Community Plan to End Youth Homelessness in Polk County Welcome! Community Plan to End Youth Homelessness in Polk County
Meeting Objectives Lay the groundwork for creating a plan to end youth homelessness in Polk County Review (briefly) current community strengths and challenges in addressing youth homelessness Identify what needs to be included in the plan and how to structure the work
How do you (or how does your organization) describe and quantify youth homelessness?
How many? Homeless Point in Time Count: (2016) 39 Unaccompanied youth (all over age 18 except 1) 22 Parenting youth (under age 24) 27 children with young adult (under age 24) parent Education: (2015-2016 school-year) 295 high school aged students in Polk County identified as unaccompanied homeless 1,497 homeless high school aged youth in families System-Involved: (National Youth in Transition Database-Iowa data) 25% of former foster youth report having been homeless between ages 17 and 19
Guiding Principles Youth Lens Think Creatively Think Strategically Listen respectfully, disagree constructively “Change at the community level requires us to rethink current systems and program delivery”
What does the system look like now? Strengths Challenges, barriers and gaps
What issues have to be addressed in our plan for us to End Youth Homelessness? _____________________________________
Approach to the Planning Process and Next Steps
Proposed meeting schedule Monday, July 24 Monday, September 25 Monday, December 4
Contacts Toby O’Berry, Iowa Homeless Youth Centers TOBerry@yss.org Mark Phillips, Polk County Continuum of Care Board M.Phillips@pchsia.org Andrea Dencklau, Youth Policy Institute of Iowa adencklau@ypii.org