For young people facing homelessness in the Nashua, a day facility called Stepping Stones serves as a place where those who have aged out of foster care, or who've left abusive situations, can find a warm meal and more.
Kathy Farland is the founder of the drop-in center. She says her mission is to offer vulnerable youth a safe space. That could be a place to shower before work, a quiet space to study, or somewhere to gather with friends.
"A lot of the kids don't feel comfortable at the emergency shelters," said Farland. "There is very rarely more than one or two kids their age there."
As part of our Give Back NH series, NHPR highlights small but mighty non-profits doing good work in New Hampshire communities. Below is a transcript of a conversation between NHPR's Emily Quirk and employees and volunteers at Stepping Stones.
Transcript
Kathy Farland: This is our front lobby. We keep lockers here for all the kids so they can keep their stuff for as long as they want. Here, you'll notice most of them don't put the locks on the lockers. And even the ones that have them, they don't even lock them most of the time.
Emily Quirk: Because they feel safe here.
Kathy Farland: And that's exactly it, right? They know their stuff isn't going anywhere. Yeah.
I ended up starting Stepping Stones because a lot of the kids don't feel comfortable at the emergency shelters because it's a very different demographic in general.
There is very rarely more than one or two kids their age there. There tends to be much more people in their 40s, 50s and 60s that are in very different places in their lives.
The best thing for [young adults] is to be around kids their own age — and I say kids, they're not kids — they're young adults. But I always call them my kids. But [being] around other people their own age and see those successes and those steps that other people are being able to take, encourages them to be able to do the same thing.
Zach Paone: I'm the Development and Communications Coordinator at Stepping Stones.
And what I love about drop-in centers in general is that youth at this age — they want to be the solution. They don't want this done for them. And so I love when they come up with an idea and sometimes that's an idea that makes me go, 'Well, why didn't I think of that.'
A couple of weeks ago a young man really wanted a specific apartment. It was the perfect place for him near his work and all that sort of stuff. And he comes to me and he's like, 'Is there something I could maybe write to the landlord?'
And it just clicked for me. I said, 'Well, isn't that ridiculous that I haven't thought to offer that service before?' Because I know even [with] my own home, I wrote a nice letter to the people that owned it and in hopes of getting in.
So I was able to share some of my experience with that with him, and help him craft a letter that he thinks is fairly successful. So that's the really great part of what I do.
Mark Demagistris: I'm a volunteer. I come in every Tuesday and make lunch for the youth, for the people.
Everyone loves the empanadas. They always come around the kitchen when I'm there.
[I] shoot the breeze with them, talk about different things. [I] ask them how their day is going. [I] ask them how they're doing, what's up, what's new, if they're having a good day or a bad day. Just try to be upbeat and positive.
It's great to give back. You know, you realize how lucky you are and how fortunate you are when you see people that are less fortunate, and it just feels good.
Kathy Farland: Our biggest goal at the moment is to fill a gap that's missing for our youth right now.
We're open during the day and the kids can come in and spend as much time here as as they want. But once they leave here, at the end of the day, that's when they their biggest difficulties arise.
So we're actually looking at two potential locations right now to start offering housing for our youth, too, because that is by far the missing piece.
We want to help them break this cycle that they've been in their whole lives, where they've come from very traumatic, dangerous backgrounds that have left marks on them.
And a lot of times they haven't seen that there's other options for their lives. So this transitional housing program will allow them to move forward in small steps towards that, towards becoming self sufficient.
