Opportunities PA Hosts Event Focusing on Homeless Youth

It was a scavenger hunt with a message in Old City Saturday afternoon.
KYW's Jim Melwert reports the scavenger hunt, hosted by Opportunities PA, is designed to raise awareness about the needs of homeless youth in Philadelphia.

Opportunities founder and CEO Justina Shaw:

"At each site, either there's a formerly homeless teen talking about their story talking about how Opportunities helped them, or some interesting stat that people may not have known."

For example, she says, many homeless people don't have a mental illness, they just hit a string of bad luck including volunteer, Brandon Stokes, who spent a year on the streets:

"Basically the economy went bad, parents lost their jobs, they couldn't afford to keep us together, and we had to split up."

But Brandon says, thanks to help from Opportunities, he got his G.E.D., found a job, a place to live and is starting community college in the fall.