Point Source Youth

PSY Youth Consultant Koda reflects on the pre-colonial sacred stones of the Kapaemahu, the history of māhū identity in Hawaiian culture, and what it means to grow up in a world that turns sacred identities into slurs.

Koda shares how isolation, discrimination, and trauma contributed to becoming homeless at 16 and again at 19 — and how the uplift of LGBTQ+ identity during Pride can help young people move through powerlessness and toward stability.

Side hustle. New job. Pay raise. What do they all have in common? Soft skills.

Chino expains your qualifications might make you deserving of a raise, but your soft skills are what get you in the room to ask for it.

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For Justin Smith, PSY Board Member and Director of the Campaign to End AIDS at Positive Impact Health Centers, one of those works is Tongues Untied — Marlon Riggs’ groundbreaking film centering Black gay men, HIV, sexuality, shame, beauty, and survival. This film was one of the first times he saw Black gay men who looked like him and loved like him reflected back. That visibility was life-affirming. And it connects directly to our work at PSY. Because LGBTQ youth do not just need to be seen after they are in crisis. They need safety, housing, care, and community before crisis begins. As Justin reminds us, housing is foundational to health. Having a place to call home shapes whether young people can thrive.

You can’t tell the story of Pride without talking about youth homelessness. At Stonewall, LGBTQ+ young people, including young people who were homeless or had been pushed out of their homes, were not just witnesses to history. They helped make it. More than 50 years later, LGBTQ+ youth are still far more likely to experience homelessness. Nearly 1 in 3 LGBTQ+ young people experience homelessness at some point in their lives. That's twice the rate of young people who are not LGBTQ+. As we revisit the origins of Pride, we also have to imagine a future where no young person has to survive homelessness to become part of history.

Sent out a bunch of job applications and still not hearing back? There's a reason for that.

Youth consultant Marco shares a simple career move: customize your resume for every job you apply to. It shows employers you already speak their language and have what they're looking for.

For more tips: pointsourceyouth.org/worth-it

Thank you to KHON2 for spotlighting PSY’s work with local Hawai‘i partners, Partners in Care, Hawai‘i Health & Harm Reduction Center, Youth Outreach, and Residential Youth Services & Empowerment, to help young people stay housed before a crisis becomes homelessness. This program pairs flexible cash with services and a youth-created housing plan.
Now, we’re bringing that model to Hawai‘i.