Support Dorion's Path to Stability

Let’s prove him wrong

Hi, my name is Rachel Pelloni. With his permission, I want to tell you about Dorion. My son knew Dorion from school, but I met Dorion just four days ago when my son invited him over for dinner. I learned that he is a kind and thoughtful 18-year-old young adult who, due to a series of family difficulties, is currently experiencing homelessness.

While very young, Child Protective Services removed Dorion from his grandfather’s house and placed him into foster care. Not much is known about his mother, but his father died around 3 years ago. Never returning home, he stayed with several foster families over the years.

In July of this year, he turned 18 and aged out of the system. Struggling to find housing and with no family around, a school friend invited him to temporarily stay with him. That family was dealing with their own struggles and the family system dissolved; Dorion again had nowhere to turn. So, around a month ago, alone with no family support system, he became homeless. He explained that he had been living outside behind dumpsters.

In the past 4 days, since we learned about his struggles, we’ve been trying to help him gain stability. Thus far, he has acquired an identification card, which will help him with employment, and been in contact with services in the Pittsburgh area that help young people dealing with homelessness and gaining employment.

In reality, it is not possible for him to continue staying at our house and we are continuing to seek ways to assist him into a more secure situation. It is probable that employment is in sight, but the lack of housing would continue to be his greatest need. An apartment has been located pending employment, so there are a few moving parts we’re trying to connect.

Any and all money donated will be going directly to Dorion to help provide a security deposit, rent, utilities, food, and some necessities for the place he secures. In talking with Dorion, I’ve learned that he is responsible with money and does not take anything for granted. Our hope is that his homelessness was a one-month blip but does not become his path going forward.

Please consider donating something to Dorion to help put him on a better trajectory than he’s been on. We have been and will continue contributing our efforts and supplying some of his needs the best we can, but we can’t do it alone.

Dorion is a bit shy and when I asked if we could use this platform to try and help him his response was, ‘I don’t think anybody will help me’. Given what I know he’s been through, I understand why he would think this, but TOGETHER we can prove him wrong.