Housing Families’ Youth Service & Engagement Program (YSEP) is a fun and engaging way for students to learn about taking initiative and organizing their own projects to help those combatting homelessness. This is an opportunity to become educated on how homelessness impacts children and families in the Massachusetts area and understand how they can make a difference in those families’ lives. YSEP is a nine week program conducted virtually over Zoom and tentatively in person at the Housing Families Inc in Malden, Massachusetts.
"A major takeaway I got was that empathy is key. When we look into another's perspective, we can gain understanding and can learn to advocate for a cause. I also learned a lot about managing a service project and to not underestimate ourselves!" - Fall 2020 YSEP Member, Sophomore
We recently completed our fifth session this Fall and it was a great success! Students from all grades (7th to 12th), representing a variety of towns, were present at our weekly Zoom meetings eager to discuss new topics. Each student was able to plan and execute their service project extremely well! Students volunteered at Housing Families' Annual 5K and tutored at Housing Families' GREAT Youth & Families Program.
"My favorite part of YSEP was learning about homelessness and seeing everyone's ideas for their service project. I was intrigued by the others' ideas and success on their projects!" - Fall 2020 YSEP Member, Sophomore
Allison Wu
she/her YSEP Director |
Molly Abrahamson
she/her Housing Families' Associate Director, Individual Giving |
Katie Byers
she/her YSEP Student Leader |
A major takeaway...
"Learning of all the different ways an individual can serve a cause. Sometimes people assume that you need to have some sort of power (like politicians do) to make a change in the world, but everyone can work towards change, no matter the magnitude of the action. For example, all the service projects we did." - Spring 2021 YSEP Member, Junior
