of local homelessness experts gathered to strategically work on the big issue: ending youth homelessness. This is no easy task, but United Way, working with partners, have helped local organizations work smarter to house youth as part of the statewide 100 Day Challenge to End Youth Homelessness. In fact, this Friday marks the midpoint of that challenge, and so far 51 homeless young adults and children under the age of 25 have been housed in our community. This work began in May.

Brigida Cruz, 20-years-old, joined for the day’s events and spoke about her own experience as a young person living on the streets, and how shelter helped her.

After I got sheltered, I got my first job ever. I got my first car. I was able to focus so much because I was in an apartment. I also graduated while I was at the shelter.”

Brigida credits being sheltered with her success, as she embarks on her college career. Since she’s been stably housed, Brigida holds down two jobs, while taking classes at Gateway Community College.

Brigida also participates in a statewide group that comes together to help change big picture policies.

I’m taking a step to end youth homelessness — my lived experience could help save another person,” said Brigida.

United Way’s Day of Action is a global day of volunteerism where people and organizations around the world come together and take action to address a variety of community challenges.

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