Manhattan College to Host Youth Homelessness and Human Trafficking Presentation

Kevin Ryan, CEO and president of Covenant House, will speak at Manhattan College on Wednesday, Feb. 11 at 5 p.m. about youth homelessness and human trafficking. Covenant House is an international organization that provides essential care and vital services to homeless, abandoned, abused, trafficked and exploited youth.

Ryan is a lawyer, author, activist and child advocate who has led Covenant House since 2009. Before leading Covenant House, Ryan was appointed as New Jersey’s first child advocate. His investigative work uncovered inhumane conditions and overcrowding at New Jersey’s juvenile detention centers and failures in the child welfare system that eventually were reformed.

Under Ryan’s leadership at Covenant House, new homes for youths have been opened in Alaska, Atlanta, Philadelphia and Mexico City. He also initiated the Sleep Out fundraisers that raise awareness and funds to prevent youth homelessness. Since the inception of the Sleep Outs in 2011, the fundraisers have spread to six countries and raised more than $4 million.

Ryan is the co-author with Tina Kelley of Almost Home, a national bestseller, and is also a contributor to The Huffington Post.

Covenant House is the largest privately funded charity in the Americas with houses in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Guatemala, Nicaragua and Honduras. In 2014, Covenant House street outreach teams and residential and community service center programs cared for more than 50,000 at-risk and homeless youths in 21 cities in the U.S., Canada and Central America.

Covenant House also provides a wide array of in-house training programs, including health care, educational support, job readiness and skills training, drug abuse treatment and legal and mental health services.

The event will be held in the fifth floor Great Room of the Raymond W. Kelly ’63 Student Commons and is open to all students, faculty, staff and the general public. The event is sponsored by Campus Ministry and Social Action, the Labor Studies department, Office of Career Pathways, Lasallian Outreach Collaborative, Catholic Relief Services Campus Ambassadors and LGBT Friends and Allies. For more information, please contact Kathleen Von Euw, coordinator of community partnerships and service, at kathleen.voneuw@manhattan.edu or at (718) 862-8106.