Building Hope From Broken Pieces: Alex Rivera Interview

You don’t have to be fully healed to be someone’s lighthouse. Sometimes the most powerful thing you can do is show up, broken pieces and all.”, Alex RiveraJoseph: Let's start with the origin story. What made you create Lighthouse Youth Project?Alex: [laughs] The short answer? Pure survival instinct that eventually turned into something bigger than me. I aged out of foster care at 18, and the statistics for kids like me, especially queer kids, aren't great. Homelessness, addiction, isolation. I was determined not to be a statistic, but I also knew I hadn't been given many tools.There was this day when I was 23, sitting in my first apartment that actually felt safe, and I realized I'd spent my whole life searching for a lighthouse, some sign that I could navigate safely to shore. That's when the idea hit me: what if I could be that for someone else? Not because I had all the answers, but precisely because I didn't. Because I was still figuring it out myself.JT: You've built a program that's about so much more than just "helping youth." It's about identity, belonging, mental health. Can you talk about that holistic approach?Alex: We live in a culture...