401 E. McMillan St
Cincinnati, OH 45206
KEYS to a Future Without Youth Homelessness – Life Skills Training
Lighthouse Youth & Family Services’ mission is to empower young people and families to succeed through a continuum of care that promotes healing and growth. Lighthouse is a leader locally and nationally in its work with homeless youth. As the lead agency of a community-wide initiative called KEYS to a Future Without Youth Homelessness (KEYS), Lighthouse is helping ensure that the most vulnerable young adults in the community have access to the supportive services they need to heal and grow. The support from the Dater Foundation allows Lighthouse to provide much-needed life skills training to those who engage in the KEYS program. Through the life skills training, young people will increase their knowledge and experience in areas that are essential to successfully living independently.
A Lighthouse Success Story …
A 21-year-old female was referred to Lighthouse because she became homeless after her living situation with a family member was no longer an option. She had four children, including a set of twins, and struggled with learning how to live independently without much family support. Lighthouse worked with her to move her out of emergency shelter and into an apartment of her own. Her case manager connected her with Pregnancy Center East and Cradle Cincinnati to help her increase her knowledge about parenting and to provide her with community resources that will be there after Lighthouse’s services end. This young person also participated in a life skills group at Lighthouse taught by Cincinnati Children’s Hospital to increase her knowledge about child safety. She gained expertise around car seat safety, safe sleep habits, babyproofing her apartment, and received free items to aid her in ensuring those skills were implemented in her apartment including smoke detectors, car seat, and baby gates. She also needed help learning how to navigate the community to do laundry. Her case manager physically showed her how to get to the closest laundromat, taught her to discover the best time of day to go, and how to navigate the bus with her children and her laundry. She also needed help learning pro-social activities for herself and her children. Lighthouse, through its partnership with YMCA, provided her and her children with a free YMCA membership where she can help her children participate in social activities and learn how to swim, while also giving her the opportunity to exercise. Today, this young woman is thriving independently and her children are well, thanks to the support of Lighthouse and her case manager.
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