Do1Thing Blog

Covenant House resident Eddie White, 18,  relaxes on a couch that was donated to Covenant House Missouri February 14, 2009.

Eddie moved out of his home when he was 18 because of disputes with family members 2 weeks before he was to start he senior year of high school.  He spent these two weeks staying with various relatives and on the streets.  He spent the night before school started on the front steps of his school.  He started staying at Covenant House soon after school started.  He has plans for attending college in the fall for business administration.

Photographer Carmen Troesser donates her time to capture the spirit of homeless teens for the Do1Thing project.

It is the goal of Do1Thing to empower homeless youth to move themselves from homelessness to a permanent housing. Empowerment comes by outfitting the teens with training, items and supplies needed to overcome their current situations move forward.

http://do1thing.org

http://www.heartgallerynj.org

The first image that comes to mind when talking about “homelessness” is a middle aged drunk lying on the side of a street. What you might not know is the history behind the person lying there. While many homeless have emotional and mental illness others have been forced onto the street because of circumstance. The majority of the homeless population is not compromised   “types” of people Covenant House International is the largest privately-funded agency in the Americas providing shelter and other services to homeless, runaway and throwaway youth servicing more than 65,000 youth yearly.

“Aging out” is a nationwide phenomenon.  Every year in the United States, approximately 25,000 children
age out of the foster care system.  Statistics show that more than 25%of them will experience homelessness in the next five years. Already 3 in every 10 homeless adults admit to a history of foster care and unless action is taken to assist these teenagers, the next wave of homeless in America could very well be teens who were never adopted.

Do 1 Thing hopes to stem the tide of “aging out” teens by highlighting their need for adoption by introducing the public to waiting children. View these kids at Heart Gallery of New Jersey

For those kids who never get adopted, Covenant House provides food, shelter, clothing and immediate crisis care to homeless, runaway and throwaway youth including medical care, educational and vocational programs, drug abuse treatment and prevention programs, legal aid services, recreation programs, mother/child programs, transitional living programs, life-skills training and street outreach.

It all comes full circle when the public joins us on February 14th, 2009, Valentine’s Day to raise awareness for homeless youth and does 1 Thing to make their lives a little easier.