Promise House serves as a beacon of hope to teens in crisis.

Texas is one of the leading states in the nation for homeless youth. In Dallas alone, single mothers and youth are the fastest growing segment of the homeless population, accounting for 26 percent of those in our community without a safe place to stay. The nine programs of Promise House are designed to equip homeless, at-risk, throwaway and pregnant teens with the tools and skills they need to become independent adults. We are the only agency in North Texas that provides such a comprehensive continuum of care for teens in need.

Society as a whole continues to make commitments to end chronic homelessness. Yet, we continue to ignore the plight of homeless teens. How do we expect to end chronic homelessness when we continue to ignore the young people who will become the next generation of chronically homeless adults?

Just because teens have grown-up bodies, it doesn’t mean they are grown up. These are children. And it is time for us to see these teens as our children -- lost and alone, terrified and lonely. They have been abandoned by their parents, neighborhoods, cities, by our country. They are abused, sold into prostitution, preyed upon, ignored, assaulted, even murdered. And they are getting younger and are staying on the street longer.

This year, it will take $1.4 million to meet the funding gap between government sources and the cost of care provided by Promise House. We will meet the basic needs of over 7,300 homeless, runaway and at-risk teens and their family members.

For many of these teens, we are not providing them a second chance for success – we are giving them the only chance they have ever had. Promise House is the only agency of its kind to offer free and unlimited group and individual counseling to its clients and their family members. It is also the only agency in North Texas to provide such a wide breadth of programming to encompass and address the many issues of homeless and runaway teens from truancy, mental health issues and abuse to chemical dependency prevention, gang involvement and delinquency.

Promise House is passionate about ending teen homelessness. We are asking each of you to become believers with us in the power of our programs to end teen homelessness and stop this generation from becoming the next generation of chronically homeless adults.

To become a believer, join with us by clicking here now.