Our mission is to provide a safe, secure housing option for youth and young adults who are homeless, at risk of homelessness, or recently aged out of the foster care system. We work to stabilize their routine and help them find hope and healing.
Our vision is that all young people who have been exploited, homeless, or aged out of foster care are empowered to live meaningful, self-sufficient adult lives.
In all that we do, we will:
For many of us, when we look back on our youth, we feel loved and included and cherish the carefree joy that young adulthood provided. For Tina Gillihan, her memories include her parents using illegal drugs and periods when she and her family experienced homelessness. She also experienced neglect, child sexual abuse, and domestic violence. As a result, Tina was forced to deal with many of the complex mental health issues that the BDC participants also go through. Tina will tell you that to be homeless means to forego dreaming of the future and focus on survival and secrecy. It wasn’t until community members stepped in to support her that she found a way to dream again. Fueled by this support, she beat the odds as one in four homeless youth become homeless adults. In 2017, Tina took these experiences and founded Basin Dream Center – the Permian Basin’s only transitional home for youth and young adults ages 17 to 26 who experience homelessness, are at risk of homelessness, or soon to be exited from foster care.
BDC opened its first female transitional home in 2018 and later a male home in 2021. Since then, BDC has changed the life trajectory of over one hundred youth and young adults. In 2023 alone, BDC served 33 youth (a 30% intake increase from 2022). 80% of the youth had experienced the trauma of human trafficking. At BDC, they received comprehensive case, including a free home, education support, life skills training, employment assistance, financial literacy guidance, and trauma-informed care. Ten of these young adults now live independently in an apartment and are building a career path; ten others were successfully placed with a caring family member, and the others are still receiving the support they need to overcome homelessness.
Transitional Living: Our current program can provide assistance for up to 16 residents. We have the foundations in place to expand this program and steadily increase the number of youth and young adults that can participate and take advantage of this resource.
Emergency Youth Shelter: With our growing population, West Texas is in great need of an emergency youth shelter that is open to the public. Here, anyone 12-26 can walk in and have nutritional, hygiene and safety needs met. From there, our case managers will be able to contact the appropriate person to help the person, or begin the process of bringing them into our transitional living program. Our construction plans include 26 beds, individual lockers and showers.
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