On Saturday, December 19th, several youth from WCUC traveled to Harvard Square in Cambridge to join with area college students in getting a new shelter for young adults ready to open its doors. They moved, cleaned and assembled furniture, cleaned and painted walls, and witnessed first hand what vision, determination, and many supporters can do to make one community a safer and more humane place to be.
Y2Y is the only shelter of its kind in the nation in that it is designed and operated by young adults and it exclusively serves 18-24 year olds. Co-founders and recent Harvard Graduates, Sam Greenberg and Sarah Rosenkrantz, explained to us that beds are desperately needed for this underserved age population because 1) many do not feel safe staying in adult shelters 2) this is when they age out of the foster care system 3) many are LGBTQ people who have been isolated or rejected from family who might otherwise provide safe shelter.
The shelter passed inspection on Monday, December 21st and opened its doors on Tuesday, December 22nd. We were so fortunate to be a small part of what took over a year to create. After many months of creating the vision, securing a location and finding support, raising funds, establishing a team of advisors and completely renovating a church basement, Sam and Sarah seemed blissfully exhausted to have reached this final stage. We look forward to a return trip one day soon to offer our help again and to perhaps meet some of the guests at Y2Y.
For more information you can visit their website:
http://y2yharvardsquare.org
Or read this recent story published recently in the Boston Globe:
http://www.bostonglobe.com/magazine/2015/12/19/sam-greenberg-and-sarah-rosenkrantz-the-harvard-classmates-who-couldn-ignore-homeless/EdPVD1pN7deiSoRLBgPLoN/story.html#comments