LAWRENCE — A local organization is working to help combat homelessness among the youth in Marion County.
Outreach Inc. has been around for 26 years serving homeless youth between the ages of 14 and 24. According to the organization, there are roughly 7,800 homeless youth living in Indianapolis alone.
There has also been a 19 percent increase in students who are now facing homelessness in the Lawrence Township School District, which is why they recently opened a new satellite location and resource center inside the Lawrence United Methodist Church.
"We really keyed in on the fact that this is an underserved area,” Andrew Neal the CEO, Outreach Inc said. “There are indicators of youth homelessness and for us our program centers that currently exist are just too far away. "
The Non-profit serves around 700 homeless youth every year. Back in 2018 Kendra Hathaway was one of those youth the organization served. She’d been homeless on and off since she was 12 years old.
“I was sleeping under park benches,” Hathaway said. “I was, you know, trying to stay close to the library, trying to stay close to school. I was using the bus line sleeping at the transit center, sleeping at my friend's sheds, sleeping over at their houses when I could."
Hathaway says the teachers and other adults in her life didn't recognize the signs that she was homeless when she was a teen, mainly because recognizing when a child is homeless can be difficult.
She didn’t use the resources the Outreach Inc. provides until she was 23.
"If you talk to a young person who has been kicked out of their parents home and they are staying with a family member or friend, they may or may not identify themselves as homeless,” Neal said. “The reality is they do not have a permanent or safe place to call home. "
That's why Outreach Inc. works with schools to help identify youth impacted by homelessness. Their resource centers, give youth a place to shower, do their laundry, eat and have access to the internet so they can apply for jobs or get necessary documents they need to get back on their feet.
"It changed my life really honestly,” Hathaway said. “I mean I was able to enroll in college. I was able to get a place in a shelter for almost a year until I was housed so that I didn't have to stay in my car with my kids. Outreach helped me navigate all of that. "
The graph below shows the increase in the number of youth the non-profit has served since 2019. Those numbers are why advocates say this expansion in Lawrence in necessary to helping youth most at risk of slipping through the cracks.
"Anybody can be homeless,” Hathaway said. “We are all way closer to homelessness then we are to being a millionaire."
The Lawrence center will be open on Thursdays from 4-7 PM with a goal of opening more days in the future. For more information about Outreach Inc. Click here.
