Survey on Counting Homeless Youth |
The Unaccompanied Homeless Youth Committee, a subcommittee of the Western MA Network to End Homelessness, is preparing to participate in a Statewide Homeless Youth Commission Count this coming January, based on Promising Practices from the Youth Count! Initiative. We expect to receive state funds to train and pay stipends to "youth ambassadors" to help with the count and to conduct focus groups in an effort to better understand the scope of unaccompanied youth and young adults (under age 24) in our region.
Towards this end we are gathering preliminary information in order to identify organizations, youth, and sites at which youth are known to congregate. Our goal is to have maximum count coverage across our large geographical region, so that we can accurately reflect the needs of youth in our region. We anticipate that within the next couple of years that there will be new state and federal funding streams for planning and intervention programs that target youth who are at high risk of becoming homeless. A comprehensive count will help all of us to develop a statement of need for multiple funding sources that serve this target group.
Towards this end we are gathering preliminary information in order to identify organizations, youth, and sites at which youth are known to congregate. Our goal is to have maximum count coverage across our large geographical region, so that we can accurately reflect the needs of youth in our region. We anticipate that within the next couple of years that there will be new state and federal funding streams for planning and intervention programs that target youth who are at high risk of becoming homeless. A comprehensive count will help all of us to develop a statement of need for multiple funding sources that serve this target group.