PORTSMOUTH, Va. — A Portsmouth nonprofit is offering free housing, job assistance and life skills training to young adults ages 18 to 24 who have aged out of foster care.
Theresa Holloway founded We Have Dreams 2 after seeing young people who had left the foster care system struggling with housing and jobs. To make room for 10 young men, she moved out of her McDaniel Street home and into a small apartment, leaving nearly everything behind.
"Only thing I left with was my clothes," Holloway said. "I left everything here for them because they didn't have and some of them still don't have."
The young men will temporarily live in the furnished, five-bedroom home. We Have Dreams 2 is now partnering with the city of Portsmouth and is accepting 10 males between the ages of 18 and 24 into its first group.
The program has three phases. In the first phase, residents build a resume and find a job. The second phase transitions them into an apartment together as roommates, where they will learn to pay their own bills with assistance. Every participant will be paired with a mentor — and the nonprofit is currently looking for people to fill those roles — before the group graduates out of the program together.
Holloway started the nonprofit with her nephew, Thomas Lewis, and said her experience as a foster mom showed her how urgent the need is.
"There's a lot of children, they're adults now, but children, who foster out and a lot of them become homeless because they don't know how to finance... they don't know what it costs to be in an apartment," Holloway said.
She said visits to a local homeless shelter made the problem impossible to ignore.
"I started going to the homeless shelter and seeing the age group and seeing them in the street. And I see there's no room for them. There's room for them but there's no place in society to help them get to where they need to be," Holloway said.
Kevin Lawrence, who also runs a Portsmouth nonprofit serving young people, said the home has the potential to transform lives.
"My hope would be one day, someone that completes this program can purchase a home in a neighborhood like this and reach their dreams," Lawrence said.
Applications to live in the home, opportunities to mentor and donations are now open.
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