iCare Home Base · Youth experiencing homelessness
Every young person deserves a place to land
A safe place to eat, rest, get clean and get help, with a caring adult who stays with you until you're stable.
Who Home Base is for
Homelessness doesn't always look the way people expect
Home Base serves young people who don't have a safe, stable place to sleep, whether they're on their own or with family.
- Staying with friends or couch-surfing
- Living in a shelter
- Staying in a motel
- Sleeping in a car or outside
- On your own without a parent or guardian
- About to lose housing
Need help tonight?
If you're in immediate danger, call 911.
- National Runaway Safeline: call 1-800-786-2929 (1-800-RUNAWAY) or chat at 1800runaway.org, 24/7
- 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline: call or text 988, 24/7
Want to connect with iCareKC? Send us a note and an advocate will reach out.
What Home Base offers
Help for today and a plan for what's next
Drop-in center
A safe, welcoming space with hot meals, showers, laundry, clothing, hygiene kits, phone charging, Wi-Fi and lockers.
Safe place to stay
Connections to emergency shelter, host homes, transitional housing and rapid rehousing through trusted partners.
Stay in school
Help using your McKinney-Vento rights: enrolling without records, rides to your school of origin, supplies and tutoring.
Your own advocate
One caring adult who helps with IDs and birth certificates, health care, counseling referrals and benefits.
Family reconnection
When it's safe and you want it, we help rebuild relationships with parents or relatives.
Pathways forward
GED support, job training and paid work through iCare Works, plus life skills like budgeting, cooking and being a good tenant.
Part of the iCareKC network
Never just a bed and a meal
Home Base youth can join every iCareKC program, from mentoring and tutoring to sports, the Media Lab and iCare Futures. Families facing housing loss get help through iCare Essentials and the Family Hub.
Help build Home Base
Kansas City can make sure no young person faces this alone
Donate hygiene kits, clothing and school supplies, sponsor a meal, open your home as a screened host family, or fund a youth advocate.
