Rent 9781118230473 | Almost Home : Helping Kids Move from Homelessness to Hope

Summary Table of Contents Author Biography

Acknowledgments Preface Introduction Chapter 1: Tony: A Son Struggling to Grow Up Chapter 2: Muriel: A Survivor Facing Her Future Chapter 3: Abraham: Moving Forward after Foster Care Chapter 4: Creionna: A Homeless Teen Mother Reaching for a New Life Chapter 5: Darnell and Jim: A Homeless Teenager and His Mentor Chapter 6: Meagan: Searching for Safety Chapter 7: Tony, A Coda: Separate Paths Uniting Chapter 8: What You Can Do: Steps to Help Homeless Young People Thrive Epilogue

Inside the lives of homeless teens-mov... MOREing stories of pain and hope from Covenant House Almost Home tells the stories of six remarkable young people from across the United States and Canada as they confront life alone on the streets.

" Almost Home is that rare and special book that inspires us to make a difference." -Cory Booker , mayor of Newark, New Jersey Almost Home tells the remarkable true stories of six young people as they struggle to find home, stopping along the way at Covenant House, the largest charity serving homeless, trafficked, and runaway youth in the Americas. This book offers a glimpse into the lives of the 1.6 million young people in North America who run away or are kicked out of their homes each year, grappling with issues such as family violence, prostitution, teen parenthood, rejection based on sexual orientation, and aging out of foster care without a family. Full of hope, compassion, and practical suggestions on how to fight youth homelessness, Almost Home shows us how to help young people attain the bright futures they deserve. "With narrative precision and journalistic detail, the heartbreaking trajectory from abandonment and abuse to teen homelessness is laid bare in this book. . . . The compassionately told stories of survival are almost miraculous." -Publishers Weekly "The trick of engaging readers on public policy matters is to tell human stories. Suddenly, the person we dismiss, fear, or even judge is alive before us and utterly familiar, and we learn, as we do in this powerful and inspirational book, the true meaning of courage, grace, and hope." -Steve Lopez , New York Times bestselling author of The Soloist "The moving stories here offer a sense of promise, a belief that with guidance, empathy, and some semblance of home even the most wounded teens can thrive." -Alex Kotlowitz, bestselling author of There Are No Children Here " Almost Home accomplishes something very rare in a book about the homeless-it is both descriptive and prescriptive. A vital read for anyone who cares about the future of our society." -Dale Maharidge , Pulitzer Prize-winning author of And Their Children After Them

Acknowledgments vii

Foreword by Cory Booker xi

Preface: Years to Understand the Light by Kevin Ryan xvii

Preface: Help and the Homing Instinct by Tina Kelley xxiii

Introduction 1

1 A Son Walks Alone: Paulie’s Story 12

Arriving at Covenant House 21

The Costs of Not Caring 39

Homeless, but Graduating 42

2 A Survivor Facing Her Future: Muriel’s Story 46

Arriving at Covenant House 56

Helping Trafficking Victims, Holding Exploiters Accountable 62

Fig... MOREhting Back on Many Fronts 67

3 Moving Forward after Foster Care: Benjamin’s Story 72

Memories of Mistreatment 77

Working toward Mental Health 83

Arriving at Covenant House 88

Fixing Foster Care 107

4 A Homeless Teen Mother Reaching for a New Life: Creionna’s Story 115

Homelessness in New Orleans 120

Arriving at Covenant House 126

Help for Young Parents 138

5 A Teenager with Nowhere to Go and His Mentor: Keith’s and Jim’s Stories 153

Arriving at Covenant House 167

Keith's Thoughts on the Meaning of a Mentor 171

Dr. Kenneth Ginsburg on Fostering Resilience through Mentoring 176

The Power of a Presence 178

6 Searching for Safety: Meagan’s Story 182

Arriving at Covenant House 191

Meagan on Her Moms and Her Future 197

Helping LGBTQ Youth 199

7 Separate Paths Uniting: Paulie Revisited 201

The Death of Decal 206

8 What You Can Do: Steps to Help Homeless Young People Thrive 210

Mentoring 210

Anti-Traffi cking Efforts 211

Supporting LGBTQ Youth 212

Advocacy Work 213

In the Community 214

What You Can Do from Your Computer 216

On the Home Front 216

Keep Us Posted 217

To Learn More 217

Epilogue 219

Notes 221

Index 224

Photo gallery begins on page 143

KEVIN RYAN is President of Covenant House International, which reaches 56,000 at-risk and street youth in more than twenty cities across six countries. Ryan is one of the country's most respected child advocates and his work has been covered by the New York Times and the Washington Post. He has appeared on Today, Good Morning America, 60 Minutes, Anderson Cooper 360, and other national media.

TINA KELLEY was a staff writer for the New York Times for ten years and shared in a Pulitzer Prize for the paper's coverage of the September 11 attacks. She wrote 121 "Portraits of Grief" profiles of the victims and is the author of two books of poetry, The Gospel of Galore and Precise.

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