Trading fame and fortune to work with Vermont’s homeless youth

Mark Redmond was on a glide path to success. Fresh out of Villanova University, he landed a plum job with a major insurance company and had a cushy apartment on Park Avenue. Money, status, and job security were all firmly in his grasp. Then he walked away and left it all behind. Redmond moved into Covenant House, a shelter for homeless youth located in Times Square, described by Rolling Stone at that time as “the sleaziest block in America.” His pay was $12 per week. Redmond writes in his new memoir, Called, “It was a radical change, a case of on one day wearing a Brooks Brothers suit, walking down Madison Avenue, entering the stately international headquarters of the venerable Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, attending to meeting about types of insurance policies and pension plans, and a few days later wearing jeans, sneakers, and a t-shirt, walking past porn places and strip clubs to enter Covenant House, where I’d be helping homeless teenagers.” “I felt I was finally where I belonged,” Redmond reflects. Since 2003, Redmond has been executive director of Spectrum Youth and Family Services, which provides housing and support services for homeless, at-risk, and foster-care youth in Vermont. He has also been a storyteller on The Moth. His wife, Marybeth Redmond, is a Vermont state representative from Essex. Redmond talks about his four decades working with troubled youth and telling their stories.