“When you have somewhere to stay, when you have food in your belly, when you have caring people working with you on your goals — you finally have hope. You begin to believe you can achieve things and move ahead in life.” – Allison, formerly homeless youth, age 20.

Simply a Success! The Road to Success bus tour on May 23rd was packed with 40 community members enjoying a 3 hour tour highlighting the expansion of basic need services and emergency shelter in the Twin Cities metro, made possible by the $4 million community investment from the Otto Bremer Foundation.

Guests enjoyed short stops and conversations at the Youth Opportunity Center, Salvation Army’s Booth Brown House, Face to Face’s SafeZone, Catholic Charities’ Hope Street, and Avenues for Homeless Youth and had an opportunity to hear from an outreach worker from StreetWorks Collaborative.

After the tour, guests returned to the Youth Opportunity Center where they were treated to a delicious lunch made by youth interns in YouthLink’s food service program.

“It was gratifying to see so much collaboration between the agencies,” commented Nancy Hite, founder and former Executive Director of the Minneapolis Youth Diversion Program (now YouthLink), donor, and guest on the tour.

The tour showcased the resources available at each agency, and how collaboration between youth agencies and our community results in better outcomes for youth experiencing homelessness. If you are interested in putting a tour together for your faith community, neighborhood, or workplace, please contact Frances Roen, Director of Development, at 612.252.1211 or roen@youthlinkmn.org.