Dana Mendes serves as the Director of Youth and Young Adult Housing Initiatives at the Mayor’s Office of Human Services (HS) for the City of Boston. Dana leads the strategic planning efforts for the Rising to the Challenge Community Plan to End Youth Homelessness, as well as provides support to HS departments and divisions. He serves as an integral member of the Rising to the Challenge implementation team along with the Mayor’s Office of Housing and the United Way.

Dana is a charismatic leader focused on creative problem solving. He is systems oriented with background in grassroots organizing, program management, event planning/coordination, youth empowerment, housing, and clinical social work/counseling. Dana has an undying commitment to social justice and believes that with love and a humanistic approach we can drastically change the scope of Youth homelessness in the City of Boston. Outside of his work here at the City, Dana is an adjunct professor at Kentucky State University as well as director and choreographer for Black Elite Dance Collective.

Dana has a Bachelor’s Degree from Lehigh University in Bethlehem PA, where he double majored in Psychology and Religious Studies, and a Masters in Clinical Social Work from Simmons University here in Boston. Currently Dana lives in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Boston but has lived in nearly every neighborhood in the Boston area.