See Me Now - Teens without Homes

Bill Zeeble of KERA

As part of the National Coalition for the Homeless and National Student Campaign against Hunger & Homelessness' National Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week, here in Dallas, the MDHA Youth Committee held its annual See Me Now - Teens without Homes, event to highlight youth homelessness. Bill Zeeble of KERA excelled as the keynote speaker. He highlighted the tireless work of school districts in helping the most vulnerable of those experiencing homelessness, children. Piles of the Dallas Independent School District's homeless outreach program backpacks gave the assembled a real physical representation of the way too high numbers of youth experiencing homelessness in Dallas and Collin Counties.  

Our Friends Place, Resource Center Dallas, CitySquare TRAC, Viola's House, Promise House, CITY House, and Dallas ISD were all well represented at the event. It was led by MDHA Youth Committee Chair, Carla Cleeson of CitySquare TRAC, and its Vice Chair, Sue Hesseltine, of Our Friends Place. Sarah Carroll, of the City of Dallas, and a member of the committee, read an official proclamation by Mayor Mike Rawlings, designating the day of the event as Homeless Youth Awareness Day.

Carla Cleeson, Chair of the MDHA Youth Committee

The highlight of the event every year is the panel of teens, who tell their moving stories, usually still unfolding, about their struggles with homelessness. This year, the panel was particularly diverse, and even included an adult, our good friend, Paloma Belmarez, longtime employee of Promise House. She movingly recounted her journey from typical middle class child through teen experiencing homelessness to helping kids at the same program that helped her.

A Hard Conversation That Is Making a Real Difference for LGBT Youth

This last Friday MDHA presented its second installment in its series titled Hard Conversations. As Cindy Crain, MDHA’s President and CEO, explained it is part of MDHA’s role to facilitate conversations on difficult issues, and bring these to the forefront. For this session, MDHA’s co-sponsor was Transpride Initiative.

In this session, titled “One Organization's Journey Toward LGBT Competency”, Dr. Sean Allen and Alan Schonborn of ACH Child and Family Services in Fort Worth described the process their organization has been going through since they discovered in 2012, that the word on the street was that they were not a safe place for gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender youth. They wanted to be a safe and welcoming place for all homeless and runaway youth, so they began a hard conversation, first amongst their staff, and then involving all other relevant stakeholders. They took a long hard look at themselves as an organization, reviewed the research, and initiated a change process that shifted their culture from one of LGBT-rejection to one of LGBT-acceptance. Allen and Schonborn were extremely frank about the fact that though they had had some great successes, there still was work to be done.

Dr. Sean Alllen (Courtesy of Bill Zeeble, KERA)

Perhaps the key takeaway was that many obstacles may be overcome in this process, if the focus is on outcomes. They shared cutting edge research from Dr. Caitlin Ryan and her colleagues at the Family Acceptance Project, that has guided and continues to guide ACH in their process. This research, “has linked health, mental health and well-being – including risk for suicide, substance abuse and HIV, and positive outcomes such as self-esteem – to behaviors that parents and caregivers use to express acceptance and rejection of their children’s LGBT identity.” Allen shared key facts from this research about how rates of suicide, substance abuse and HIV drastically drop, if families and caregivers eliminate rejecting behaviors, and accept youth for who they are. Since these are desired results for families and caregivers, regardless of personal beliefs regarding sexual orientation and gender identity, this focus has greatly helped ACH make progress, and Allen feels this would be key for any other organization embarking on a similar journey.

You may listen to and/or read an excellent piece about this session, by our friend, Bill Zeeble, on the KERA website:  How A Fort Worth Homeless Shelter Changed To Help LGBT Teens