Cards of Affirmation
Create personalized encouragement cards which will be included in Bundles of Love kits assembled in a separate Compassion Week project. The messages you write to these young people let them know that they matter; they are seen and loved. Th youth living on the streets consistently cherish these cards as the most important part of the kits.
SEEDS Homeless Youth Project is a multi-tiered program which aims to not only meet the immediate needs of youth living on the streets, but also aims to provide long-term support and resources to ultimately end youth homelessness.
“Bundles of Love” is a primary asset for the street outreach efforts of the project. The Bundles serve as a critical tool for street outreach teams to provide affective care, safely building and fostering long-term relationships with youth living on the streets, especially while they are living on the streets. Distributing these “Bundles” as part of a larger street outreach kit (LifePacks) enables street outreach teams to build trust in a low-risk, non-threatening way with these youth. This is a critical component of unhoused youth being willing to step into an outreach services/program environment which then leads to interventions and support including access to critical services such as to emergency shelter, mentoring for job placement, transportation and access to legal aid. Long-term, this process leads to employment and stable housing placements which ultimately are the key components needed to move kids off the streets and into long-term recovery and sustainable and safe living environments.
The Bundles are distributed independently or as part of a larger outreach kit (LifePacks) by street outreach teams in Santa Cruz, San Jose, Redwood City/Palo Alto and San Francisco.
