Case Study: The Teen Project connects homeless and abused teens to 17,000 shelters nationwide with Trumpia

The Teen Project connects homeless and abused children with over 17,000 shelters through keywords

The Teen Project is a volunteer-driven nonprofit that helps teens aging out of the foster system—about 25,000 a year—who often become homeless or face abuse. Facing a nationwide gap in access to services but recognizing that most homeless youth still have cell phones, the organization needed a scalable, easy way for at-risk teens to find local shelters and support.

The Teen Project built an algorithm to identify shelters and integrated Trumpia’s SMS platform and short code (99000) so teens can text keywords like SHELTER, SOBER, or ABUSED plus their zip code to receive nearby resources within a 30-mile radius. The solution, funded by several foundations and donors, connects to roughly 17,000 shelters (far exceeding competitors’ ~2,000), proved affordable to scale, and has enabled many previously unreachable teens to quickly request and receive help.

The Teen Project

Lauri Burns

Founder