Kind Karma Inspiration — youth

"Being homeless can be a very isolating experience. Whenever I would go to school, I always felt different from everyone else. While everyone else would leave school and go back home to their family, I would leave to go back to a shelter. I would get sad, almost pitiful, looks from my teachers and other students who knew my situation. I began to feel so alone in school, I almost wanted to stop going. Even now in university, I still feel like people know that I had been homeless for the past two years, and it makes me feel anxious and...

There are so many reasons we spend money and they aren't always good ones. We consume then discard in a cycle that has led the fashion industry to become the second largest source of pollution in the world. As we move towards creating more sustainable lifestyles, this blog post from one of our youth's personal experiences highlights some of the reasons behind spending - especially for those who are in unhappy situations. "When I first became homeless, I had over $10,000 saved up in my bank account. I was only 16, and did not understand the value of money, and how to...

It is easy to view homeless individuals through stereotypical lenses that they are homeless through bad choices or criminal actions but the truth is, most of the youth are there as a result of situations they cannot control. In a national survey, almost 80% of homeless youth reported leaving home because of abusive relationships and 63% of homeless youth reported childhood trauma and abuse. This account, from one of our youth employees, tells her story of how she ended up on the streets.

When we think of abuse in a relationship, the majority of us will first picture physical abuse. But the truth is, emotional abuse and psychological manipulation often leave a more devastating impact on its victims because it fills the mind with self-doubt. And while it can affect any of us regardless of social or financial status, a lot of times, it happens to the most vulnerable. Here is a story from one of our youths about her experience being manipulated into prostitution and her reflection on the experience from where she is now.