Author: Darla Bardine, Policy Director, the National Network for Youth (NN4Y)
Providing developmentally appropriate and readily accessible services
is critical to addressing episodic or longer-term youth homelessness and
is an essential component of any housing intervention. In light of the
federal frameworks and collaborative strategies that have been published
this year by federal agencies and U.S. Congress, the National Network
for Youth (NN4Y) created a Comprehensive Framework to End Youth Homelessness.
This framework outlines the services, housing models, and goals for
each of the four stages of intervention: prevention, early intervention,
longer-term solutions, and aftercare. These four stages of intervention
are not meant to depict a linear consumption of services, but instead
seek to outline the services, housing models, and goals that are
necessary to have a fully functioning safety net for runaway and
homeless youth, as well as those at risk.
Federal, state, and local resources dedicated specifically to serving
homeless youth in youth-appropriate ways are minimal and not to
capacity. As federal agencies are collaborating to create and scale up
the safety net for these often invisible youth who are struggling to
survive, NN4Y’s framework is the “goal safety net” that communities work
towards. Decision-makers and policy-writers can use this comprehensive
framework to identify and fill gaps in the four stages of intervention
that prevent youth homelessness and provide effective, comprehensive,
and family-focused interventions.
More about NN4Y’s Comprehensive Framework to End Youth Homelessness:
The first page details the services that runaway and homeless youth and
their families need at primary, secondary, and tertiary interventions.
The second page shows the different housing models that all youth should
have access to, since appropriate services cannot be provided if the
youth and family are not first housed and stabilized. Finally, this
framework states the goals, which can only be achieved when appropriate
services and housing resources are available for the youth and family
in-crisis. When these stages of interventions are scaled to capacity in a
community, there is an effective safety net for these youth and their
families.
Darla Bardine is the Policy
Director at the National Network for Youth (NN4Y). The National Network,
founded in 1974, is the nation’s leading network of homeless and
runaway youth programs. The Network champions the needs of runaway,
homeless, and other disconnected youth through strengthening the
capacity of community-based services, facilitating resource sharing, and
educating the public and policy makers. NN4Y members serve over 2.5
million youth annually across the country, working collaboratively to
prevent youth homelessness and the inherent risks of living on the
streets, including exploitation, human trafficking, criminal justice
involvement, or getting killed on the streets.
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