What can providers do to be successful in supporting youth in a healthy, positive way?
As providers/adults who support and advocate for young people experiencing homelessness and housing instability, it is our job to ensure decision-making power is in their hands, and that they can access opportunities they need and want to pursue.
We must acknowledge, understand, and support that:
- Everything must be youth-centered and youth-led. We must always listen to and elevate youth voice.
- All youth and young adults have resilience and potential. They know what they want and need; they might just need support from a caring adult to get there.
- Our systems do not operate in service to young people, especially young people experiencing homelessness and housing instability. Yet the experience of homelessness and housing instability means a young person is more reliant on these ineffective and broken systems for support to meet their needs.
- Youth should not be asked to bear the weight of systemic deficiencies. They should be empowered to make their own decisions and be able to pursue opportunities that align with their needs and interest.
What do providers need to be successful in supporting youth in a healthy, positive way?
Strategies and approaches
“MI is a collaborative, goal-oriented style of communication with particular attention to the language of change. It is designed to strengthen personal motivation for and commitment to a specific goal by eliciting and exploring the person’s own reasons for change within an atmosphere of acceptance and compassion.”
www.MotivationalInterviewing.org
Additional Links:
Trauma Informed Care (TIC) is an overarching structure and treatment attitude that emphasizes understanding, compassion, and responding to the effects of all types of trauma. Trauma Informed Care also looks at physical, psychological, and emotional safety for both clients and providers, and provides tools to empower folks on the pathway to stability.
www.nationalhomeless.org/issues/trauma-informed-care
Additional links:
Social and emotional learning (SEL) is an integral part of education and human development. SEL is the process through which all young people and adults acquire and apply the knowledge, skills, and attitudes to develop healthy identities, manage emotions and achieve personal and collective goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain supportive relationships, and make responsible and caring decisions.
Additional links:
Other Resources:
Demographic-specific resources
Of the 40,000 students experiencing homelessness in Washington state, 60% are students of color. Black and Indigenous youth experience homelessness as disproportionally higher rates.
Additional Links:
- Menu of Strategies: Culturally Responsive and Welcoming Environment
- Schools Out Washington: Exploring Structural Racism and Cultural Responsiveness Community Workshops
- Community Tool Box: Enhancing Cultural Competence
- Communities of Color Coalition
LGBTQ youth are 2.2X more likely to experience homelessness than their non-LGBTQ peers. Black-LGBTQ youth report homelessness 4X the rate of White- non-LGBTQ youth.
Additional Links:
Youth who have been in foster care face additional risk factors for experiencing homelessness. By the age of 21, 33% of Washington youth who spent time in foster care experience homelessness.
www.childtrends.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/Transition-Age-Youth_Washington.pdf
Additional Links:
- The Mockingbird Society
- Treehouse
- National Alliance to End Homelessness: Preventing Homelessness for Youth and Young Families in Foster Care: FY2021 Updates
- Youth Collaboratory: Mentoring Youth in the Foster Care System Toolkit
- National youth Advocate Program
Immigrant and refugee families and youth face many systemic barriers which may increase their likelihood of housing instability. In Washington State, 5.2% of English Language Learner students and 8.8% of migrant youth experienced homelessness compared to about 3% of their non-ELL or non-migrant peers. (OSPI)
Additional Links:
- College Board’s for Undocumented Students Webpage
- Bridging Refugee Youth & Children’s Services Toolkits & Webinars
- Growing Up in a New Country: A Positive Youth Development Toolkit for Working with Refugees and Immigrants
- Refugee Womens Alliance (ReWA)
- National Center for Homeless Education: Supporting the Education of Children and Youth Experiencing Homelessness
- Refugee & Immigrant Services Northwest
Youth living with disabilities experience housing instability at a disproportional rate to their peers. In 2018, 11% of youth (age 12-24) with disabilities experienced housing instability.
2 Department of Social and Health Services, “DVR Service Needs for Adults,” (August, 2020)
Additional Links:
- OSPI Secondary Transition
- ARC of Washington
- Local chapters provide county specific resources
- PAVE
Rural communities have the highest per-capita rates of student homelessness in Washington state. Young people in rural communities face different challenges than those living near cities, such as limited youth and young adult focused housing programs, public transportation, or access to regular health care.
Additional Links:
Networking
- Explore dynamics of the individual youth’s network
Youth Collaboratory - “Mapping Connections Resource. This document that Youth Collaboratory shared provides some context and guidance for implementation, as well as an Ecomap and a Circle of Support tool that you can use to help youth identify key relationships in their lives.”
Cross System Collaboration — Connect and partner with community resource providers serving young people. Cross systems work is essential in meeting the varying needs of young people experiencing homelessness and their households. Housing crisis rarely happens in isolation and requires multiple resources and community connections to stabilize those accessing services.
Additional Links:
- Menu of Strategies: Housing Partnerships & Cross Systems Collaboration
- National Network for Youth: Local Cross-System Collaboratives
- School-Housing Network
Resource mapping can be used to inform students, teachers, parents, and other community stakeholders about all the services and resources available to better support students experiencing homelessness or that are highly mobile.
Additional Links:
- National Center on Secondary Education and Transition: What is Resource Mapping?
- Resource Mapping and Management to Address Barriers to Learning: An Intervention for Systemic Change
- Resource Mapping in Schools and School Districts: A Resource Guide
Youth Advocacy Resources
There are young people across the United States that are working together to build a future that includes their voices, ideas, and experiences. Explore these programs to find connections.
