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Posting this InvisiblePeople.TV interview with Larry Lovelett, Homeless Youth Transition Specialist and Safe Place director for the Nevada Partnership for Homeless Youth (NPHY). NPHY operates the Safe Place program in the greater Las Vegas area.

Larry has a great conversation with Mark Horvath (read more about Mark and InvisiblePeople.tv in a previous post) about the challenges homeless youth face in a major metro area like Las Vegas and about the resources that NPHY and other runaway and homeless youth shelters offer to kids in crisis and their families every day.

Thanks again to Mark for including the often untold story of homeless -- more than 1.3 million children are homeless -- in his travels and highlighting Safe Place as an outlet for help to youth on the streets and to any youth who may be experiencing problems, whether they have a home or not.

Summer is a time for roadtrips -- weekend getaways, off-the-beaten-path side excursions and adventures to places you've never been before. Sometimes there can be nothing more relaxing than dropping the windows, cranking some tunes and setting out for a couple hours with no destination in mind. One man though, Mark Horvath of Los Angeles, is embarking on a roadtrip of a whole different kind, one that hopes to bring real impact to the more than 3.5 million homeless across the country.

From a release about Mark's trip:

Starting today, Horvath will visit over 25 cities across the nation in order to help bring understanding and knowledge to the growing homeless crisis. Because he knows homelessness does not discriminate, Horvath will visit a mix of rural areas, larger cities, shelters and youth facilities to bring a voice to the voiceless through the power of social media. Personal stories of those who are homeless will be posted on Horvath's vlog, YouTube and Vimeo, and through social networks including Twitter and Facebook. In addition, he will share stories in real-time on Whrrl as he visits these communities.

For 49 days and more than 8,500 miles Mark plans to travel the country and let homeless individuals tell their own story on his Web site, InvisiblePeople.tv. Because children make up more than one-third of nation's 3.5 million homeless, Mark will visit a number of runaway and homeless youth shelters and youth drop-in centers during his visit. During one of his first cities he'll visit, Las Vegas, Mark will visit the Nevada Partnership for Homeless Youth, the organization that manages Safe Place in the greater Las Vegas area.

There he'll see an example of one of 140 Safe Place programs that operate a public-private partnership to connect youth in crisis with safety, shelter and counseling resources. In Las Vegas, Nevada Partnership has recruited all Terrible Herbst convenience stores, Joe's Crab Shack restaurants and city's bus system (Citizen Area Transit) to serve as locations where local youth can ask for help. Employees at Safe Place locations are trained to call the Nevada Partnership where a licensed professional is dispatched to arrive within 20 minutes. In 2008, 297 youth in the Las Vegas were connected to the Nevada Partnership's services after asking for help at a Safe Place location.

National Safe Place will also be looking to connect Mark with other Safe Place programs in the communities where he plans to visit. You can follow Mark's thoughts from the road on InvisiblePeople.tv's Twitter feed.

Special thanks to his sponsors -- Ford Motor Company has given Mark the use of a new Ford Flex for his trip; Hanes has donated socks to be given to homeless; and Whrrl is another lead sponsor -- and best of luck to him on this meaningful journey.

Oklahoma State University's transit system has joined with Payne Co. Youth Services and will serve as mobile Safe Places for youth throughout the Stillwater area. [OSU Press release]

32 homeless teens receiving McKinney-Vento funded services were among the list of high school graduates in Syracuse, NY this year. [Syracuse Post-Standard]

The number of homeless students in Rhode Island jumped 43 percent during the 2007-08 school year and are expected to be even higher for the current year. [Providence Journal]

A documentary on homeless youth in Seattle titled "When the Streets Are Your Home" is set to air Tuesday on KIRO. [KIRO Press Release]

A Las Vegas fashion designer, Lana Fuchs, is helping area homeless teens find work and recruiting other businesses to help as well. [KVVU]