Waypoint sets date for SleepOut seeking to raise youth homelessness awareness

ROCHESTER - Registration opens Saturday for the 8th annual Waypoint SleepOut, which is set for March 25.

The SleepOut is a night spent out in the cold to raise community consciousness about youth homelessness and to raise funds for services that fulfill critical needs and help to transform lives.

This year's event will be held remotely, with registered sleepers spending the night of March 25 outdoors in a socially distanced way at a place of their choosing, such as a back yard.

Currently, 1 in 10 young adults ages 18 to 25, and 1 in 30 adolescents, ages 13 to 17, endures some form of homelessness in America within a 12-month period, according to the latest report by Chapin Hall - University of Chicago. Estimates show approximately 15,000 youth are likely to experience some form of homelessness in New Hampshire this year. Last year, Waypoint had nearly 1,500 contacts with youth who were experiencing homelessness in the Granite State.

In New Hampshire, Waypoint is the sole provider of comprehensive services for youth experiencing homelessness. The agency provides survival aid basic needs relief and contributes to long-term stability and self-sufficiency through educational advocacy, job and life skills training, housing, access to mental health and addiction treatment services, and more.

Through the past seven years of the SleepOut event, the agency has raised enough to bridge federal funding gaps and maintain services, as well as to lay the groundwork for expansion.

Plans are under way for Waypoint to open a youth drop-in center in Concord and in Rochester, and an overnight shelter for youth in Manchester, which would be the only one of this kind in the State. Waypoint hopes that through community collaborations, public awareness and advocacy, the expansion will create a greater social safety net for more youth, and effectively get another step closer to ending youth homelessness in New Hampshire.

To register, donate, or get further information about SleepOut 2022, visit www.waypointnh.org/sleepout2022.

Waypoint's SleepOut 2022 is sponsored in part by PROCON, Bank of America, and Rock 101/iHeart Radio.