Data play a fundamental role in preventing, addressing, and ending youth homelessness. High-quality data help in identifying youth experiencing homelessness, supporting youth in exiting homelessness, understanding what programs and strategies are more impactful in preventing, addressing, and ending youth homelessness, and ensuring equity throughout the homelessness response system.
Data around homelessness generally come from two main sources: 1) data collected by the shelter system and other related agencies and programs that offer services to youth experiencing homelessness, and 2...
Housing is a human right and a key determinant of health and well-being (24). The Urban Institute Housing Justice Hub defines Housing Justice as “Ensuring everyone has affordable housing that promotes health, well-being, and upward mobility by confronting historical and ongoing harms and disparities caused by structural racism and other systems of oppression” (25). Housing Justice requires “the transformation of institutions and systems that have driven racialized dispossession of land, displacement from home, and exclusion from access to safety and stability in the form...
Our overarching principles are principles that should be implemented in every program, intervention, and strategy designed to prevent, address, and/or end youth homelessness. These principles are evidence-based approaches or frameworks that increase the positive impact and effectiveness of programs and strategies for youth at-risk or experiencing homelessness. Based on the scoping review we conducted, we are highlighting nine overarching principles:
Harm reduction is a framework that has the aim of understanding structural inequalities impacting youth. It is also a range of strategies that includes safer techniques, managed use, and abstinence, to promote the dignity and wellbeing of youth. The key goal is to meet people where they are, but not leaving them there (19). An important characteristic of this approach is that it recognizes that abstinence may not be a realistic or desirable goal for youth, the use of substances is accepted as a fact, and the focus is not on abstinence but on reducing harm while...
Positive youth development (PYD) is defined by the Interagency Working Group on Youth Programs, as: “An intentional, prosocial approach that engages youth within their communities, schools, organizations, peer groups, and families in a manner that is productive and constructive; recognizes, utilizes, and enhances young people ́s strengths; and promotes positive outcomes for young people by providing opportunities, fostering positive relationships, and furnishing the support needed to build on their leadership and strengths” (16). In summary, PYD is an approach...
Trauma Informed Care (TIC) approach is a framework implemented by organizations or systems with the aims of: 1) realizing the impact of trauma and understanding the potential paths towards recovery; 2) recognizing the signs and symptoms of trauma; 3) responding by fully integrating this knowledge into policies, procedures, and practices; and, 4) seeking to actively resist re- traumatization (18). According to SAMHSA, TIC approaches have six key principles: safety, trustworthiness and transparency, peer support, collaboration and mutuality, empowerment, voice, and choice,...
Cultural humility is an orientation towards how services are provided. It is based on self-reflexivity and assessment, appreciation of clients’ expertise on their lives, openness to establishing power-balances relationships with youth, and a willingness and dedication to keep learning. Cultural humility means cultivating a lens where we admit that we do not know, and we are willing to learn from youth about their experiences. It refers to an intrapersonal and interpersonal approach that cultivates patient-centered care (22). The practice of cultural humility includes not...
Equity can be defined as the absence of systematic disparities between groups with different levels of underlying social disadvantage (e.g., wealth, power, prestige, education). Inclusivity is defined as the practice or policy of providing equal access to opportunities and resources for people who might otherwise be excluded. Inequities systematically put groups of people, who are already disadvantaged, at further disadvantage with respect to their housing status, education, employment, and health, among other areas (31). For instance, Black, Latinx,...
Youth choice and youth agency means giving youth the opportunity to make decisions in their own lives. Young people have the right to voice their preferences and choose between the different options available to them, based on what they believe works best for them. By implementing a youth choice and youth agency approach, programs treat youth with dignity and respect and are upholding their rights. In this approach, youth are not punished for exercising their choice, agency, and autonomy. Decisions made and driven by youth are more impactful and sustainable than decision...
Youth should be considered experts on their own lives. Their unique and innovative contributions should be part of the program implementation cycle. Programs should be designed and led by youth and youth must have decision-making power in all youth homelessness decision-making bodies. Additionally, youth must be compensated with a livable wage for their work. Thus, a plan to achieve this must be created as of the first phases of program design. To ensure youth are successful in their leadership positions, mentoring and leadership workshops and trainings should be available to youth....
