Carina Lopez told the room how the hours added up. Every hour her children were safe at Horizons was an hour she could spend taking classes, applying for jobs, sitting for interviews, working through housing paperwork and planning what came next. She arrived at Horizons for Homeless Children as a parent in a family experiencing homelessness. She addressed its breakfast as a business owner.
About 1,000 business leaders, community members and supporters gathered at the Boston Marriott Copley Place for the 28th annual Horizons Breakfast, announced on Thursday, October 29, 2026. The morning raised a record $1.3 million for children and families experiencing homelessness across Massachusetts. The need behind the number is counted in classrooms: more than 33,000 children are reported homeless across Massachusetts school systems.
The keynote came from Brian Goldstone, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of “There Is No Place for Us: Working and Homeless in America.” His subject was the rise of families who work full-time and still cannot secure stable housing, which is the population Horizons was built to serve. Its model works on two generations at once. The early education program serves 265 children every weekday. Playspaces operate in shelters statewide. Parents get family support services and advocacy while their children are in a classroom, which is the exchange Lopez described from the stage.
“Every hour my children were safe at Horizons was an hour I could spend rebuilding our future,” Ms. Lopez said. “And while I was working toward my goals, my children were reaching milestones of their own.”
The morning also marked the end of an era at the organization. President and CEO Kate Barrand is retiring in February 2027 after a decade leading Horizons. Massachusetts Lieutenant Governor Kim Driscoll addressed the guests and credited Barrand with making Horizons an essential partner to families and to the Commonwealth. “For the past decade, Kate Barrand has made sure that children experiencing homelessness in Massachusetts are seen, supported, and given every chance to thrive,” Driscoll said.
Barrand answered in the plainest terms available to her. “Leading Horizons for the past eleven years has been the privilege of my life,” she said. “I am so grateful to this community for standing with our children and families, and I know Horizons’ best days are still ahead.”
The $1.3 million now goes to the weekday classrooms, the shelter Playspaces, the family support work and the advocacy that Horizons runs statewide. Lopez’s account gave the donors in the room the clearest measure of what that buys: time a parent can spend building a way out, while her children spend the same hours learning.
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