DreamKit: The App Ending Youth Homelessness
Donation protected
DreamKit is an app that helps youth (ages 18-24) overcome homelessness. We do this by connecting youth with local resources, rewarding their growth, and sharing their progress with the community.
We are a group of 26 community activists, academics, and youth who have lived experience that are creating real-world solutions to our most pressing public health issue. Our work is urgent because 1 in 10 (or 3.5 million) young adults experience homelessness in the US, and COVID-19 reminds us that these youth need to be supported now more than ever.
Donations:
100% of your donations will be used to purchase gift cards to local businesses and grocery stores to help youth obtain basic needs. These gift cards will be used to support the points based economy, and awarded to youth who participate on DreamKit. Even before COVID-19, housing insecure youth were disproportionately experiencing food insecurity, joblessness, and social isolation. It is our responsibility as a community to provide immediately support to our youth. Anything helps!
Our vision:
People are more than just their circumstances. We’ve been trained to understand homelessness as the byproduct of poor personal choices, but that’s simply not the case. The courage, resilience, and resourcefulness it takes to survive without a home needs to be recognized in today’s society. The youth that DreamKit serves are products of systemic racism, failed foster care systems, violent households, and homophobic/transphobic environments. We have the responsibility to help heal our community, and create healthier, brighter, and stronger futures for our neighboring young people.
DreamKit has started to tackle homelessness in New Haven, CT—a diverse city with the highest levels of homelessness in the State of Connecticut. The results we achieve in New Haven will allow us to replicate our program in other cities, such as Boston, New York, Los Angeles, Seattle, and more.
Current gaps in the system:
DreamKit addresses two major gaps in the current homeless management system.
1. Government agencies have no singular platform of advertising and monitoring events for homeless youth, which leads to missed opportunities for growth and stability. Through our web-based mobile platform, we advertise activities youth can attend (ex: education training, case management, workforce development programs, etc.) so our members can obtain various employable skillsets. Youth receive "DreamKit points" for attending each event, and they can use these points like real money to purchase basic needs (ex: food, clothing, hygiene products, etc.), thus allowing them to survive the harsh conditions of housing instability, and feel a deeper sense of self-efficacy and self-confidence.
2. Youth experiencing homelessness have no means of tracking their progress and sharing their evolving skills with key people in the community that can help end their episode of homelessness. DreamKit curates individually customized profiles for each youth that directly reflects their new skillsets generated on the app. These profiles are easily shareable with local employers, landlords, and community members. By doing so, DreamKit is allowing youth to participate in their own progress out of homelessness.
We're up to some pretty exciting stuff! We are generating the first dataset in the country that transparently communicates unstably housed youth’s success and resilience with institutions of power that can help end their homelessness. Since DreamKit creates a tangible positive reputation for youth, we believe that we can reduce stigma and discrimination, and increase trust, employability, and housing opportunities for our youth—all central to ending homelessness and creating stronger economies, diversity in the workforce, and healthier communities.
To learn more, visit our website: dreamkitapp.com or email [email redacted]
We are a group of 26 community activists, academics, and youth who have lived experience that are creating real-world solutions to our most pressing public health issue. Our work is urgent because 1 in 10 (or 3.5 million) young adults experience homelessness in the US, and COVID-19 reminds us that these youth need to be supported now more than ever.
Donations:
100% of your donations will be used to purchase gift cards to local businesses and grocery stores to help youth obtain basic needs. These gift cards will be used to support the points based economy, and awarded to youth who participate on DreamKit. Even before COVID-19, housing insecure youth were disproportionately experiencing food insecurity, joblessness, and social isolation. It is our responsibility as a community to provide immediately support to our youth. Anything helps!
Our vision:
People are more than just their circumstances. We’ve been trained to understand homelessness as the byproduct of poor personal choices, but that’s simply not the case. The courage, resilience, and resourcefulness it takes to survive without a home needs to be recognized in today’s society. The youth that DreamKit serves are products of systemic racism, failed foster care systems, violent households, and homophobic/transphobic environments. We have the responsibility to help heal our community, and create healthier, brighter, and stronger futures for our neighboring young people.
DreamKit has started to tackle homelessness in New Haven, CT—a diverse city with the highest levels of homelessness in the State of Connecticut. The results we achieve in New Haven will allow us to replicate our program in other cities, such as Boston, New York, Los Angeles, Seattle, and more.
Current gaps in the system:
DreamKit addresses two major gaps in the current homeless management system.
1. Government agencies have no singular platform of advertising and monitoring events for homeless youth, which leads to missed opportunities for growth and stability. Through our web-based mobile platform, we advertise activities youth can attend (ex: education training, case management, workforce development programs, etc.) so our members can obtain various employable skillsets. Youth receive "DreamKit points" for attending each event, and they can use these points like real money to purchase basic needs (ex: food, clothing, hygiene products, etc.), thus allowing them to survive the harsh conditions of housing instability, and feel a deeper sense of self-efficacy and self-confidence.
2. Youth experiencing homelessness have no means of tracking their progress and sharing their evolving skills with key people in the community that can help end their episode of homelessness. DreamKit curates individually customized profiles for each youth that directly reflects their new skillsets generated on the app. These profiles are easily shareable with local employers, landlords, and community members. By doing so, DreamKit is allowing youth to participate in their own progress out of homelessness.
We're up to some pretty exciting stuff! We are generating the first dataset in the country that transparently communicates unstably housed youth’s success and resilience with institutions of power that can help end their homelessness. Since DreamKit creates a tangible positive reputation for youth, we believe that we can reduce stigma and discrimination, and increase trust, employability, and housing opportunities for our youth—all central to ending homelessness and creating stronger economies, diversity in the workforce, and healthier communities.
To learn more, visit our website: dreamkitapp.com or email [email redacted]
Organizer
Marina Marmolejo
Organizer
New Haven, CT