FOCUSING ON YOUTH! Strategies for Increasing Community Support & Improving 10 Year Plan Model Example: Heading Home Hennepin

HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA MARCHING ORDERS – Call to Action TOPIC AREAS – What was our focus?  Prevention  Housing  Services What we added  Outreach  Self-Support (Education & Employment)

LEADERSHIP Organized by County/City Continuum of Care Identification of Key Facilitators (Cochairs)  Monica Nilsson – The Bridge  Rich Hooks Wayman – StreetWorks Collaborative Approached other leaders – full spectrum

Existing Strength in Homeless Youth Services- multiple points of input!  FHPAP Youth Rep.  Street Outreach  Emergency Shelter  Transitional Housing  Drop-in Centers  Case Management Services  Culturally specific organization (SE Asian Council, American Indian Community Dev. Corp, Afro-centric and African Immigrant cultural outreach and service  Health Clinics  Permanent Supportive Housing  Police  Business Community (Downtown Council, Chamber of Commerce  District Court  Commissioner of Public Health  Suburban Counseling and Outreach  Mpls Public School  School Board

How to fill gaps when there’s no spectrum of youth serving agencies POINT IN TIME COUNT  Separate Out Youth (24 and under)  Recruitment of agencies, case workers, youth  Identify lead organization for coordination  Map out locations and sources of data  Facilitate collection of data  Promote the quality of data (training) and analyze data  Frequent timing – to show progress NATURAL SYSTEMS: Child welfare, Juvenile Justice, Schools, Community Services CREATE CAPACITY – organization, process, goals/plans

RECRUITMENT: Making the Time 100 day plan – short and focused (small commitment) Diversification of voices & stakeholders Planning meetings (every 2-3 weeks) – 25 people Organized committees for focused recommendations (5-6 people on each subcommittee) Identification of leaders (facilitators) to DRAFT and EDIT (narrative is time consuming)

ANALYZE CURRENT STATE OF SERVICES PIT, Gaps analysis Hearing from homeless youth Hearing from other communities (Listening session) Tough choices – emphasizing or prioritizing competing parts of the spectrum – shelter vs. housing, outreach vs. case management

DOING OUR WORK TOGETHER – Structure – Co-facilitated Committee  Prevention  Housing  Services  Self-Sufficiency  Outreach Quick report backs – recommendations Timeline for plan – drafting, editing, consensus vote

PLANNING AND PREPARING FOR IMPLEMENTATION Creation of Plan – what next? Capacity to carry out implementation?  Keep doing existing work/focus  Drop some things  Demand public system focus by hiring County/City staff