Statistics and facts regarding homelessness in Massachusetts. Photo taken off the YouthHarbors website.
Malden’s Promise has provided the city with a network to collaborate and communicate. It is funded by a Department of Elementary and Secondary Education grant. They aim to lower the dropout rate and find a way for organizations in the community to come together and talk about important issues.
Recently Malden’s Promise has been partnering up with organizations in hopes of bettering the community. Before it was The Triangle Project and now it is YouthHarbors. YouthHarbors works to help homeless high school students who, statistically, are more likely to drop out. With YouthHarbors’ help, Malden recently hosted a panel talking about youth and family homelessness.
At the panel many representatives from Malden attended including Mayor Gary Christenson and State Legislators. They attended to learn about the different services that are offered by the many other organizations at the panel including the Malden Housing Authority, the Department of Transitional Assistance, and Action for Boston Community Development.
Many important subjects were discussed. They touched on the traumatic experience of being homeless. Not only that but having to depend on other factors like temporarily staying with a family or friend, staying at a shelter, wanting to leave a dangerous situation, and having to roam the streets at night with nowhere to go.
They also talked about the causes that make homelessness a problem, including food security, access to healthcare, education, immigration, and employment support. They also talked about ways to help families that are experiencing or even anticipating homelessness.
They then talked about how it might be difficult to find a place to start in the search of a way to get out of homelessness. Sometimes individuals and families are confused in where they should reach out to. There were many resources mentioned that talked about homelessness prevention and housing assistance specific to youth and families. Those mentioned and additional ones can be found here.
If you are interested in knowing more about Malden’s promise they meet every third Thursday of the month at 3:00 PM. The address is 200 Pleasant Street and they have the meetings in the Mayor’s Office Conference Room on the 6th Floor.
