Shannon Munford
MA
Shannon Munford
Shannon Munford, MA, has spent 27 years walking alongside young people at every stage of the systems that shape their lives. He began as a Children’s Social Worker with DCFS, responding to families in crisis and working to keep children safe. He then transitioned to LA County Probation as a Supervisor providing mental health treatment both in custody and in the field.
He most recently supervised a 49 bed transitional age youth shelter, working daily with young people ages 18 to 25 who are homeless, many of whom he would have met years earlier as children in foster care or as teens on probation, and who now find themselves adults with no system left to hold them.
That full life cycle view led him to create LA Streetlight, a free mobile app built for the crisis moment. A young person in trouble at any hour can open it and find vetted resources near them, no case manager required, no waiting for an office to open.
Shannon is the Founder and Executive Director of Street Lights Network, the nonprofit behind LA Streetlight. He holds a master’s degree in Marriage and Family Therapy and is trained in motivational interviewing, trauma informed care, and Functional Family Therapy.
SESSION OVERVIEW
You Belong Here: How Technology Is Redefining Connection for System-Impacted Youth
We often talk about belonging as something that happens in a room. But for the young people Penny Lane Centers serves, belonging is increasingly happening on a screen.
For youth who have experienced neglect, abuse, homelessness, or system involvement, traditional pathways to community have often been cut off. Family rejection. Placement instability. Chronic isolation. What fills that void? For many, it is technology. Social media. Group chats. Online gaming communities. Video games are not just entertainment for this generation — they are spaces where young people build identity, find acceptance, and experience consistent belonging, sometimes for the first time.
And now there is something new in that landscape. Large language models like ChatGPT and similar AI-driven platforms have become unexpected spaces where young people are having real conversations — processing emotions, asking questions they are afraid to ask a person, and feeling heard without fear of judgment. For a generation that grew up online, talking to an AI does not feel strange. For some, it feels safer than talking to an adult. Practitioners need to understand this reality, not to compete with it, but to engage it thoughtfully and responsibly.
This is not a warning. It is an invitation to meet young people where they already are.
This presentation explores how intentional technology platforms are stepping into that same space — not to replace human connection, but to bridge the gap between isolation and support. Three apps serving Los Angeles youth offer a compelling picture of what that looks like in practice.
The WIN What I Need app connects users to over 2,300 free programs across 12 categories — anonymously, without requiring a login or personal information. For a young person who has learned not to trust institutions, that design choice is itself an act of belonging.