Our CEO, Sherilyn Adams, recently joined Dr. Douglas Styles, Executive Director of Adolescent Counseling Services, for a conversation on The Nonprofit Report, hosted by Mark Oppenheim. The episode highlights how two Bay Area organizations—one focused on youth mental health, the other on ending youth homelessness—are working within a connected continuum of care to help young people build stable, hopeful futures.
A Continuum of Support Across the Bay Area
Sherilyn shared how Larkin Street’s work has expanded well beyond San Francisco, now reaching young people in Alameda County and preparing to launch services in San Mateo County. Last year alone, Larkin Street helped house nearly 700 young people across San Francisco and Alameda County, a reflection of the organization’s growing capacity to meet rising needs with real, tangible solutions.
She was clear that housing is a bridge, not an end point. The goal, she explained, is pairing safe housing with education, employment, and behavioral health support so young people can move toward independence with the tools and confidence to sustain it.
Prevention and Employment: Where Larkin Street Is Focused Next
Asked what she’s most energized by right now, Sherilyn pointed to two priorities:
- Prevention: reaching young people earlier, before they ever experience homelessness, through partnerships in high schools and data-informed outreach and
- Education and employment pathways, including non-traditional routes into careers, that meet young people where the future of work is heading, not just where it’s been.
“This is a critical time,” she noted. “This is a lost generation if we don’t really work together to figure out how to make sure they have education, employment, and the tools to be healthy and happy. That’s our collective missions…between the two organizations: to ensure young people safely—with optimism, hope, capacity, and tools—are able to thrive into their adulthood.”
Belonging, Empathy, and Human Connection
Much of the conversation centered on what young people need most in this moment: to feel seen, heard, and believed. Sherilyn spoke to Larkin Street’s practice of meeting young people exactly where they are as the first step toward trust, and eventually, transformation.
She and Dr. Styles also discussed the thoughtful role of technology and AI in youth services: as a tool that can sharpen staff effectiveness and free up time for direct, human connection—never as a replacement for it. Larkin Street’s approach reflects that same balance, using data and innovation to strengthen, not substitute, the relationships at the center of its work.
A Shared Mission, Two Complementary Approaches
The episode underscores the power of collaboration across the youth-services field. While Adolescent Counseling Services brings deep clinical expertise in adolescent mental health, we contribute decades of experience in housing, workforce development, and holistic support for young people experiencing or at risk of homelessness. Together, the conversation paints a fuller picture of what it takes to support Bay Area youth through one of life’s most pivotal transitions.
