LifeWorks: A Youth Full Mission

Providing a Home, Education, & Healing

Words by Sommer Brugal Photos by Eric Morales

Every organization has a mission, a belief that drives its staff to keep moving forward. Within that mission is one core focus. For LifeWorks, an organization advocating for youth and families seeking self-sufficiency, that focuses on youth and young adults, specifically those aging out of foster care, experiencing homelessness, and those who’ve interacted with the juvenile justice system.

“We’re kind of a fork in the road,” says Susan McDowell, LifeWorks’ executive director. The young adults, many who’ve experienced complex trauma and multiple transitions, “don’t really fit into child services anymore or adult services,” she explains.

Since its founding in 1998, LifeWorks has grown into an organization that offers more than a dozen programs aimed to support youth and families and serves more than 4,000 units annually: families, individuals or households. Through its programming, LifeWorks provides services to ensure youth have a place to call home, an opportunity to learn and work, and the chance to heal.

The spectrum of programming offered further underscores the value-
based organization’s emphasis on self-sufficiency and encourages these young adults to be the experts in their own lives. Those who come to LifeWorks – whether through referrals or recommendations – decide for themselves what services they want to engage in.

Though youth have been central to the organization’s mission from the start, more recently LifeWorks further narrowed its focus. In 2018, alongside partner organizations, LifeWorks launched a movement to end youth homelessness in Austin by making it rare, brief, and nonrecurring.
Since then, the movement reduced homelessness in Austin by 29% and has moved more than 600 youth experiencing homelessness to permanent housing. According to Susan, two hundred of those moved have occurred since the onset of the COVID-19.

“Five years ago, we were the largest provider for housing youth and young adults in Austin,” she notes. “We were really good at it, but we were never able to reduce the number of youth experiencing homelessness.”

Now, the organization is a leader in a movement to help solve a problem. “We know we’re making a big difference,” Susan says. Moving forward, their staff has a comprehensive plan to achieve “functional zero,” meaning the amount of housing and services available is equal to or greater than youth who fall into homelessness every month. Susan believes they’re about one year out from achieving that goal.

At LifeWorks, one core belief connects every pillar and effort, and everyone deserves a good life. For Susan and her dedicated staff, “it’s as simple as that.”

Contact:
lifeworksaustin.org
(512)735-2400