1. Calling all Youth Collaboratory members! Join us for Capitol Jam and Think Tank 2019, an event designed just for you, in Washington, DC in September. Click here to learn more.
2. We're hiring! We're looking for a creative, astute, experienced, digital-friendly leader to be our Communications Manager. Click here to learn more.
|
|
|
Understanding Youth Pathways Through Homelessness – New Research to Impact Brief
This month Chapin Hall released Missed Opportunities: Pathways from Foster Care to Youth Homelessness in America. This seventh Research-to-Impact brief presents findings about youth who experienced homelessness and had a history in the child welfare system. Chapin Hall learned that a history of foster care is common among young people experiencing homelessness. Many young people perceived their entry into foster care as the beginning of their own experience with homelessness. Their foster care placement was often part of a larger pattern of instability that included homelessness with their family. Furthermore, there are multiple pathways from foster care to homelessness, including aging out, reunification, and adoption.
Read the brief here »
|
|
|
Is Your Community Ready to Accept the Grand Challenge to End Youth Homelessness?
Over a two-year period, the A Way Home America (AWHA) Grand Challenge will help 10 communities in the United States end homelessness for LGBTQ+ youth and youth of color, setting the path to end homelessness for all youth. Given that the preponderance of youth experiencing homelessness are LGBTQ+ and/or youth of color, this result represents a key milestone towards ending homelessness for all young people.
|
|
|
The Majority of Schools in 15 States And DC Offer LGBTQ-Inclusive Sex-Ed Curricula
According to 46-state data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the majority of schools in 15 states and the District of Columbia reported offering sex education curricula or supplementary materials that included information about sexually transmitted infections (STIs), and pregnancy prevention relevant to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning (LGBTQ) students in 2016 (the most recent year for which data is available). While most LGBTQ youth successfully navigate adolescence, others experience challenges due to stigma and discrimination. An emerging body of research finds that the stress caused by this stigma and discrimination can negatively impact the health of LGBTQ young people. Resources and support can help address health disparities between LGBTQ youth and their straight cisgender peers.
|
|
|
Strategies for a Sweet Summer: Creating Community for Young People
For many, summer is a time for sweet treats and making sweet memories. However, while many youth dream of that idyllic summer vacation, others do not look forward to (or enjoy) this break. For some youth, summer is a time in which risks and vulnerabilities are elevated. Some youth experience a lack of access to multiple resources including food, basic needs, and safe adults, while others look forward to school as it is an escape from unsupportive, unsafe, or abusive homes. This blog by our colleagues at Center for Combating Human Trafficking provides some tips to youth service programs on supporting all youth throughout the summer.
Read more »
|
|
|
U.S. House of Representatives Holds Hearing on Ending Youth Homelessness
On July 16th the U.S. House of Representatives' Education & Labor Subcommittee on Civil Rights and Human Services held a hearing on "Strengthening Federal Support to End Youth Homelessness." The hearing provided an excellent venue to raise the profile of these issues in anticipation of the re-introduction of the Runaway and Homeless Youth Trafficking Prevention Act (RHYTPA) later this Congress. To learn more about the hearing, with video clips of witnesses' testimony (including #inthecollab YouthCare, YMCA of San Diego, and Chapin Hall), read this blog by Youth Collaboratory's public policy leader, Christopher Fisher.
|
|
|
House Passes Two-Year Budget Deal to Lift Spending, Suspend Debt Ceiling
The House passed a sweeping two-year budget deal on July 25 that increases spending for military and domestic programs, and suspends the debt ceiling through mid-2021, sending the White House-backed legislation to the Senate. A large majority of Democrats voted for the legislation, while a majority of Republicans opposed it, despite appeals from President Trump to support the bill. The 284-149 vote was one of the last acts by the House before lawmakers leave Washington for a six-week summer recess. The Senate is expected to act on the bill today and send it to President Trump for his signature.
|
|
|
Ben Carson Unveils Major Stable Housing Initiative for Former Foster Youth
In this article from The Chronicle for Social Change, John Kelly reports on Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Ben Carson's announcement of an initiative that offers youth aging out of foster care a path to stable housing within the nation's public housing network. Carson announced the Foster Youth to Independence (FYI) initiative, which was initially proposed to HUD by a group of current and former foster youth, at an event at the nonprofit Journey House Community Center in Milwaukee. It was there that Carson announced the FYI initiative, stating, "About 20,000 youngsters age out of foster care each year, and about a quarter of those, sometime in the next four years, will become homeless. This is an opportunity to intervene very significantly."
|
|
|
Top 10 Nonprofit Board "Worst" Practices
We are generally strength-based here at Youth Collaboratory so the title may seem a bit off but in this post from Blue Avocado, Marc Rand reaches out to non-profit board members with some guiding thoughts important to keep in mind. "While there are plenty of articles out there on so-called "best practices," what about the pitfalls to avoid and real screw ups that undermine impact and disrupt the natural flow of an organization?"
|
|
|
Model Practices for Parents in Prisons and Jails: Reducing Barriers to Family Connections
The Urban Institute has released a new guide that describes an array of family-friendly practices designed to help correctional agencies reduce barriers to parent-child contact and communication and help mitigate the harmful effects of a parent's incarceration on children and families. The Model Practices guide includes 10 chapters that describe many low-cost, high-impact practices and provides correctional administrators with key considerations for implementation, evidence on the effectiveness of the practices, tips, and resources for implementation. Family-friendly practices include activities such as welcoming visitor lobbies, parenting and relationship programming, contact visiting, coached telephone calls, family activity days, and family-inclusive reentry planning.
|
|
|
AMP's Top Ten Tips for Engaging with Young People
This tip sheet, developed as part of the Pathways Achieve My Plan (AMP) project, offers practical advice for providers and others who interact with youth. This 4-page resource features 10 specific tips on the best ways to engage with young people. Each tip includes a description along with examples of what to say (and what not to say). Achieve My Plan is an enhancement for existing interventions and programs that is designed to strengthen providers' skills in key areas for working effectively with youth and young adults.
Learn more »
|
|
|
Online Orientation for those Supporting and Inspiring Native Youth
The Supporting and Inspiring Native Youth e-learning orientation was developed to provide programs and mentors with the knowledge and tools needed to recognize the strengths and complexities of Native youth identity. You will be exposed to the landscape of Native communities understanding that there are multiple identities under the umbrella of Native youth. The ultimate goal of this orientation is to support programs and mentors in identifying opportunities to celebrate Native youth identity through and within the mentoring relationship.
Learn more »
|
|
|
Non-Profit Funding, Jobs, + Events for July
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
