Katherine Meerse (Executive Director for Avenues) and Shrey Pothini (Student Volunteer) sit down with host Craig Pratt to discuss the current state of affairs surrounding LGBTQ Youth Homelessness in Minnesota…Katherine shines a light on the the following statistics:

 

• On any given night 6,000 youth in Minnesota are homeless and unaccompanied
• Overall homeless in Minnesota increased 10% between 2015 2018
• African Americans, Native Americans and youth who identify as LGBTQ are over represented in the homeless population
• Avenues supports over 300 young people experiencing homelessness every year
• 78% of youth move into stable housing  when they leave Avenues

 

Katherine also shares her personal and professional journey that led her to Avenues.

 

Shrey, 15, of Savage, has been collecting towels to donate since he was 4, and has now named his campaign Towels for Teens. On his most recent birthday, he collected over 1,900 bath towels to donate. It has become his annual tradition. Shrey’s generosity and his boundless energy for doing good, as it turns out, are highly contagious. By third grade, he was organizing his very first service club at his elementary school—which is still going strong with 60 to 100 participants every year. Since then, other schools in the district have created clubs of their own.

 

You can learn more about Avenues at https://avenuesforyouth.org/