Amy Phelan
AHO Youth Ambassador
Amy Phelan, at age 25
Amy was homeless in Marin for 4 years. With
the assistance of AHO she now has her own apartment and she's working
and raising her one year old son with his father. Ms. Phelan has been
involved with the Ambassadors project for 3 1/2 years as peer mentor,
Youth Ambassador of Hope, and spokesperson of her experience. She was a
member of the AHO planning committee for the “Building Youth Leaders Now, and for the Future” forum at Dominican University of California.
At the forum, she participated on the panel with community and
political leaders including Assemblyman Jared Huffman, Mayor Al Boro, VP
Programs for the Marin Community Foundation Marsha Bonner and Nell
Bernstein an award winning journalist. In May 2007, she
led a workshop on how to engage the community around a critical youth
issue at the State CHMACY conference in Asilomar, CA. Kate Kelly,
Channel 5 news anchor interviewed Ms. Phelan for a special feature on
youth homelessness in Marin. Recently, Cheryl Jennings from ABC news in San
Francisco interviewed her for a special on youth homelessness that
aired on July 21 and 25, 2008. She is featured in the AHO documentary “Youth Homelessness... a Growing Trend” which aired on PBS on May 20th, 2008 and on January 4th 2009. For the past 7 years Amy has participated in the Italian Street Painting festival in San
Rafael. Her goals are to create a healthy life for herself and her son,
and to realize her dream of becoming a financially secure artist.