BOSTON – Boston’s Bridge Over Troubled Waters is tackling the challenges homeless youth face by bringing the help they need right to them.
Offering help to homeless youth
A large white van sits near the Park Street Station at Boston Common. It’s a shelter on wheels for homeless teens and children sleeping in or passing through Boston Common.
“We pick places where a lot of young people are known to hang out,” said Peter Ducharme, who runs Bridge Over Troubled Water’s mobile medical van.
The van parks in the Common and Harvard Square every weekday evening, meeting homeless youth where they are and inviting them in for a warm drink and a sandwich.
“They’re able to see other young people are here, so that makes it a little more comfortable,” Ducharme said.
Twenty to 30 youths sit and eat in the van every night. Half of them take advantage of the van’s clinic as well. Volunteer doctors, nurses, nurse practitioners and physician assistants treat common illnesses or administer first aid. But what they’re really doing is building rapport and trust with Boston’s homeless youth.
“Often, they’re really disenchanted with services, so this is an opportunity to have a different experience.”
Providing services to homeless youth
From there, people like Ducharme encourage homeless teens to take it a step further, encouraging them to visit the Bridge shelter and take advantage of its educational and career programs.
“It’s always intimidating and uncomfortable to be an 18/19-year-old in a service setting here there’s also 50/60-year-olds, so to have a place just for young people is really important,” Ducharme said.
About half of all the people the Bridge Over Troubled Waters staff members meet in the van do eventually visit the shelter. Sometimes, it just takes one encounter; other times, it takes many, so Ducharme and his team have no plans of stopping anytime soon.
“Young people have really fantastic goals but are often just struggling to think about how get over the barriers to achieve them,” Ducharme said.
Once people do transition from the van to the shelter, they have access to a multitude of different services. They can work to get their GED or get connected with jobs. The main goal, of course, is to find permanent housing.
