When home isn’t an option, hope is

Starting Right, Now serves homeless youth aged 15 to 19 who have decided to leave their homes for safety reasons. Serving Hillsborough and Pinellas counties, the organization provides housing, mentorship and other wraparound services for teens who are not living with a parent or guardian and are outside the foster care system.

These teenagers are often overlooked as they have not been removed from their homes by the Department of Children and Families. Instead, they’ve made the decision to leave on their own due to abuse, neglect or other personal reasons.

Raymond James has graciously granted the organization multiyear funding to offset the cost of housing expenses and social services for its recipients. The firm’s Ready for School initiative aims to remove barriers for children inside and outside of the classroom, which aligns with the powerful Starting Right, Now mission.

Getting its start

The nonprofit began two decades ago when the founder Vicki Sokolik’s children told her about a classmate who was homeless, dropping out of school and in need of support. Vicki stepped in, mentoring the teen and helping them secure housing, gain employment, become financially literate, graduate high school and complete college applications and scholarships.

Today, Starting Right, Now, offers permanent housing in both Hillsborough and Pinellas counties and provides holistic programming that goes beyond physiological and safety needs. The team assists teens with Medicaid, food stamps, healthcare, transportation, mentorship, academic support and future planning. Through financial literacy classes and after-school programs focused on life skills, the organization empowers teens to build stability and independence.

Empowering youth

Youth are primarily referred to Starting Right, Now by the Pinellas and Hillsborough school districts. It’s voluntary to be in the program, and participants must meet strict eligibility requirements. There is a facility in each county that houses about 35 youth, although the organization currently houses about 40 high school students between both facilities. There is a housing manager that lives on campus with the teens and teams of professionals who deliver specific services on a regular basis. After leaving the program, Starting Right, Now follows its graduates into their next chapter, whether it’s postsecondary education, vocational training, military enrollment or career opportunities.

Starting Right, Now is proud of its success rate: 97% of students from the program have graduated high school, which is significantly higher than the national average graduation rate of homeless youth, at 68%, and even the general graduation rate of all students, 87%. On average, since 2015, the senior class earns more than $800,000 in scholarships and financial aid to go on to postsecondary schooling without debt. “We help them manage and budget their money because we want to teach them how to be good stewards of that money that’s been granted to them,” shared Starting Right, Now grant writer Cameron Sokolik.

Steve Raney, executive chairman, Raymond James Bank, and board member of Starting Right, Now adds, “The outcomes have been amazing. Students have been successful at trades, gone into the military, gone to college and graduated. We’re talking about doctors, lawyers and schoolteachers. It’s a very compelling success rate.”

The organization is especially proud of the feedback they receive from student surveys. Students say they have a better understanding of their own mental health and how to treat it. They feel surrounded by positive role models and by people who care about them. These are important breakthroughs because self-harm tendencies and suicide are not uncommon among homeless youth.

The nonprofit’s work goes even further than helping teens through trying times. Founder Vicki Sokolik experience running Starting Right, Now made her recognize that these teens needed more than support; they needed rights. Vicki has coauthored 10 laws in Florida to protect unaccompanied homeless youth, including granting them access to identification documents and Medicaid benefits. She continues to work on getting similar laws passed on a national level.

A rewarding partnership

Raymond James has been a longtime supporter of Starting Right, Now, but the relationship deepened about eight years ago when the nonprofit was gifted a school that was no longer used by the Pinellas County School District. The building needed major renovations to become the second housing facility, and Raymond James stepped up with a capital gift to help complete the renovation. That moment was the start of a stronger partnership between the organizations.

The most recent multiyear grant comes at a pivotal time as Starting Right, Now scales up to support more kids who need their services. “This grant is amazing news because it’s multiyear funding. It was also very open-ended and proposed as, ‘What are your dreams for your organization and this funding?’ So, we’re very thankful for this partnership,” Cameron says, appreciatively.

Raney has seen firsthand the direct impact of this program. Some of the Starting Right, Now graduates of have gone on to work at Raymond James, launching successful careers. He says, “I don’t know a better way to leverage our dollars than these types of investments. The positive impact we have on these students translates to them becoming great contributors in our communities.”

Cameron says that Starting Right, Now couldn’t do it without companies like Raymond James. “Partnering with local companies is hopeful because it advances our mission to help more youth, which helps the community at large,” he explains. “We’re strengthening the community for everyone and creating a world in which everyone feels safe, loved and healthy.”

[Source] SchoolHouse Connection; National Center for Education Statistics