Nonprofit gives Lynn’s youth a helping hand

LYNN – Nineteen-year-old Luis doesn’t live at home, doesn’t have a traditional family to come home to every day from school. Instead the senior at Lynn Vocational Technical Institute, who declined to give his last name due to privacy issues, makes do with relatives’ couches or extra bedrooms.He is one of dozens, possibly more than 100, young adults in Greater Lynn who are homeless. A new Lynn nonprofit that opened in November aims to serve these youth, a fluid, vulnerable group whose needs don’t quite match with shelters for adults or families.”An intervention or an opportunity to excel at this age can have long-term positive implications for the individual and for our community,” said Gini Mazman, the director of The Haven Project.The Haven Project is a drop-in center open three evenings a week where caseworkers like Mazman connect youth to the church’s food pantry, clothing, short-term shelter options and – more importantly for Luis – an adult shoulder to lean on.”It’s not only the food, she gave me advice on everything,” Luis said of Mazman over dinner of pulled pork sandwiches, chips, iced tea and chocolate chip cookies on a recent frigid evening. “Helped me stay in school, get a job.”Luis said he looks forward to visiting The Haven Project, a one-room operation on the second floor of East Coast International Church on Munroe Street in Lynn, at least once a week.When he does come by, Mazman has hot meals laid out next to plastic silverware. A corkboard on the adjacent wall posts local job openings; ones that don’t require a high school diploma or GED are highlighted. Laptops with an Internet connection are available, and on the other end of the room, couches face windowed walls and a TV. By the door, motivational quotes are written on a whiteboard where Mazman also set out a large plastic jar of mini-size toiletries.Mazman, who has a background of working with disadvantaged youth on the North Shore, said she has a two-pronged approach to serving Luis and the approximately 30 young adults who have walked into her nonprofit this winter.”First, it’s like the triage approach,” Mazman said, explaining she provides them with food, warm-weather clothes and temporary shelter as best she can.From there, she tries to engage the youth by encouraging them to go back to or stay in school. She helps them get an ID and apply for jobs, food stamps or apartments so they can move to more permanent shelter. Later this month she will host life-skills classes with guest speakers.The goal, she said, is to get these young adults on their feet and prevent them from making mistakes that could reverberate for a lifetime.”Right now they’re at an age that they can make some decisions that will really impact, long term, their lives,” she said.Mazman works closely with Lynn Public Schools’ Homeless Education Liaison Deborah Barnard to identify and serve the youth. Barnard said she knows of at least 104 students who are homeless or in a non-traditional living situation; Mazman said Lynn has the third-highest count of homeless young adults ages 17-24 in the state.Barnard said connecting these students to The Haven Project has become one of the first things she does when students ask her for help.”It’s my only real resource for these kids, because there really isn’t a whole lot of options for teens who are homeless, who are couch-surfing,” she said.Luis said The Haven Project has become like an escape for him from his daily troubles. He said he hopes more of his friends who are in similar situations find The Haven Project, just like he did.”It’s just amazing. Amazing having somebody like Gini supporting Lynn,” he said. “And I wish more people (would) come ? because from her advice, people will learn, and from there, they could be successful in what they want to be in life and not living in the street.”How to Help The Haven Project is currently supported by a small grant, with donations of the space, utilities, food and clothes from East Coast Internationa