When you’re walking the streets of downtown, you might be familiar with the guy who sleeps by the Subway, or the jazz man who plays his horn at various street corners.
But there’s another side to homelessness in Detroit. One that isn’t often seen, and since it’s often buried in the under-covered corners of the city, forgotten.
It’s Detroit’s youth homeless population that estimates peg at about 20,000 young people.
To help get the ball rolling on this project, the well known Flint Eastwood will be doing a concert in an intimate venue, the basement of the Detroit Institute of Music Education (DIME) along with other acts Jena Irene Asciutto who competed in American Idol and electric soul artist Britney Stoney.
Tunes fire up at 7 p.m. on Monday 2/1/16 and admission is $19.95 online or at the door with proceeds going to Start From Here’s “frontline” or local partner, The Ruthe Ellis Center. Cocktails from Two James will be available, as well.
So what is the Ruth Ellis Center? Founded in 1999, the Ruth Ellis Center has been serving Detroit’s young people with short-term and long-term residential safe spaces and support services for runaway, homeless and at-risk lesbian, gay, bi-attractional, transgender and questioning youth and is based in Highland Park.
The event is part of a national “Start From Here” initiative. Earlier in the day (1 p.m.), there will be a panel featuring Blair Griffith, reigning Miss Colorado when her family was experiencing homelessness; Caleb White, founder of The Caleb White Project, a Detroit-based nonprofit dedicated to helping those in need; Meghan Takashima, City of Detroit Executive Manager and the moderator will be Jerry Peterson from the Ruth Ellis Center in Detroit.
The Detroit event on Monday acts as the launch of a four month campaign that partners Start from Here with CrowdRise. Their goal is to raise $40,000, awareness and have a positive impact on behalf of Detroit’s homeless and housing unstable youth.