Sanya Bains

For the summer portion of my Chuck Green Fellowship, I had the honor of partnering with Face to Face (F2F), a non-profit in St. Paul that focuses on supporting youth currently experiencing homelessness or at risk of homelessness. F2F helped develop the 9 Evidence-based Principles to Help Youth Overcome Homelessness which now guides their work. Currently, they serve thousands of youth, ages 11-24, by helping provide physical, sexual, and mental healthcare resources, as well as support with finding employment, housing, case management, legal support, and community outreach.

I chose to spend my summer working on a storytelling project that focuses on the strengths of current youth who seek services at F2F. I worked with my site supervisor to develop an internship that can continue to support the storytelling of the youth whom we serve. My project consisted of developing a process with which I could ethically and responsibly interview current youth who seek help from Face to Face. The goal was to capture their strengths and create opportunities for discussions on the disparities homeless youth face.

My time in June was spent researching both F2F and St. Paul’s history to understand the needs that the city has had when it comes to homeless youth and the demographics of this population. In July, I began the process of designing a booklet for the stories from youth I would collect to have them all placed in a convenient place for future reference. Once that was completed I began spending time at SafeZone, the youth drop-in center, and connecting with the youth there. I also had the honor of attending talks with Ramsey County juvenile court judges. Towards the end of July, I was able to begin speaking to youth in an interview setting and learn about their lives, hopes, and hobbies. The end of my time with F2F was spent writing out the stories of the youth and working on humanizing the statistics I had become so familiar with.

I wouldn’t have had this experience without the support of my site supervisor, Melissa Peterson, my fellow Chuck Green members, and our cohort facilitator, Lisa Mueller. I’m so thankful to all of them for their endless support and kind guidance!