# Presentation: 051275

## Preventing and Resolving Homelessness Through Successful Transitions for Youth and Young Adults A Learning Community Workgroup

- Phoenix, Arizona
- May 4–5, 2006

## What Is a Learning Community Workgroup (LCW)?

- Opportunity for Policy Academy States to focus on a particular topic (e.g., youth, employment, data/outcome measures, discharge planning) in a context that:
- Maximizes peer-to-peer learning
- Addresses what helps and hinders implementation of State action plans
- Highlights innovative approaches that States have implemented, with a focus on how they may be adapted in other States
- Stimulates communication within the Learning Community that will prompt States to use and leverage different resources around them and across systems

## What Were the Learning Objectives for the Youth/Young Adults LCW?

- Understand the role of mainstream systems in creating, preventing, and resolving homelessness among youth and young adults
- Identify ingredients of seamless, integrated targeted systems that address and prevent homelessness among youth and young adults, and identify what makes States with seamless systems more effective in preventing and resolving homelessness among youth and young adults
- Identify strategies for increasing access to and availability of age-appropriate resources for homeless youth
- Expand the pool of existing regional and national resources available to youth at risk of homelessness

## Who Attended the Workgroup?

- 43 total attendees:
- 30 State participants representing 18 States
- 3 additional State presenters
- 2 Federal presenters
- Department of Labor
- Administration for Children and Families
- 3 additional Federal resource people
- Health Resources and Services Administration
- Housing and Urban Development
- 2 national resource people
- National Foster Care Coalition
- National Alliance to End Homelessness
- 3 facilitators/contractors

## Plenary Session #1

**Understanding the Role of Mainstream Systems in Contributing to, Preventing, and Resolving Homelessness Among Youth and Young Adults**
-  Overview: Robin Nixon,* *National Foster Care Coalition
- Key role and opportunities in each system for supporting youth
- Common pitfalls and where systems fail youth and young adults
- Characteristics of a strong and integrated system
-  State Presentations: Getting Systems to Work Together
- Tom Pierce, Office of Homelessness, Florida Department of Children and Families
- Tiffney Teasdel,* *Child and Youth Division, District of Columbia Department of Mental Health

## Plenary Session #2

**Identifying Ingredients of Seamless, Integrated Systems to Address and Prevent Homelessness Among Youth and Young Adults**
-  State Presentations: Challenges and Approaches to Housing,
-     Services, and Prevention
- Sam Cobbs, First Place Fund for Youth, California
- John Cheney Egan, Illinois Department of Children and Families
- Kevin George, Oregon Foster Care Services

## Plenary Session #3 

**Strategies for Increasing Access to Age-appropriate Resources for Youth and Young Adults Experiencing Homelessness: Discussion of Available Funding***** ***
-     Federal Funding Resources
- Curtis Porter, Administration on Children and Families, Department of Health and Human Services
- Richard Morris, Office of Workforce Investment, Department of Labor
-     Panel of State Presenters: Q&A on Funding Resources and
-       Strategies

## Discussion of Barriers and Challenges

**Collaboration and Coordination Challenges**
- Disconnect between State and Federal regulations (and within Federal too)
- Turf battles
- Lack of inclusion of all who need to be at the table
- Lack of discharge planning early on in process
- Youth and case workers may not always be aware of what services and resources are available
- Service coordination lacking (e.g., educational system may have K-12 focus only and feel that dropouts are “not our problem”)
- Need for employment coordination strategies
**Funding Challenges**
- Concerns with lack of funding for those “aged out” of the system
- Need for funding flexibility

## Discussion of Barriers and Challenges

**Housing Challenges**
- Lack of age-appropriate range of options
**Data Challenges**
- Lack of objective data to drive decisions
- Need for evidence-based practice, because programs typically do not assess the impact of services that are provided
- Incidence of homelessness for young adults is hard to capture
- Confidentiality issues
**Developmental Challenges**
- Lack of nurturing approach toward children for the intangibles that allow for success (e.g., kids who get lost before networking even happens)
- Assumption that young adults go back to family
- Lack of support for parents (especially foster parents)

## Discussion of Strategies

- Interagency collaboration and coordination
- Funding
- Housing
- Data
- Positive youth development
- Specific populations

## Collaboration and Coordination Strategies

**Create State structure**
- Create ICH with committee structure (that includes community representatives)
- Create legislation
- Ensure funding for staffing
**Engage of stakeholders**
- Educate stakeholders/general public about population
- Involve stakeholders on task forces (e.g., juvenile justice in VT)
- Collaborate with universities/private sector for mentors, interns, volunteers
- Engage employment systems (e.g., employment services fair in DC)
- Tie collaboration to funding (e.g., voc rehab/mental health collaboration in KY)
**Coordinate with other planning efforts, such as:**
- Homeless Policy Academy chronic plans
- SAG
- Facilitated forums
**Coordinate with Federal activities, such as:**
- NGA’s youth transition policy academy
- Prisoner re-entry initiative

## Funding Strategies (Where’s the money, and how can we get it?)

**Work with Federal partners **
- Tap into existing Federal resources (e.g., Chafee, transitional living programs, Workforce Investment Boards, Medicaid rehab options, VA, clearinghouses)
- Consider reallocation/reinvestment of funds (e.g., training programs)
- Get data from current programs (e.g., mentoring children of prisoners)
- Increase flexibility of funding
**Work with national experts/programs** (CSH, NAEH, AHP, National Foster Care Coalition, Covenant House)
- Build capacity
- Connect with effective models
- Develop strategies for how to mix and match funding streams effectively
**Work at local level**
- Develop/expand State/local partnerships (e.g., CBOs, FBOs, private developers), including consideration of their needs
- Develop infrastructure (e.g., local fund mapping, coordination, grant writer and training, mentoring, participate in Consolidated Planning process)
- Build on capacity of housing boom (e.g., property tax credits)

## Housing Strategies

- Implement strategies that are individually based, realistic, and include a variety of options/types of housing/levels of supportive services (and incentives to move through them)
- Ensure funding is as flexible as possible and can come from a variety of options (e.g., Section 8, set asides, housing tax credits and bonds, creation of State housing vouchers, existing housing stock, FUP, relationships with PHAs, housing trust fund, Federal Home Loan Bank, documents transfer tax)
- Create/enforce legislative requirements at Federal and State levels
- Explore Housing First approach
- Provide building blocks for entering housing (e.g., savings, down payments)
- Explore alternative partnerships (e.g., HomeShare)
- Engage the private sector
- Tap into money that’s been created by housing market
- Hire an expert to assist in exploring options and engaging stakeholders
- Tie housing to the services that youth need
- Make sure youth are housing ready and going to safe, stable, sustainable housing – child welfare agencies need to be responsible

## Data Strategies

- Collect the appropriate data (e.g., predictive, qualitative, and quantitative, at all levels)
- Be clear about why we need data and how we are using it (at State and Federal levels)
- Develop common measures and reporting requirements at Federal level (with input from States)
- Integrate data systems (e.g., HMIS)
- Use external specialists to analyze data
- Involve youth
- Clear process for sharing information with the top level

## Employment Strategies

- Tap into existing training programs (e.g., DOL) so can focus on job placement
- Build partnerships with businesses
- Link to participation in other support services (e.g., substance abuse treatment, education)
- Advocate to change policies to allow kids to work (and get the required documents)
- Promoting youth development orientation and approach
- High expectations

## Positive Youth Development Strategies

- Enhance and support youth involvement/engagement
- Youth advisory boards/councils
- Youth development liaisons
- Incentives
- Ladder of participation/organizational assessment
- Create environments for youth to connect and succeed
- Aspirations and building hope
- Mentoring
- Meeting young people where they are

## Specific Populations: Nonsystem Youth

**Issues**
- Need to figure out why falling through cracks (and avoid blame game)
- Need ways of serving youth without making them fit into systems (that may not be serving them effectively)
- Need continuum within the system for those that need it
- Difficulty finding placement for those with sex offense history
**Strategies**
- Mandated collaboration across the agencies
- Emancipation of minors laws
- Partial emancipation (IL, CA)
**Resources**
- Runaway and Homeless Youth (RHY) programs
- National Alliance to End Homelessness research
- Advocacy organizations (e.g., National Network for Youth)
- CLASP (www.clasp.org) 2003 report on what Congress can do to reach disconnected youth

## Specific Populations: Juvenile Justice

**Issues**
- Need resolution about use of Chafee dollars for dually-adjudicated youth (without open child welfare case)
- Lack of willingness to address issue within juvenile justice
**Strategies**
- Collaboration with juvenile justice and child welfare  discharge planning on both sides
- Understanding of balanced and restorative justice programs necessary (youth development oriented strategy)
- RFP for juvenile justice to outsource transition services to non-profit agencies (Hennepin County, MN)
- Co-led life skills curriculum programs (VT)
**Resources**
- White paper about ILP-type program in juvenile justice (PA _[www.jcjc.state.pa.us](http://www.jcjc.state.pa.us/)__)_
- Department of Labor young offender portfolio civic justice model
- Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP)  “juvenile runaways”

## Specific Populations: Rural Issues 

**Issues**
- Mobility means it can be difficult to stay connected
- Lack of access to housing, transportation, employment
- Bringing services to rural area vs. pulling to urban areas (esp. on reservations)
**Strategies**
- Tap into State and National volunteer resources (e.g., State Commission on Community Service, National Service Corps, AmeriCorps)
- Work through multiple systems rather than focusing on one program (VT)
- Work through other individuals who have contact with the young person (VT)
- Give higher foster parent rate for ILP specialists/therapeutic caregiver (PA)
- Train all caregivers with same curriculum (MA)
- Pay foster care maintenance payments to youth and they pay rent to mentor parent
- Provide mentoring through State colleges
**Resources**
- Rural demonstrations for transitional living (ACF)
- NAEH is looking at rural homelessness (e.g., Ohio initiative)

## Specific Populations: Tribal Issues

**Issues**
- States have not been held accountable for ensuring Indian and Native Alaskan young people have access to services
- It is one thing to work with Tribes, another to understand cultural issues (e.g., Tribal issues and off-reservation issues, cultural sensitivity)
**Strategies**
- Need to use/demonstrate cultural understanding
- Work to open up the door for services within reservations
- Work with State bureaucracy to accept responsibility (e.g., set up a tribal council, host teen conference, work with nontraditional providers)
- “Independent living” concept is a western European concept, so providers and programs need to integrate positive features of transition

## Ideas to Take Back to State Homeless Planning Efforts

- Specifically addressing housing issues (e.g., development, maximizing existing resources, and combining with services)
- Examining local infrastructure through mapping of programs
- Identifying and using creative funding streams
- Conducting preplanning for transitioning out of foster care
- Establishing a statewide homeless coordinator
- Finalizing and implementing transition planning tool
- Identifying and engaging key stakeholders

## Outstanding Issues for Additional Input

- More about First Place Fund for Youth in California
- Particularly in terms of fostering youth engagement, funding/coordination of housing and services
- Potentially via conference call, site visit, program information
- More information from peers and Federal partners on resources and strategies for:
- Working with specific populations
- Establishing authority and making things happen
- Building partnerships with the private sector and employment

## Potential Next Steps

- Share PowerPoint slides
- Provide additional information about technical assistance resources
- Provide opportunities to follow up on participant activities
- Share information from postworkgroup tool
- Create voluntary listserv/bulletin board
- Conduct conference calls 30 and 60 days following LCW
- Share information at upper level
- National Governors Association
- DHHS Secretary’s Workgroup on Homelessness and other Federal planning activities
- State Policy Academy Teams/Task Forces/Interagency Councils on Homelessness
- Consider strategies for replicating LCW for broader audience

## Resources 

- _[www.endhomelessness.org/audio/Federal_Resources_for_Housing_Youth-Audio.doc](http://www.endhomelessness.org/audio/Federal_Resources_for_Housing_Youth-Audio.doc)_* *(Federal Funding for Youth Housing Programs)
- _[www.firstplacefund.org/index.html](http://www.firstplacefund.org/index.html)_ (The First Place Fund for Youth)
- _[www.fosterclub.com](http://www.fosterclub.com/)_ (“It’s T Time” and FYI Planner)
- _[www.naeh.org](http://www.naeh.org/)_ (National Alliance to End Homelessness)
- _[www.natl-fostercare.org](http://www.natl-fostercare.org/)_ (National Foster Care Coalition)
- _[www.aecf.org/kidscount](http://www.aecf.org/kidscount)_ (Annie E. Casey Foundation – Kids Count profile)
- _[http://www.ncfy.com/](http://www.ncfy.com/)_ (National Clearninghouse on Families and Youth, including funding opportunities)
- _[www.hrsa.gov/homeless](http://www.hrsa.gov/homeless)_ (Homeless Policy Academy Initiative)
- _[www.natl-fostercare.org/documents/faq3_final.pdf?PHPSESSID=98e09e1acaafd4dbf6f88411ef3da720](http://www.natl-fostercare.org/documents/faq3_final.pdf?PHPSESSID=98e09e1acaafd4dbf6f88411ef3da720)_ (Frequently Asked Questions regarding Chafee)
- State Juvenile Justice State Advisory Committees