Young activist Ava Santos-Volpe, age 12, is a girl on a mission. While working on a class leadership project two years ago, Ava asked a youth homelessness advocate to visit her school to discuss Chicago’s youth housing crisis. After learning more, Ava decided she needed to help — but didn’t know how. That summer, while on a family trip to Florida, she spotted a parking meter collecting coins to donate to a homeless shelter. Something clicked. Santos-Volpe had always aspired to be like her LGBTQ activist moms, Theresa and Mercedes. “All my life, my mom’s influenced me to make a difference, to try and help people,” she says.

Santos-Volpe was moved to connect with Pride Action Tank, a project of the AIDS Foundation of Chicago (AFC), and multimedia artist Sam Kirk. Together, they created Ava’s Change4Youth, an art mentorship program that raises awareness of youth homelessness – a problem that disproportionately affects LGBTQ teens. Now Santos-Volpe and her family have teamed up with AFC to enter Ava’s Change4Youth into the USA Today Network’s grant program, A Community Thrives. The online competition invites members of the community to view Santos-Volpe’s video and vote up to once per day to help her compete for a $50,000 or $100,000 award. Ava’s Change4Youth goes beyond helping teens find a place to live to create a ripple effect that impacts their holistic health and well-being. “Faced with no other options, more than 20,000 young adults and students in Chicago are looking for a home, not just overnight shelter,” says John Peller, AFC’s President/CEO. AFC cares deeply about helping them get back on their feet and giving them opportunities to succeed.” To watch the video and vote for Ava’s Change4Youth, visit http://act.usatoday.com/submit-an-idea/#/gallery/60313503/.