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Lost-n-Found Youth opens
new LGBT drop-in center
By ClareS. Richie
Lost-n-Found Youth (LNFY) just opened a 4,000-square-foot drop-in center on
Lambert Drive, between Cheshire Bridge and Piedmont roads, more than quadrupling
its former space. The new larger center is the fulfillment of a promise three years
in the making from the nonprofit to Atlanta’s homeless lesbian, gay, bisexual, and
transgender (LGBT) youth.
“We do everything in our power to meet them where they are on their journey
and try to help them figure out next steps,” said LNFY Executive Director Rick
Westbrook, adding, “The drop-in center is a place LGBT youth come to sleep if need
be, get a shower, food, new clothes, wash old clothes, relax, or just be themselves in a
safe space.”
Programming at the center helps at risk and homeless LGBT youth up to age 25
build skills to live independently through expert lead cooking classes, spoken word, art
classes, group therapy, job readiness programs, financial and informational classes, and
support groups. In addition to the center, the nonprofit offers street outreach, a crisis
hotline, and transitional housing. It’s the only Atlanta-based agency with this LGBT-
specific service model.
When Diamond Carter first came to Atlanta in 2013 and was looking for support,
she researched LGBT youth organizations and found LNFY. “This program has been
phenomenal. It opened a lot of doors for me as a black transgender woman,” Carter
said. “I’d never been in a place so accepting of me.”
Carter now works as a community activist at Solutions Not Punishment, a black,
trans-led, collaborative working to tear down barriers in Atlanta, especially within the
criminal justice system.
And the need for services for youth like Carter has grown dramatically since
LNFY’s founding five and half years ago. “So many of them are out there on the
streets,” Westbrook said.
At the nonprofits start, 900 square feet inside its Chantilly Drive thrift store were
sufficient to welcome 75 youth visits a month. It soon became a more sought after
refuge.
In 2015, after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that states cannot ban same-sex
marriage and Caitlyn Jenner made headlines, youth visits more than tripled to 300-
plus per month. Last year that number spiked to more than 700 visits per month.
That increased demand is consistent with the shocking number of homeless youth
in the city and neighboring suburbs, counted in the 2015 Atlanta Youth Count and
Needs Assessment (AYCNA) led by Georgia State University. Researchers counted
more than 3,300 homeless youth in metro Atlanta with 28 percent self-identified as
LGBT.
Westbrook said LNFY’s new larger space makes it possible to offer more crisis care,
on-site LIIV testing, mental health evaluations, and life skill trainings.
“There are offices to meet with counselors, space for group activities, privacy for
LIIV testing, room for arts and crafts, and even more bathrooms,” Westbrook stated.
While excited about the new space, Westbrook says that homelessness, especially
among LGBT “is not going away — it’s getting worse.” Lie’s in favor of the city
working with the private sector to treat the homeless more humanely and find a way
to help them.
That idea may soon be realized with the City of Atlanta recently announcing a $50
million FFomeless Opportunity Bond that will fund ClearPath, a five-year plan “to
make homelessness rare and brief.” One of the goals of the public-private partnership
between the City of Atlanta and United Way for Greater Atlanta is to create 254 new
housing interventions for homeless youth within the next three years.
“I hope the city actually collaborates with the people that are on the street and in
the trenches actively doing the work. That will insure that the money will be utilized
to its fullest potential,” Westbrook urged.
For more about LNFY and to fin out about voluteer orientation sessions on Aug.
10 and 12, visit lnfy.org. [0
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August 2017 I iNtown 9