NH has new group home for LGBTQ youth
Space provides living environment for ages 12 to 19
In April, The Home for Little Wanderers, a Boston-based non-profit, opened a new facility in Keene, NH, designed for up to eight LGBTQ young people aged 12 to 19. The 6,700 square foot facility called Unity House will also operate on a community-based system with 18 staff members to help facilitate those individuals who come through the state’s Division for Children, Youth, and Families (DCYF).
“For many years, our Massachusetts-based program has served clients from New Hampshire,” explained Vice President of Community Services Matthew McCall, LCSW, in a press release. “The opening of this program will allow us to support New Hampshire kids in New Hampshire, keeping them closer to their communities, their families, and their future surroundings for their adult lives.”
Lesli Suggs, M.S., The Home for Little Wanderers’ chief executive officer and president, spoke about the interest surrounding this type of facility and the state’s need for it.
When the facility opened on April 1, it was with a waiting list of kids from the DCYF. The staff, which includes residential counselors, clinicians, and program directors on site 24/7, interviews those recommended for Unity House to see if it is a good fit for them.
“It’s a home, like any regular living environment,” she said. “The kids go to school, have their after-school activities. But there’s a therapeutic component with groups or skills training.”
With the inclusion of Unity House in Keene, The Home for Little Wanderers is now in New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and New York City. While there is hope to eventually expand the program, she said for now, the goal is to concentrate on the three areas and do them well.
In an interview with McCall, he said the facility could take up to 12 kids, but there is a caveat. He said if giving individual care and community orientation is the goal, a small program is appropriate and eight may be the perfect number.
He described the home-like experience at Unity House. There are family-style meals of breakfast and dinner. After daytime activities, they may have a group meeting to check in and then have an outing together.
“Throughout the week, there are groups we run, like independent living skills, recovery from trauma. Each kid has individual therapy as well as family therapy,” he said. “We may work out their psychopharmacology if necessary. There’s individual stuff for each kid. Right now, we have a lot more one-on-one independent living because it is an individual need for those people.”
He said that day they were planning to take the kids to a lacrosse game and then out for ice cream.
“A young person is going to benefit from an environment with other LGBTQ people,” he said, “people who have been through similar challenges.”
Currently, there are five kids staying at Unity with a sixth on the way. All of them are in the 16- to 18-year-old range, but that demographic is expected to shift and change over time.
McCall said they will probably group younger kids with one cohort and older teens with another. So far, the feedback on this program has been very positive.
“The staff are drawn here because they have experience themselves or want to have experience,” he said. “They bring more knowledge, skill, and ability. We have one clinical coordinator who moved from New Jersey to New Hampshire because they felt this was their calling to work in this field.”
According to an April report from New Hampshire Public Radio, lawmakers are considering several bills that would restrict the rights of transgender youth. So, Unity House comes at a critical time. While it may be the first of its kind in the state, proponents hope it will not be the last.