By Mandy Lancaster, Waypoint’s Director of the Homeless Youth and Young Adult Department

Ramona was living out of her car and working three jobs, while trying to attend college. With a family struggling with mental illness and other issues, she had no one to lean on, no support. Eventually it got to be too much, and she left college. Trying to figure out what to do – she found Waypoint and our emergency shelter and began the next steps to find a path forward.

While we are thankful to have a range of services to support youth like Ramona – being homeless results in long-term negative impacts. Inadequate food, increased chance for violence, risky behaviors to make it through a night – this has consequences on health and mental health and makes going to school or holding down a job difficult to impossible. Research has found that every day a young person is homeless – the harder it is for them to find and maintain future stability.

Imagine the impact if we could intervene before a youth is homeless and prevent those long-term consequences? At Waypoint, we are piloting a project to do just that.

Waypoint was one of 10 inaugural organizations across the country selected to receive funding from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Family and Youth Services Bureau to create and test strategies to prevent youth homelessness. Waypoint’s three-year pilot program is focused on Manchester and began with a a planning process in October 2023 and launched in May 2024.

We are collaborating with many organizations and community members to identify youth between the ages of 12 and 17 who are at risk for homelessness but have intact families, whether that family was comprised of a parent, adult relative or other adult guardian. Services are entirely voluntary, and we have worked to keep the barrier to participation low so we can reach as many youths and their families as possible.

Prevention efforts include flexible cash assistance to cover short-term financial emergencies and supportive services. One strategy we are piloting is therapeutic mentoring for youth using a positive youth development framework. This is focused on helping youth understand and build upon their strengths. High quality and effective mentoring have been shown to help youth achieve greater academic success, have healthier relationships, and view their future more positively.

Waypoint hopes to work with 100 youth over the course of the pilot program. As the director of the Homeless Youth and Young Adult Department at Waypoint, I envision success if half of the youth served are prevented from becoming homeless, another 35 continue to engage in services to prevent future homelessness, and the remaining 15 are immediately connected to  Waypoint’s Homeless Youth and Young Adult services when prevention strategies are not effective. If 75 youth increase their self-sufficiency and stability through our prevention efforts, the benefits to both the youth and society are huge. They have a path forward to a brighter future and the cost to society for increased healthcare, criminal justice and emergency shelter is reduced.

Sometimes all it takes is an unaffordable car repair or a high heating bill to start a spiral that results in homelessness. Our goal is to identify youth and families at risk and provide support to help them navigate these challenges and stay housed. By identifying early risk factors that lead to youth homelessness – we can prevent homelessness.

With the spotlight on clearing homeless populations from public spaces, programs to prevent homelessness in the first place are essential. We are honored that Waypoint has been selected to implement a youth homelessness prevention program in Manchester and hope that this will serve as a model across NH and in the country.