homelessness: 2 men with life jackets on in boat, smiling.

Seattle Counselor Sticks With Clients For Years In ‘Long Game’

By |

His 6-foot-4 frame folded into the small wooden sailboat, Keaton Hohl waved and shouted “Ahoy!” to each passing boat on Lake Union.

The trip was a chance for Hohl, who is 20 and experiencing homelessness, to have some fun on this cloudy August afternoon. But it was also an opportunity for him to talk about his drinking with Johnny Ohta, a chemical dependency counselor for homeless youth with Ryther, a mental health agency in Seattle. An avid sailor, Ohta is also a board member at the Center for Wooden Boats and often takes clients out sailing.

Partially gloved mittens holding a cardboard cutout of a house, with fuzzy background.

Youth Show Ways to Reshape Homeless Policy, Chapin Hall Researchers Say

By |

When Abrea Ponce, 25, looks back on her childhood, she realizes things could have been different.
The San Diego mother and staff member at the San Diego Regional Task Force on the Homeless spent her critical teen years moving from couch to couch, hotel to hotel to avoid sleeping on the street. The events that led her to become homeless began long before she was a teenager, she believes.

Homelessness Advocates Tell of New Successes Via State Legislation

By |

Some laws can make life exceptionally difficult for homeless and runaway youth. Whether it’s requiring parental consent to receive health care or demanding proof of residency to obtain a photo ID, unfriendly policies have left many service providers feeling frustrated and powerless to help. A small national nonprofit based in Washington is working to change that.

post-traumatic growth: brave boy walking on a wire above the metropolis

Post-Traumatic Growth: Hope Is a Strategy, Not a Feeling

By |

When a young person experiences trauma, there is no single answer regarding how that experience may impact them in their later years. Two 12-year-olds experiencing the exact same kind of trauma, for example, may have two very different responses — one crumbles and the other rises. One processes it deeply and the other suppresses it. One becomes a powerful force for change in the community and the other struggles to make their place in the world.