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Art Center showcases Transitional Living Program

By James Dobbs 4 min read

PARKERSBURG -- On Thursday, the Transitional Living Program worked with the Parkersburg Art Center to showcase the art of past and present youth in the program.

The Transitional Living Program is in association with the Children's Home Society of West Virginia. The Society collaborates with other organizations and institutions in order to help children, up to the age of 22, grow up with a family, and helps equip those families with the tools and support that may be needed.

The Transitional Living Program is one of the Society's programs, for ages 16 to 22, that helps young adults transition to adulthood by providing them assistance with housing, life skills training, educational support, and vocational assistance. The program is designed to identify and serve homeless youth with transitional living services.

Brett Parsons, a member of the Transitional Living Program, has been with the program for four months.

"It means a lot," said Parsons. "It really helped me in a very tough spot, we were honestly on the verge of losing our apartment."

He explained that the program helped almost instantly after he applied to join.

"It really helped me a lot because I didn't know what I was going to do," he said. "I felt like a failing father."

Parsons mentioned how grateful he was for the program, and how amazed he was with the employees and all of the work they put forward.

"They assist you on almost anything you ask about," he said. "There's not really much that, like, they have not really done for us."

Parsons said the program gave his family the art supplies to participate in the exhibit and even helped his family receive his son's birth certificate and his Social Security card, when the hospital didn't give it to them.

Parsons is a stay at home father, and lives in an apartment with his son and significant other.

"He's a handful sometimes but he's a little ball of joy," he said, talking about his son. "Such a smiley little baby."

Parsons said being a father means a lot to him. He mentioned that he didn't have a father growing up.

"So being a father is just someone who is dependable, someone who you can rely on, talk to," he explained. "I just want to be the father I didn't have."

Michelle Pritchett, a transitional living social worker, has been with the program for three years.

"You don't really ever think about how many youth are homeless and how many youth are kicked out and it's been a stunning and beautiful experience to see these youths come from these places of despair and find hope," she explained.

Pritchett said the community doesn't understand the homeless problem in Parkersburg. She said it is large and in the hundreds.

"We help them with resources for pretty much anything that they need assistance with or advice," she said.

She explained that the program offers secure and safe housing, training on housing issues, life skills, finance skills, and basic home maintenance, among other things. The Transitional Living Program also buys furniture and other essentials when moving a youth into an apartment, and also pays 100 percent of the rent for the first three months.

"I'm proud to be a part of it and Society does a lot for families and youths," she said. "It's good to be part of an organization that has a holistic approach on the family."

She said that the program has an 86 percent success rate.

"Those are youth that leave our program that are successfully housed, that are employed, that consider themselves to be in a safe environment and that have positive community connections..," she explained.

The last day to view the exhibit is November 4.

Starting at /week.