Do1Thing Blog

The photography, interviews and production for this project for Do1Thing.org are by Katja Heinemann, who is represented by Aurora Select. Principal reporting done in New York, NY, February 14, 2009.

Griffin Kinard, 22, has been a poet and writer for the past five years. Born in Brooklyn, he spent his childhood and teenage years in a series of state institutions – larger residence programs for at-risk youths such as Children's Village in Dobbs Ferry, NY, and Green Chimneys in Brewster, NY. During the last four years before aging out of the system he found himself back in NYC, finishing high school while living in a Salvation Army group home for boys, The East Village Residency.

A 7-months stint in jail was followed by his 21st birthday, and a new commitment to writing.  He is a senior writer at Represent Magazine, a bi-monthly publication for and by youth in foster care by the non-profit www.youthcomm.org.  Griffin stays at his older sister's home in Harlem most nights, with occasional stints in drop-in shelters when the siblings argue.

For the past 5 months, Melissa, age 20, and Griffin have been a couple.  She is recovering from a history of institutionalization in group homes and psychiatric programs. Melissa says that for the first time in her life feels like she can love and trust somebody, and she also appreciates the help and guidance Griffin's sister Salena can provide for her.  The young couple fantasizes about getting married and getting a place of their own, providing a home for themselves, along with Salena and her boyfriend Anthony, if they can scrunch together enough money between the four of them.

www.katjaheinemann.com
www.auroraselect.com
Do1Thing.org
www.youthcomm.org"

The Covenant House, a residence for homeless teens is having an open house today from 9am to 5pm. The residence is located on 41st street just west of 9th avenue. We got to take a tour of the building with photographers.

In the 3rd floor common room, the walls are covered in drawings and paintings.

Board games line the shelves against a wall.

A resident is being interviewed by a Do 1 Thing photographer in the common room.

Xavier Garay, age 25 sleeps on a bench of a church in Seattle, WA on February 12, 2009 because the shelter for homeless teens was full. Next month he turns 26 and will age out of all services for homeless teens. “You have to have a sense of humor out here if you want to stay healthy.” he says.

Homeless teen David Buck, age 19 prepares to camp out under a bridge in Seattle on February 11, 2009. It is 32 degrees and he is suffering from a severe cold or flu. There is only one shelter in the area for homeless teens which is full, as it often is. David just wishes the cops would leave them alone. “The cops they all gang together like a bunch of bounty hunters and search for us, and write us citations. They kick us awake at 2am and tell us to get the hell out…. And we are scared out of our minds trying to get to sleep here because we’re afraid they’re just going to come rolling up. …. Where do they expect us to go?” (©Karen Ducey)
(©Karen Ducey/Do1Thing)

In the main hall of Covenant House the room is decorated with pink and red balloons; there’s a table full of cakes, brownies and bagels. And there are people everywhere.

Michael Bethune is a tall, dignified man, the head of pastoral care at Covenant House, NJ. He addresses the crowd and speaks about the overlooked brokenness of humanity. Pastor Mike says that Do 1 Thing represents the  best of the human spirit, humanity’s affirmation of humanity. He says, “These kids are not the label that society puts on them but images of God. Where they are in life is not indicative of who they are.”

Anne Marie is a young mother with her 9-month-old baby girl in arms. She tells us that she came to CH in ’06. She says, “I’ve been homeless since 16. I’ve lived in shelters, subways; I’ve been molested, beaten, raped.  Covenant House has shown me unconditional love, helped me through good and bad times. I’m so grateful.  I’ve just graduated from the college of business and now I want to be dental hygenist.” Anne Marie breaks into big sobs.  “I just want to thank everyone…” She cries tears of gratitude and thanks Pastor Mike and all the staff at CH.

Susan Farley photographed Tynearia Varlack at the Covenant House in NYC.  Tynearia, 20, is originally from the East New York neighborhood of Brooklyn, and has been living at the Manhattan Covenant House for the last month.  She says of her experience there: “A friend referred me to Covenant House.  They give you shelter, food, clothing, and I met new people and shared stories … It’s a good program to help you “.

The Pugh family; Marlion and Anne Pugh along with their kids Max, 8, and Anisha, 5, dropped off the first donations of the day, here in Philly. Their donations ran the gambit from wash cloths to suits to a cd player and cds. Max and Anisha were very excited to donate the items and helped their parents unload them from their car. Anisha was also interested in playing with some of the youths here at Covenant House saying, “I want to meet some of the homeless kids!”

Clem Murray from the Philadelphia Inquirer took some nice pictures of the family donating all their items!

The Convenant House in Washington (top) is celebrated Valentine’s Day with a day of activities designed to create a “relaxed” atmosphere so that their residents can meet other residents and volunteers, and share their struggles with others. Activities included games, performances by rap artists and dance troupes, and movies.  Shakola Johnson, 19, (bottom,right) said,  ”I came to Covenant House in search of a better future, I want to go to college and find a nice job….I didn’t want to stay at home and be a couch potato, because  you hold your own future.”

At today’s big event Pastor Mike reminds of the good words of St. Francis of Asissi: “Preach the gospel and if necessary use words.” Then he introduces Kevin Ryan, the newly appointed head of CH, who reminds us how hard it is for homeless kids to make it in the winter in the Northeast.  He thanks Dunkin’ Donuts for helping some of them out by offering them a warm place to spend the day when it’s too cold out!

He says that 70,000 kids per year enter CH all over the nation and gives a big shout out to Najlah and Pim for their incredible work.

“Those of us who have come to CH  never had it easy. Life is hard but failure is harder. A lot of us have been through things, but it’s how you overcome them.” Taquan tells us. He’s a good-looking young man, dressed in beige with a plaid scarf. He reminds us that homelessness is something he was never warned about, but that it’s real. Taquan has been to college to study journalism and has written about his situation. But today he had the chance to shake Miss New Jersey’s hand at the Do 1 Thing event. That seemed to really impress him!