Outreach, Inc.


Outreach Blog

Meet Anthony Dumas

In April, Anthony Dumas joined the Outreach team as the Drop-In Center Coordinator. A lifelong resident of Indianapolis, Anthony lives with his wife Sonna and six children (Vaughn, M.J., Calenia, Andre, Drew and Alexandra) on the city’s Eastside.

Five Star Dance Challenge

Are you a fan of Ballroom or just sliding across the hardwoods in your socks? (You know who you are!)

Graceful legs will be supporting Outreach on Channel 6 (ABC) through an Indiana ballroom competition. Five Star Dance Challenge is a dance show that will air each Sunday throughout April, Channel 6 @ 12 p.m.

It's a competition and Outreach needs your vote!

April Spotlight: Mental Health

At 19, Brian Paul was homeless. These days, he’s a Care Coordinator for Adult and Child (one of Outreach’s strategic partners) where he counsels many of our young men and women who are dealing with mental health issues, and helps connect them to needed services. This month, we took a few minutes to chat with Brian about mental health and youth homelessness.

Outreach: What are some of the factors that can lead to mental health issues for homeless youth?

Brian: I’ve yet to meet any homeless youth who haven’t experienced horrific trauma. A lot of homeless youth were raised in volatile households. Many were sexually abused. A fairly large number of them simply weren’t wanted. Many have experienced bad foster care situations.

Because of this, there are a lot of PTSD issues, depression, anxiety and a general difficulty moving forward with their lives. I kind of expect when I’m meeting someone young, that they have a tough story to tell.

O: For someone who has been through such trauma, what does the road to healing look like?

B: It usually starts with a relationship. Anyone who’s been hurt has obviously been hurt in relationship with other people. But we’re also healed through healthy relationships, the kind of relationships that are formed at Outreach.

For some youth, having medication is a good starting point. Sometimes they feel like they’re drowning and medication can help them get their head above water, so that they can get therapy and move toward healing.

It’s not always the same for everybody. A lot of times it looks like finding employment or housing. When people start succeeding in one area, you hope it starts to snowball into other areas.

O: How important is the spiritual when it comes to mental health?

B: To me, it’s an incredibly important thing. A person’s faith is one of the biggest protective factors when it comes to someone’s safety. Our agency does a great job of encouraging folks to engage in activities that are helpful in their recovery--of which faith or spiritually are often a key component. I have been very impressed with the work Outreach does and greatly value the relationship our two agencies have formed.

O: How do Outreach and Adult and Child work together to help encourage this healing?

B: Usually, there are a lot of hoops to go through, but because of Outreach, the gap has been eliminated. Transportation isn’t an issue, because I meet directly with youth at the Outreach Drop In Center.

One of the things I’ve learned is that the 18-24 crowd is the population that’s really missing, being forgotten, for whatever reason. Often, shelters don’t work out for them. So, places like Outreach are great.

O: What does success look like for someone who has faced these struggles?

B: It’s different for everyone. One of the things I ask people early on is, What are your life goals? And I try to help them move in that direction. It might be to earn their GED, or go to college, or own their own home.

I have lots of hope for people. From a personal level, I was homeless at 19. I can look at people and say, "I know what it’s like and I can tell you that things can get better."

2013 Indiana Service Challenge

Your company could help us win money!

Companies With A Mission (CWAM) is giving away $200,000 to Indiana charities through the Indiana Service Challenge. And you can help us win some of the dollars!

Here’s how:

Outreach 2012 Annual Report

Outreach, Inc. is excited to present our 2012 Annual Report: "Cycles of Hope". Take a few minutes to see what we accomplished in 2012 and what we're excited about for 2013, including and a new vision for transforming the lives of homeless youth in Indianapolis.

From Foster Care to Outreach Board

By Jenny Slagle

Before Outreach, “life was like a roller coaster,” said Latoya. After her mother lost custody, Latoya and her siblings floated in and out of group homes and foster care, ultimately getting adopted by their great-great-grandmother.

“Everything was good while she was alive,” Latoya says. Her great-great-grandmother made sure that they had everything they needed. But when Latoya was 12 or 13 her great-great-grandmother passed away and everything changed.

Latoya and her siblings went to live with their great-uncle, who was either absent or drunk and angry. Latoya and her siblings were forced to fend for themselves, believing that there was no one who cared enough about them to offer a way out.

Being the oldest girl, Latoya took it upon herself to care for her brothers and sisters. It was a struggle to keep up with school while she was taking care of them, but she promised her siblings that she would one day graduate.

For a long time, she had walked by the Outreach Drop-In Center and had always wondered about what was inside. But it wasn’t until the night her great-uncle threw her out that she finally called the Outreach hotline.

“I can honestly say that Outreach, Inc. changed my life 100 percent,” she says.

The case managers at Outreach became a source of support to her, encouraging her to push toward her dream of graduating from high school.

Meanwhile, Latoya’s uncle continued to throw her out of his house, and on any given night, she did not know if she was going to have somewhere to stay.

There was one night that she was thrown out in the snow in the middle of the night. At the point of desperation she called her case manager. “She was there,” Latoya says, “She made sure I had somewhere to stay for that night, and the next morning she came and got me.”

After that, her case manager was able to get Latoya into a group home called Stop Over, where she stayed for a few months. During that time she helped Latoya find a job and an apartment, making sure Latoya had furniture and anything else she needed to make it a place that she could call home. Latoya recalls, “It wasn’t easy, but she worked with me through the hard, you know, making sure I got what I needed.”

Through the encouragement of Outreach staff, Latoya graduated high school and is currently enrolled at Ivy Tech, working towards her associate’s degree in human management, with plans to transfer to IUPUI for social work. She also recently became a member of the Board of Directors for Outreach.

“It’s something that’s really exciting for me, just a way for me to give back, for me to be able to help out in any way I can, but also help me continue to grow, continue to be a part of the amazing people that helped change my life completely.”

Jenny Slagle is a junior at IUPUI, majoring in communication studies. She is an intern at Outreach.