DAYTON, Ohio (WDTN) — The Miami Valley’s only youth homeless shelter has received a large grant to focus on mental health care.
Daybreak in downtown Dayton serves hundreds of kids, teens and young adults each year. This grant will allow the shelter to serve the community in even more ways.
“I don’t know where I would be without Daybreak,” said Matt Minor, Daybreak residential specialist lead. “The help that I got here was probably some help that I don’t think I would have gotten at a lot of places.”
Just a few years ago in 2021, Matt Minor was living our of his car. That is, until he was connected with all of the services offered at Daybreak.
“I was shocked at the time, you know, coming from an area that didn’t have a lot of shelters or a lot of support. It was just really incredible to come out here and see that, you know, there’s a whole team of people who are working really hard to help youth in that age,” said Minor.
Minor is just one of countless youth experiencing homelessness helped at Daybreak.
Daybreak’s CEO Alisha Murray says one of the most challenging factors is mental health.
“We have discovered that there’s many factors that play a role in why a person would be having housing instability,” said Alisha Murray, Daybreak CEO. “Whether it’s due to complex trauma in their childhood or just coming into a mental illness as they continue to age.”
Daybreak recently received a $175,000 grant from the Greater Dayton Brain Health Foundation. That grant will help Daybreak continue to provide mental health services and give staff the tools they need to help youth overcome hurdles preventing them from getting into safe, stable housing.
“As the landscape in our community continues to change with what we’re seeing our youth face, it just kind of ensures that we are going to stick around and provide those needed services to our youth so that it can truly help them,” said Murray.
As for Minor, after getting the help he needed at Daybreak, he now works here.
“I fell in love with the work that we do, and the population that we work with,” said Minor.
To learn more about Daybreak, visit their website.