A Way Home Kamloops has come a long way from its grassroots beginning, which involved meeting in an abandoned building. The history begins in 2012 when Kamloops was named as one of two pilots to develop a youth homelessness action plan in a national initiative. Kamloops was one of two communities, the first in BC, to develop a youth homelessness action plan, through the Mobilizing Local Capacity program. At the same time, a grassroots collective was founded by a youth with lived experience of homelessness. This group was meeting in an abandoned building and was passionately exploring how to create housing for youth aging out of care into homelessness. The City of Kamloops approached this collective to become the steering committee behind the plan and became A Way Home. The national initiative formed a new non-profit and as Kamloops’ work was so ground-breaking and successful, the national organization asked to use the name A Way Home Canada. Most recently this has become an international phenomenon with A Way Home America and A Way Home Scotland.