VIDEO: Transitional Living Program Helps Homeless Youth

WEST POINT, Miss. (WCBI)- We see the images all the time. People wondering the streets, pushing baskets containing their belongings, with nowhere to call home.

When you think of homeless people you often picture adults, but what about the children who are too old for the foster care system?

Local experts say there’s a growing number of teens and young adults who make up the faces of the homeless.

In West Point, a transitional living program is giving young adults the tools they need to survive.

22-year-old Carla is one of the many success stories the program has. We chose not to show her face, or reveal her last name on camera because she is about to start a career. A couple of years ago this young lady was facing a very different reality.

“I wasn’t stable living wise, so I was moving place to place,” Carla explained.

Thanks to the transitional living program at Sally Kate Winters Family Services, Carla has a job, an apartment, and is ready to be an adult. She says her passion now is helping others.

“I want to become a foster parent and help those children out, especially the younger ones,” Carla said. “You can make an impression on them in their younger years, and it helps shapes them to be the person they become when they grow-up.”

Here’s how the program works. Natalie White, Clinical Porgram Coordinator, says eligible teens who don’t have homes can be in the program. There’s seperate housing for boys and girls.

“They may be coming out of a violent situation, and even poverty,” White said. “They may come from a home but their parents may be struggling to provide for them, and they can no longer take care of that youth.”

In the program the young adults can work and go to school, but not without sharing responsibilities. The teens have advisors, counselors, rules, and a curfew they must follow. While they do their chores they learn life skills that will help them as adults.

“They stumble along the way because just because they are between the ages of 16 and 22, some have come from different environments and they may have not developed the way some of us have,” said White.

The program is also serving a great need. White says last year the National Runaway Safeline received 776 calls from youth in crisis in Mississippi. 32 percent of those calls came from North Mississippi.

Carla shares her story to encourage others. She also has some words of advise for other teens and young adults who are struggeling to find their way.

“Trouble doesn’t last always. If you need help find it. It’s out there somewhere. You just have to look for it,” she said.

For the past nine months the transitional living program has served atleast 15 youth, ages 16 to 22. For information, call 1-800-RUNAWAY.

To learn more about the Sally Kate Winters transitional living program, call (662)494-0140.