AT THE CROSSROADS

In 1997, ATC was founded by Rob Gitin and Taj Mustapha after they received an Echoing Green Fellowship to start a program for underserved homeless youth. They designed ATC’s nighttime outreach program to serve these disconnected young people and bring support directly to them, without lots of paperwork and long wait times. In May 2018 Charles Lerner joined our team as our new Executive Director. Under Charles’ leadership, ATC published its first-ever ad campaign, completed a strategic planning process that resulted in three strategic directions for 2020-2023, and launched a project to create a theory of change model that will guide our work moving forward. After 24 years, meeting youth where they are at and providing them with unconditional support still remains the foundation of At The Crossroads’ work. To this day, we have never kicked a single client out of our program.

Based on over two decades of experience, we know that building long-term caring relationships with the most disconnected young people on the streets results in the following outputs:

• Increased trust and comfort in ATC’s counselors over time.
• Increased access to food and essential supplies that help clients think beyond survival mode.
• Increased achievement of individual goals related to housing, mental and physical health needs, and school or employment.