Episode 8: Mighty Writing at Covenant House

The U.S. is facing an unprecedented youth crisis: 1 in 10 young adults is dealing with some form of homelessness each year, and the numbers of them struggling with mental health issues has increased dramatically. When host Maureen Boland was a high school teacher, it was not unusual for her to discover that one of her students was homeless. The clues were subtle: Maybe they’d just be carrying extra bags, or arrive later than usual. But when she learned that one of her students who had a baby had no place safe to stay, she took her to Covenant House.

In this episode, Maureen speaks with Makiyah, a young writer who’s in transitional housing at Covenant House, about how she came to be homeless and what that experience was like. She also talks to Covenant House Pennsylvania’s Hugh Organ, who describes the remarkable strengths he’s seen in some of society’s most vulnerable people: “I’ve been doing this 23 years. I’ve never met a bad kid in the bunch.”

Covenant House is an international organization that serves young people experiencing homelessness in 34 cities across five countries. In addition to temporary shelter, Covenant House provides robust health, education and employment programming designed to help young people move toward stable housing and independent living. Covenant House provides specialized programming for young parents and for victims of human trafficking. In Philadelphia, Mighty Writers provides on-site weekly writing workshops for Covenant House residents who crave community, creativity and a place to share some of their stories. 

Warning: This episode deals with difficult topics such as childhood sexual abuse and domestic violence and may be triggering for some people. This episode is not appropriate for young children. Please take care when listening.