Metropolitan Community Church of New York Homeless Youth Services

Description

An estimated 25% to 40% of New York City's 20,000 runaway and homeless youth are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgendered. These young people, many of whom have faced harassment and discrimination from the very people that should protect and nurture them, are in desperate need of services to achieve independence and self-sufficiency. Metropolitan Community Church of New York, a faith-based nonprofit organization located in New York's Hell's Kitchen and Harlem neighborhoods, has responded to meet the needs of this disenfranchised and marginalized group of young, homeless people. Since 2002, the Homeless Youth Services of Metropolitan Community Church of New York (MCCNY) has worked tirelessly to meet the unique needs of the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender runaway and homeless youth of New York City. Starting with a 6-bed emergency shelter housed in the church itself (Sylvia's Place), MCCNY's services have expanded to include an additional shelter (Sylvia's East), a range of social services offered both to shelter residents and other runaway and homeless youth, and a soon-to-opened 24-hour drop-in center, the Marsha P. Johnson Center.