By Stu Jackson
LOS ANGELES – According to Covenant House of California (CHC)'s website, 12,000 youth experience homelessness each night in this state.
CHC believes no young person deserves that, so it works to provide a wide range of support services and structure for homeless California youth ages 18-24 to help them succeed in independence.
The organization has a large staff of directors carrying out that mission, including Director of Support Services Anthony Conley. His work in doing so is why he was recently recognized as the Rams' ninth "pLAymaker" honoree of 2024.
"When you're a playmaker, it takes so many people to make that play," Conley said during a Thanksgiving dinner put on by CHC last month. "So getting this recognition just makes me think about my team and how much effort we put into everything we do, and I think it's just a good reflection of the hard work we put in, because we do make plays here every day. Sometimes they don't turn out the best, but we always come back again. And this is just a reflection of our team and just means so much, because that means we're doing the work, and that makes me happy."
CHC offers four core housing programs for homeless youth, including:
- Shelter housing that addresses basic human needs and urgent medical care (Safe Haven).
- Two-year on-site transitional living program (Rights of Passage).
- Two year off-site transitional living program (Supportive Apartment Programs).
- Permanent housing, supported by CHC up to 24 months, before youth takes over.
More than 83,000 nights of housing and nearly 700 residential youth have been serving in residential programs, while 232 youth have slept in a Covenant House bed each night.
Support Services including outreach, medical and mental health, career, educational and spiritual ministry have served more than 2,800 youth, nearly 400,000 meals and provided more than 2,200 medical visits.
"So our mission at Covenant House California, we support 18- to 24-year-olds that are formerly unhoused, and we have over 100 beds on site," Conley said. "We have career services, we have clinic, we have all the wraparound services to support them. Our main goal is to make sure they feel seen. And from that, we help them give everything they need to move into their home. But we really make sure they have community. Without community, moving into a place is lonely. So that's what we do the most, is unconditional love."
For Conley, inspire change simply means "empathy."
"Recognizing that any of us could be just like the young people here," Johnson said. "We're just one paycheck away, one injury, one parent that's lost. So to be a change-maker, to know that somebody can step in somebody's lives when those things happen, and really create a difference."
And while feeling seen is a key component to CHC's mission in serving its youth, it also applies to how Conley said others can inspire change in their own communities.
"Like tonight, the intention of having a circle is because without it ... it takes a circle, it takes a community to get around somebody and support. So everybody needs that circle. If we want to change, we got to create circles around people, not just the x's."
