Starting Right Now Inc.

Starting Right, Now ends homelessness for unaccompanied youth by providing one-on-one mentoring, a stable home, assisting with employment opportunities, teaching financial literacy/life skills and promoting educational achievement.

Ending youth homelessness

Goal One: We are currently evolving our curriculum to have a stronger mindfulness program. This will help our youth look toward the present while healing from past trauma.

Goal Two: Help our youth understand the correlation between mind, body and soul to heal from trauma

Goal Three: Increase support staff so we can expand our reach

One executive team member just got certified by Nonprofit Leadership Tampa and earned her Nonprofit Leadership Certificate. All staff was certified as Mental Health First Aiders. We constantly attend workshops and leadership training to learn from others best practices.

Suffering a traumatic childhood causes debilitating flashbacks, interfering with every aspect of unaccompanied youth’s lives. Recognizing students can’t focus on their future when stuck in their past, SRN has prioritized mental health for our youth. COVID has exacerbated the mental health in our youth, so we needed to pivot to get them help. While SRN’s trauma-informed curriculum (basic physiological needs, after school classes, support systems) is crucial and effective in addressing mental health needs, students also needed professional specialized therapy. We were scheduling mental health counseling through Medicaid providers, but this was a revolving door of therapists. Retelling their traumatic experiences, each time a counselor changed, became crushing. By not building trust with their therapist, the student avoided counseling and their trauma persisted. In addition, securing an appointment in a timely manner was also impossible. Grief counseling and sexual abuse counseling are extremely limited in our community. Wait times to visit with a health professional of the same gender, result in an even longer processing time. So, we have found a private therapist who allows our youth to do therapy with Accelerated Resolution Therapy (ART) sessions. ART therapy uses rapid-eye-movement, imagery rescripting and guided imagery to change images stored in the brain and reduce their emotional effects. This therapy, usually five sessions, treats trauma, anxiety, and depression. The students who have completed ART therapy can link specific triggers that increase their anxiety. By identifying these triggers, they have reduced flashbacks, fears, angry outbursts, sleep issues, and difficulty concentrating. Panic attacks have diminished and they developed healthy coping strategies, reducing harmful coping behaviors. They are equipped to handle stressful encounters. This adaptation to our program has allowed our youth to heal and focus on their future.