NEW SCOTLAND — Skylin Baestlein knows the value of home. She is building one with her fiancé and their year-old son while at the same time she works to help people without homes.

Caring about others and developing a sense of community is a through line in her life.

She works on the development team for IPH, which was founded in 1984 by the Capital Area Council of Churches as the Interfaith Partnership for the Homeless. IPH offers a continuum of services for individuals and families who are homeless or at risk of homelessness.

“We work in three pillars,” said Baestlein, naming emergency shelters, a housing program, and community-based programs like a day-time drop-in center where “folks can come and do laundry, access our clothing pantry, and really what’s the most valuable asset is they can talk to a case manager.”

Baestlein explains in this week’s Enterprise podcast, “Every single individual that comes through our programming has access to support in the form of person-centered case management.”

Many have mental health, substance abuse, or health issues so service is provided to meet individual needs. Baestlein described the philosophy at IPH this way: “We meet folks where they’re at and we help them get to where they’re going.”

Another underlying principle, she said, is that “people do better at better places.”

She went on, “There’s so many complexities, the root causes and perpetuating factors of homelessness and stigma surrounding homelessness that we have to be considering when we’re providing services and have an informed approach and work as an advocate, too, in our communities.”

So, while IPH supports individuals it also looks “at some of these bigger systems and barriers,” said Baestlein. Sometimes, homelessness is “invisible” in a community, she said, citing an example where “we had to illustrate and demonstrate the need by doing research and outreach.”

Baestlein acknowledged, “It’s hard to say, ‘My community has homeless individuals,’ especially if you can’t see them.” Often, people are “living from couch to couch or home to home,” circulating among friends.

Baestlein, who was raised in Chatham, has always had a secure home and feels “very blessed to have grown up in such a beautiful place and had a tight-knit community.”

However, she concedes, “When you’re young and you’re rebelling, it’s annoying that everyone knows who you are and you just want to get out of a small town. But, really, people were looking out for you and reporting to your mother if they felt they needed to.”

Baestlein’s father works in construction and her mother, a licensed practical nurse, works now in the Albany Med Health System but for years was a home health-care provider.

“She went into people’s homes and was a visiting nurse,” Baestlein said, describing her mother as “really nurturing and maternal.”

In high school, Baestlein was passionate about working at her local food cooperative. She was also “really interested in bringing a composting and paper recycling program” to her high school.

She also made many visits to her local library, the North Chatham Free Library.

Baestlein has followed both of those passions into her adulthood. She now serves on the Friends and Foundation of Albany Public Library Board.

“Everybody is welcome at libraries,” she says, “and the resources are free.”

In college, she first studied at Hudson Valley Community College and then went on to graduate in 2015 from Binghamton University with a bachelor’s degree in environmental science and anthropology.

She met her fiancé, Christopher Bracci, while they both worked for the New York Public Interest Research Group. Bracci has since graduated from The College of Emergency Preparedness, Homeland Security and Cybersecurity.

He is now at Albany Med, working as “an architect for their new Epic program,” said Baestlein. Albany Med plans to go live with the Epic electronic health records system in 2024.

“They’re transitioning to a new program and he’s right there, building out the applications to be able to do it,” said Baestlein. “It’s complex; it’s not something I would be able to do but it’s really impressive. I’m so proud of him.”

When Bracci and Baestlein were at NYPIRG, they worked on an outreach campaign in the Capital Region. “So together, we got a chance to visit every community,” said Baestlein.

As she went door-to-door, she was particularly impressed with Voorheesville. When their son, Christopher, was born, she knew that was where they would live. “We’re from more rural communities so this feels familiar to me and I really like the community,” said Baestlein.

Their son, Christopher, is now 14 months old.

“He’s absolutely the most important thing to me in the world,” said Baestlein. “And I would argue, being a mom to him is the single most important thing that I’ve ever done in my life.”

She went on, “Being a mother to my son and a partner to my fiancé, I learned skills that are transferable. You have to be creative, thoughtful and responsive, patient and kind and understanding.”

It’s a challenge, Baestlein said, “to marry your professional life with your home and your home life.” She would ask herself, “How am I going to maintain this 40-hour work week and have the energy to come home?”

“But it’s definitely my favorite part of my day, to get home and get him out of his car seat. Get the snuggle … It’s so cool and it inspires you; it gives you the human experience. We all are wondering what the purpose is. And I think I found a new one when I became a mom.”

Being a mother has also helped Baestlein prioritize tasks, she said. She even makes time to be a therapeutic art life coach, for which she is certified. She enjoys working in mixed media herself, especially doing portraits in pencil.

“It can help someone build confidence,” Baestlein says of therapeutic art. “I can help someone find a positive coping skill when they find something that they like and they’re able to focus energy into it. I think that, whether it’s art or something else, for everyone, that’s valuable.”

She concluded, “In the past couple of years, I’ve sort of worked to try to find my way and learn how I can put all my passions for all these different things into purpose and have a part in my community.”