(upbeat music) - I think of nonprofits as often filling kind of critical gaps that exist either in government or other institutional kind of gaps.

But this is a particularly important gap to fill.

And Covenant House does it in such a vibrant and creative way that it just, it has always stood out to me.

- Thank you for that acknowledgement.

Nonprofits are on the ground, so we are, you know, serving our community's most vulnerable every single day, 365 days a year.

And at Covenant House, the way that we approach our work is through unconditional love, absolute respect, and relentless support.

So before a young person can even start their journey towards ending their experience with homelessness, we start with those three principles because that's what most of us need in order to have the confidence to thrive and succeed.

And once we can establish that trust, the trusting relationship, and when a young person feels safe enough, then we get them on their journey.

The outcome is stable housing.

The outcome is that they can go on to live independently, but the journey to get there starts, again, in those first few hours that they arrive at Covenant House.

We then can help them, you know, from a mental health standpoint, you know, over 75%, not just of Covenant House residents, but 75% of young people in general that are experiencing homelessness also experience some issues around mental health challenges.

- Sure, sure.

So Layla, you're one of the people who is part of the Covenant House family.

Tell us a little about how you came to be at Covenant House and what you found since you've been there.

- Not to get too deep into the story, but it was definitely something that I was looking for in an emergency.

I really needed help at the time and I didn't really know where to turn.

You know, it goes with the codependency of, you know, just being younger and everything.

And so when you don't have that, you know, you don't know where to go.

So it definitely helps being there.

It gives you a place of stability, and I really like that.

- How did you even hear about Covenant House- - A Google search really.

It was a very quick moment that it wasn't no plans or anything.

I'm grateful that they were able to take me in as fast as they did.

- Yeah, yeah, and so when you get there to Covenant House, talk about the kind of things that you found and the kind of support that you felt they were able to give you.

- One of the biggest support is really just it being a place for you to be able to build up your strength again.

Again, it's the stability that they offer to be able to just build up from the ground, especially when you often don't have anything when you're there, when you start.

Another thing is definitely their mental health.

I love my counselor there.

So there's someone that you can talk to too when you need to vent because it could be a lot.

- Yeah, yeah.

When you think about when you'll leave Covenant House, what do you think the most important thing you'll kind of take with you from that experience?

- Really I'd say that I could do so much more on your own.

You get to realize your own strength because, you know, essentially you are on your own.

They look for you to build yourself up.

And so you get this confidence of you can do it, you know, and it's not as hard and, you know, from nothing, you can have everything, so definitely.

- Meagan, this has gotta be- - Oh my gosh, I gotta pull it together.

- Really great for you to hear, but I mean, this is exactly the sort of path that you're trying to establish for sure for these young people.

- Absolutely, I mean, our goal is to help eliminate all barriers in order for a young person to feel and be successful, and in the end, that's what they deserve.