AYA Youth Collective

Andy Allen, Vice President of Advancement for AYA Youth Collective joins us for a Talk of the Town. 

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's Talk of the Town on news radio within thirteen
hundred and one oh six nine FM. Steve Kelly and
Bratt Pikita from West Michigan's Morning News, and we are
joined by Andy Allen, who is the vice president of
Advancement for AYA Youth Collective. Thank you and Andy so
much for coming in today. Thanks for having me. So
for those that don't know, tell us a little bit
about this population and AYA Youth Collective, who do you serve?

Speaker 2 (00:23):
Sure? So? AYA supports youth experiencing homelessness here in Grand Rapids.
So we support fourteen to twenty four year olds who
are experiencing some level of housing instability. And we are
going to see over one thousand youth at our drop
in center.

Speaker 3 (00:36):
Wow.

Speaker 2 (00:37):
Yeah, so's it's an incredible organization that supports a demographic
that's oftentimes overlooked. When you think of homelessness, you have
a stereotype in your head and you don't always think
of the eighteen year old or the twenty year old.
And so our intention is to focus really on this demographic,
meet them where they are and help them find stability.

Speaker 3 (00:56):
So, Andy, where you located then downtown? Give people perspective,
maybe the avent heard of your organization and also what's
the best ways to find resources like a website for
more sure So a YA.

Speaker 2 (01:08):
Is located at three twenty State Street. It's right by
Cottage Bar One Trick Pony, the old Public Museum downtown
and we also have twelve homes throughout the city. So
we have a drop in center where we have youth
come in and get free showers, free laundry, counselor's therapy,
medical attention, drivers, training, financial literacy, a whole shebang of things.
But then we also have twelve homes throughout the city

(01:30):
where youth actually live. They pay three hundred dollars a
month in rent. They are tenants, and those are located
in the four nine five to oh three four nine
five oh seven zip code all throughout neighborhoods. But if
you want to find out more, the easiest way is
to go to aya Youth dot org. That's our website.
We're giving tours literally every single day, and we love

(01:51):
to show people the work that we do in the
space that we do it in.

Speaker 1 (01:54):
So what are some of the reasons you mentioned before?
We have a preconceived notion about somebody who is homeless,
and generally, even for that population, we make some kind
of mean assumptions. Sure, but what about youth. What are
some of the reasons that put them on the streets.

Speaker 2 (02:11):
Yeah, so for many of our youth, they just lost
the parent lottery or they lost the zip code lottery.
So a lot of our youth have aged out of
foster care. Maybe mom and dad couldn't take care of them.
Maybe they live in a house where mom and dad
can take care of their two younger siblings, but they
don't have enough to pay for the third, so they
self select and they move out. We certainly have youth

(02:33):
that have made poor choices, but we have youth that
are D one quarterbacks that lost their scholarship and are
now at our drop in center. So it literally is
every reason why a young person might be experiencing homelessness.
I was lucky enough to be born to parents that
were able to take care of me, and I still

(02:53):
have that circle of support. But for many of the
young people that we see, they don't have that circle,
they don't have that community. So some of them need
a house, some of them need a bed, but some
of them just need access to Michigan Department of health
and human services, or transportation help, or access to education
or employment services. So we help with everything on that

(03:14):
spectrum because it's vital that our eighteen year olds get
the access that they need for their own generational wealth,
for their own families, but also for our community because
they are employees. They are people that are contributing to
our communities in our neighborhoods, and so we're able to
step in and be that for this demographic.

Speaker 3 (03:32):
What about the need for volunteers or organizations that partner
with you guys, I imagine it's a laundry list of
people that you know. Like you said, all the things
that you offer, it takes an army to do that.

Speaker 2 (03:42):
Yes, so from basic things like we serve a hot
meal every single day, so we're always looking for people
to donate a meal. We're going to see ninety youth
at our drop in center today, so we need enough
food to feed ninety youth and that could be a
hot meal like pizza or tacos or Costco rotisserie chicken
or whatever you want. But then we also have people
that are cleaning our drop in center. Have we give

(04:04):
away shower or sorry, we give away towels and washcloths
and basic needs and sweatshirts. But then, like I said,
we also have twelve homes throughout the city, so we're
always looking for yard work, fall cleanup, spring cleanup, things
like painting our houses. So we have volunteer projects for
groups of one to ten and then also groups of
fifty to seventy five. So there's a ton of ways

(04:26):
to get involved, and we encourage people to do so.

Speaker 1 (04:29):
And what does it show the youth when there's a
bunch of people that are suddenly on their side. You
mentioned that you certainly have some kids that you do
with that made some poor decisions, but they're kids, yes,
and kids make poor decisions. We oftentimes are risky when
we're that age. And boy, I got a soft heart

(04:49):
for any human being, right, so when they see that
there's a group of people that are there to support
them no matter what, that's kind of incredible.

Speaker 2 (04:56):
One hundred percent. We say that these eighteen year olds
are the exact same as every eighteen year old. I
was giving a talk once to aya youth and some
were engaged, some are interested, and some were falling asleep.
Some were thought I was funny, And then later that day,
I was giving a talk to MSU pre med students
and some were engaged, some are interested, some were falling asleep,

(05:17):
some thought I was funny, And it was this incredible
dichotomy of every eighteen year old is the same. Their
frontal lobes are still being fully developed, and so they
need a place where they can see other people that
are cheering them on, that are in their corner. And
so we have volunteers in the community rally around them.
They're reminded that they are dignified, that they're reminded that
they are worth it. And our young people need to

(05:39):
choose stability for themselves. They need to be the author
of that story. So they need to be the ones
choosing this. But they need to see that it's possible.
And so when Grand Rapids rallies around those people, when
people come to the drop in center and connect into them,
then they believe it for themselves in a different level.

Speaker 3 (05:56):
Aya, as you are why it's so unique and effective
here in Grand Rapids, West Michigan, and kudos to the
work that you and other volunteers are doing. But what
makes it unique here.

Speaker 2 (06:08):
It's unique because it is a specific demographic and it's
also very low barrier. So youth come in and they
might be couch surfing, they might be sleeping at Grandma's house,
they might be literally sleeping outside. They might be sober,
not sober, employed, not employed. But we want youth to
come as they are so that we can then talk
about stability. If you're going to help the poor, the marginalize,

(06:29):
the oppressed, you need to know their names first, and
so we deeply believe in the power of relationships. But
then we go on to say, all right, what is
your unique path disability. We don't have a certain program
that they follow, although we do have measurements and milestones
and engagements that we track, but we want to make
sure that youth are going after the path disability that

(06:51):
they want. And so it is a very specific relationship
focused model. And more than that, it is designed specifically
for the eighteen to twenty four year old, For the
fourteen to twenty four year old. I don't want to
be spoken to like I'm a thirty or forty or
fifty or sixty year old when I'm eighteen, But I
don't want to be spoken to like I'm a five, six,
seven or eight year old either, I want to go

(07:12):
to the place that knows me, and so we specialize
in that. And then we have thirty five community partners
that also rally around the youth as well, because we
need every nonprofit doing their thing, we need them to
lean into their expertise, and our expertise is this eighteen
year old demographic.

Speaker 1 (07:27):
Find out about how you can help and everything else
you need about Aya Youth Collective at Aya Youth dot org.
Aya Youth dot org. Vice President of Advancement, Andy Allen.
Great information. Thank you for your time today.

Speaker 2 (07:42):
Thank you so much for having me.

Speaker 1 (07:43):
This is Talk of the Town on news radio WOUD
thirteen hundred and one oh six nine FM