Michelle Cooper understands the challenges that homeless teens face, and she has also experienced how the local nonprofit Youth on Their Own can help. “It was not just the clothing and food that the monthly stipend helped us to buy that was so important, but it was the guidance and support — knowing that someone [...]
The Arizona Department of Economic Security has recently released its Homelessness in Arizona Annual Report for 2013 and the report data points are positive news for Arizonans. But approximately one out of every 235 or 27,877 in Arizona during FY 2013 experienced homelessness at sometime. A story by Arizona Daily Independent [...]
The number of Pima County homeless youth whose parents have been deported rose 50 percent in one year, a nonprofit advocacy group reports. There are more than 4,000 homeless youth in Pima County, and last year about 4 percent of them were children of deportees, twice as many as the previous year, according to Youth [...]
In Arizona there are thousands of teens and young adults who do not have a permanent place to call home. Arizona has a higher high school drop out rate than any other state, according to a national drop out report by the U.S. Department of Education’s National Center for Education published in January. Homeless and unaccompanied youth [...]
Recent studies estimate there are 4,000 youth in Pima County who lack a permanent home and are struggling to stay in school – experts say the actual number is higher because youth homelessness is under reported. Being homeless for young people means not having a permanent home. Bouncing around from family member to family [...]
A growing number of Tucson-area youths are becoming casualties of economic and family instability. Referrals to a local nonprofit program for homeless youths are up 60 percent this year. Nearly 1,000 Southern Arizona teens are enrolled in the Tucson-based Youth on Their Own, which group leaders believe is the highest number of young people [...]
As a young person, alone and living on her own since she was 16, Susanna Alvarez-Hadden knew that she liked helping other people. However at this time in her life, she needed support and was being helped by Youth On Their Own. Through the Youth On Their Own program, Susanna was able to complete [...]
Arizona ranks number one in the country for high school dropouts. Many of them are not troublemakers. Many of those kids are simply homeless. Youth on Their Own provides a lot of help for these students. The goal is to help them graduate. Read the full story here.
Kristen Bennett, Kathy Kang and other volunteers with Youth On Their Own – or YOTO – subscribe to the philosophy embraced by American educator and civil-rights leader Mary McLeod Bethune: “Invest in the human soul. It might be a diamond in the rough.” “We think the students are diamonds in the rough – they [...]