26th Annual Conference
October 2014
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NAEHCY’s
Unaccompanied Youth Projects

Working with youth, service providers and
community members to develop creative
strategies to support unaccompanied youth.

Started as a 3-year project, 9 communities

Studies show that coordination among youth
services can greatly improve outcomes.
 339 at-risk youth programs spread across 12 different
federal agencies
 No one agency or organization can meet all the needs.
 Yet no one has the time to organize a community-wide
effort for youth or work on the strategies generated.
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Unaccompanied Youth Project:
Where, and Why?
 Rural, suburban, urban
 NRS and school district data
 Community infrastructure
 Political significance
 Northeast TN, Guilford County NC, San
Antonio TX, San Diego and Sacramento CA,
Laramie County WY, Detroit and Oakland
County MI, Southern CT
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Unaccompanied Youth Project:
What’s the Overall Goal?
 Identify what youth need to reach their goals
 Identify creative strategies to meet those needs
through interagency cooperation
 Identify new partners to energize efforts and
contribute new resources.
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Task Force Membership

NAEHCY is working with youth, schools, service
providers, city and county government, faith
community, legal services, and community
members to develop creative strategies to
support unaccompanied youth.

Leadership and active participation of youth and
young people are critical!
 This requires deliberate focus: Where and when
do you meet? How do you initially engage youth?
What projects will they choose to invest in?
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Step One: Gather Information
to Identify Local Priorities
 We surveyed adults.
 Service providers and community members
 We surveyed youth
 Unaccompanied homeless youth ages 14-25
 Through service providers and schools
 Gave us guidance and legitimacy
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What do Youth Need?
 Food
 Transportation
 Clothes and hygiene supplies
 Employment
 Medical and dental care
 Safe, stable housing
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What are the Greatest Barriers to
Youth Seeking/Receiving Services?
 Fear of referral to police, parents,
foster care
 Transportation
 Parental consent / Paperwork reqs.
 Lack of services
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Step Two: Choose 1-2 Tangible
Priorities to Start Work

Tangible: You’ll know when you’ve achieved it.

Short-term: You can achieve it within a few months.

Reasonable: It should be doable with little to no
funding and with a small core team.

Meaningful: It should make a difference to young
people and other task force members.

Leadership: Know that at first, you will need to have
a major role, but enlist partners from day one.
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The Experiences of
Three Task Forces
 Sacramento, California
 Laramie County, Wyoming
 Detroit, Michigan
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Sacramento:
What are some of your most exciting
achievements?
Active Youth Council
 A2B Bike Giveaway: gave 50 bikes to youth
 Including homeless youth in local efforts to end
homelessness
 New County funding for 6-bed TAY shelter

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Sacramento:
What or who are some keys to those
successes?
 Youth Inclusion
 We provide snacks!
 Regular meeting schedule
 Efficient discussions that lead to actionable
results
 Focus on sustainability,
diffusion of labor
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Sacramento:
What key people/agencies keep the task
force moving and productive?
 Local Continuum of Care
 McKinney-Vento liaisons
 Statewide youth advocacy organization (CCY)
 EDs from youth-serving orgs (Wind, Tubman
House)
 Local electeds
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Sacramento:
Who are some key people/agencies missing
from the group?
 Law Enforcement
 Local Businesses
 Child welfare
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Sacramento:
When you first were getting started, what
were some of the biggest challenges? How
did you address them?
 Sustainability
 Encouraging others to take ownership & leadership
 Youth input
 Youth Council: Your Voices Matter!
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Sacramento:
At this stage in the task force, what are the
biggest challenges?
In terms of structure:
 Consistently
enlisting youth as partners in action
 Keeping the momentum
In terms of the issues:
 Increasing housing capacity along a continuum
 Reversing the trend of criminalizing homelessness
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Laramie County Community Partnership
Strong Families Action Team, Homeless Youth Initiative
What are some of your most exciting achievements?
July 2013 – Facilitated a retreat with 25 representatives from
non-profit, school, and State government – Retreat ended with
three main goals:
 Outreach and communication to homeless youth regarding
resources and to the community educating the need
 Safe stable housing – possibly using Host Home Program
 Access to medical and behavioral health care
October 2014 Halloween Youth Resource Fair
2013-2014 School Year Youth Task Force
September 2014 - Implemented Host Home Program –
partnership with Catholic Charities of Wyoming
Broke down silos with our broad coalition
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Laramie County Community Partnership
Strong Families Action Team, Homeless Youth Initiative
What are some of your most exciting achievements?
New Initiative
 Boarding/Rooming House
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Strong Families Action Team, HYI
What or who are keys to those successes?
Youth willing to express their opinions
Collaboration and the support of the Laramie County Community
Partnership
Community Donations:
 Meeting Rooms – City of Cheyenne & Wyoming Department of Health
 Incentives for Youth Resource Fair
 Employees time to attend coalition meetings
Funders
 United Way
 Wyoming Business Council
 Wyoming Institute of Population Health
 Catholic Charities of Wyoming
 NAEHCY
Strength and determination of the Strong Families Action Team
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Strong Families Action Team, HYI
What key people/agencies keep the task force moving and
productive?
 Strong Families Action Team:
 United Way
 Wyoming Institute of
Population Health
 Wyoming Department of
Education
 Laramie County School
District #1
 Wyoming Family Home
Ownership Program
 Wyoming Department of
Workforce Services
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Bethany Christian Services
City of Cheyenne
WYhealth
Faith Nurses
Bank of the West
Wyoming Citizen Review
Panel
 Military One Source
 Realtor Association (new)
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Strong Families Action Team, HYI
What are some key people/agencies missing from the
group?
Laramie County Department of Family Services
Juvenile justice
Residential centers
Local law enforcement
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Strong Families Action Team, HYI
At this stage, what are your biggest
challenges? Strategies to address those challenges?
Funding


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Working with the Realtor Association
Bank representative on committee
Securing grants
Partners that have sustainable funding i.e. Catholic
Charities of Wyoming
 Wyoming Business Council opened another source of
public funding due to Strong Families request for a
technical grant
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Strong Families Action Team, HYI
Challenges (cont.)



Liability
 Creatively designing program
 Meet with DFS to clarify roles
 Support from NAEHCY
Location of property
 Collaboration with Realtors and Banks
Staffing
 Partnering with University of Wyoming for a graduate
intern from the Social Work program
 Volunteers from the faith-based communities
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Michigan Task Force:
Some of your most exciting initiatives ?

Jobs Skills Training Pop-Up Workshops Underway
 Adopting a Soft Skills Training Curriculum to present in the
community
 In the process of applying for a local community grant to
support this project
 Location Underway: Osborn High school, Alternatives for
Girls and Community and Schools

Clothing: Partnership with Goods360 underway
 Clothing drive project underway

Transportation project underway: Carpooling
 Solicited letters to providers of drivers training to see if
youth could receive discounts
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Michigan initiatives (cont.)

Social Media Presence
 Facebook Page
 Live Website with job updates and resources coming soon
 Links to clothing banks and housing resources for homeless
youth on live website

Youth Council Initiative
 Tigers Game

Advocacy
 Task Force advocated on behalf of citizens amid Detroit’s
Water Crisis
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Michigan Task Force :
What or who are some keys to those
successes?

Youth Voice

Strategic Relationship Building

Youth Advocates

Core group of task force members

Not giving up!
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Michigan:
What key people/agencies keep the task
force moving and productive?

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NAEHCY
Matrix Human Services
Detroit Public Library
Vista Maria
Osborn High School
McKinney Vento Liaisons from Detroit Public Schools and EAA
and Community and Schools
Oakland County Public School’s staff
South Oakland Shelter
Youth Advocates
YOUTH VOICE!!
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Michigan:
Who are some key people/agencies missing
from the group?

Business Leaders

Community Members

Transportation Authority

Homeless Liaisons

DHS Workers

Faith Community

Colleges and Universities

College Students

Policy Makers

Youth Serving Agencies
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Michigan:
When you first were getting started, what
were some of the biggest challenges? How
did you address them?

Weather
 Rescheduling meetings

Securing Meeting Locations
 Scheduling meetings at rotating locations in advance

Community Participation
 Local visits and pop ups

Youth Council: Your Voices Matter!
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Michigan:
At this stage, what are some of your biggest
challenges? Strategies to address them?



Recruiting Youth
 Assistance with transportation
 Incentives: Food, Outings
 Youth Council Initiatives
Attendance on Conference Calls
• More frequent reminders
• In-person meetings
Consistent Meeting Attendance
 Schedule meetings ahead of time
 Share task so members will feel involved
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Michigan:
Current challenges and strategies (cont.)
•
Sustainability
 Apply for grants
 Research
 Assigning internal leadership
 Obtaining match funding for projects from
partners

Key Leaders at the table

Bring Awareness : Increase Social Media Presence
and Marketing Material
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From Local to State to National
 Task Forces have been instrumental in:
 Passing 8 state laws in CA
 Passing 1 state law in TX (so far)
 Getting bipartisan support for the Homeless
Children and Youth Act
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Contact Information
 Patricia Julianelle
 pjulianelle@naehcy.org
 (202) 436-9087
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