iv. Beginning Stabilization

Beginning stabilization is a form of tertiary prevention that consists of facilitating young people’s exits from homelessness as quickly as possible and providing the necessary supports to prevent recurrent homelessness. Housing alone is not sufficient, but needs to be accompanied by additional resources that are tailored to supporting young people’s transitions to adulthood and independence—including those attending to their health and well-being, economic and educational mobility, and social supports. For guidance on how to improve your community’s implementation of specific beginning stabilization strategies for youth experiencing homelessness, please refer to the following resources:

What is Beginning Stabilization?

In Structural Prevention of Youth Homelessness housing stabilization for youth is defined as a form of tertiary prevention that “involves assisting young people who have already experienced homelessness and housing precarity to exit that situation as quickly as possible, with the necessary supports in place to ensure they do not cycle back into homelessness again” (46). Simply housing young people is not enough for a healthy transition to adulthood. Instead, youth also need to be supported and accompanied to gain the necessary skills, experiences, and psychosocial...

Ensuring a Rapid Exit from Emergency Shelters

Beginning stabilization among youth begins with ensuring a rapid exit from emergency shelters. Although youth-specific emergency shelters are a key strategy for addressing youth homelessness, they are a temporary solution. The long-term goal is to create youth-specific pathways out of homelessness (47). Ensuring a rapid exit from emergency shelters is the first step to achieving this. The implementation of diversion programs, training case managers to help youth obtain housing, and implementing flexible financial support for youth are key strategies to ensure youth can...

Implementing Supportive and Stabilization Services for Youth

Providing housing, as a standalone intervention, is not sufficient to ensure a successful pathway from homelessness to permanent housing. Organizations implementing temporary housing programs need to accompany these programs with supportive services and access to resources for youth so that they can transition to independence (46). Examples of supportive strategies are Direct Cash Transfers, case management, and wrap-around services.

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Implementing Positive Youth Development Strategies

Positive youth development is an approach that engages youth within their communities and furnishes the support youth need to build on their strengths, skills, and resources. The goal is to identify, strengthen, and develop individual youth ́s assets, while building protective factors and resiliency (16). Strategies include welcoming and celebrating youth, affirming youths’ identities, supporting opportunities to build permanent connections, facilitating youths’ development of life and other skills, and centering youth voices (17). Positive youth development is an evidence...

Providers Training and Support

Service providers and case managers are key to the success of beginning stabilization strategies. Youth-specific trainings prepare service providers to work more effectively with youth experiencing homelessness by using a youth-focused and individualized approach. Each program will have to implement pieces of training specific to their service providers. However, we have identified some key trainings and strategies that all organizations should consider when implementing a youth-specific strategy to address and end youth homelessness.

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