A candle to light the way for Valley youth

Writing about homeless youth is challenging. I have written many columns on the subject. I have provided data, defining the problem with percentages and what homeless youth experience on the dead-end streets. I have shared personal stories of youth about what drove them out into the streets. I have given testimony to the frustration I have experienced myself with having to transport homeless youth to Anchorage because we do not have a crisis shelter in the Mat-Su.

Even with everything I have spoken about in those columns, some still do not understand the complexity of the homeless youth issue. Some believe they should just go home. How do I explain that these youth feel safer on the streets, with those elements, than in their own homes?

As Ste’phane Fernandez wrote in “Reflections from an Outsider,” “Could I write anything that would give a deeper or stronger insight to their pain and suffering?”

Due to that pain and suffering, they are still living the past and cannot move to self-sufficiency with a healthier and contributing lifestyle. How can we “flip the script” and ensure a different tomorrow? How can those lost, vital, primary relationships be reestablished (due to the loss of their family for many different reasons)?

We have to meet those challenges with safe harbor, a place to transform their lives that brings a sense of hope, strength and courage. With those gifts, they can stand up against their past and walk forward with worth, confidence and dignity.

Some will continue to live on the streets with dire consequences. It is not my place to judge. Their past must be incomprehensible to not be able to trust the very people who are trying to help. There will be some who will end up in jail, institutionalized or worse, dead. Yet, that is not an excuse to do nothing.

It has truly moved my spirit to see homeless youth take those first steps out from those dead-end streets. Unfortunately, some are still living in their cars, living in abandoned buildings or living up to eight in a two-bedroom apartment. That is progress, but more needs to be done. Besides not having a shelter here, we do not have any transitional living (group homes or supervised apartments) or affordable housing units for those without income.

A place called MY House is providing a community of staff and volunteers to give a hand up and out from that past for homeless youth. These are caring, accepting and supportive individuals who are meeting these homeless at the door to make a difference. For those who do not come through our doors, we are doing street outreach to make those connections with food, clothing and basic first aid. And, more importantly, we let them know about additional services at MY House. We are, literally and figuratively, throwing our bread on the water hoping to see them come through our door — the door that will tell them they are worthy of better.

Please join us for a candlelight vigil at the Palmer Train Depot at 7 p.m., Nov. 30. We want to bring the light of hope to change the lives of our homeless youth. The light show will continue at 7:19 with a fireworks display, sponsored by Stan Guthrie of Country Cutts in Palmer. Thank you, Stan, for lighting up the sky!

Everyone is welcome to this community event, as we come together to celebrate our families, friends and pause for a moment for those who are less fortunate than ourselves, to light their way.

Michael P. Carson is vice president of MY House.