A national network of funders supporting strategic, innovative, and effective solutions to homelessness

Youth Homelessness Prevention Learning & Action Series for Philanthropy

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Tuesday, February 1, 2022 | 2:00pm ET / 1:00pm CT / 12:00pm MT / 11:00am PT

Co-sponsored by: American Bar Association, Coalition for Juvenile Justice, Grantmakers in Health, Grantmakers in Education, Grantmakers for Thriving Youth, National Homelessness Law Center, Legal Counsel for Youth and Children, National Center for Homeless Education, Youth Transition Funders Group

Supported by: The Annie E. Casey Foundation and the Raikes Foundation

Audre Lorde noted that "There is no such thing as a single-issue struggle because we do not live single-issue lives." The issue of housing instability among youth and youth adults is not an issue that can be prevented simply by those in the housing and homelessness space but requires a holistic approach. By exploring the intersections that affect young people, we have an opportunity to begin to advance the prevention of youth homelessness. 

Funders Together to End Homelessness is collaborating with a number of funders collaboratives, national partners, and foundations to begin to explore the actions philanthropy can take to help prevent youth homelessness. While there are a broad array of intersections that affect young people experiencing homelessness, over the next year, this series will be focused on the following five areas:

  • Education: More than 1.3 million homeless students have been identified in our public schools—on average, there are 14 students experiencing homelessness in each public school across America. With the proper support, teachers and staff can help identify students who are facing crises and connect them to the right supports, such as housing, counseling, and legal assistance. 
  • Health: Communities are exploring how to work more upstream and provide supports that can help prevent youth homelessness, while addressing their unique health needs. Addressing social determinants of health, such as housing instability, can be challenging, long-term endeavors. Some health systems, funders, and nonprofit organizations, however, are exploring ways that they can support affordable housing.
  • Eviction Prevention for Young People: Youth and young adults who experience eviction face particularly challenging and dangerous circumstances. In many communities, it is difficult for a young person to find landlords willing to rent to someone under age 24. For young people, the cascade of negative consequences due to eviction extends well beyond the loss of housing and can impact their lives for years or decades to come.
  • Family Engagement: Family dynamics can be a key driver in youth homelessness. For that reason, there is an increased focus on providing supports for both formal and informal family structures. These supports could range from family reunification, host homes, or any number of family intervention models.
  • Systems-Involvement: Young adults experiencing homelessness have been found to have a higher rate of prior involvement with systems, such as foster care, criminal legal, immigration, and child welfare. 

 

Join other funders across various funding priorities on Tuesday, February 1st, for an interactive kickoff session focused on breaking down silos and inviting new partnerships for more intersectional support for youth homelessness prevention. This kickoff convening will provide an understanding of youth homelessness prevention and the importance of using an intersectional approach to this work. Participants will hear from Charles Rutheiser with the Annie E. Casey Foundation about their work efforts to rethink how they partner both internally and externally to tackle the intersections that most directly affect young people. Participants will have the opportunity to then dive into a breakout session with partners working in one of our five specific areas outlined above. 

This virtual convening will act as the foundation for our subsequent webinars and discussions that we are hosting with key stakeholders and partners throughout 2022 and provide a space for participants to both learn and act collaboratively with their colleagues. 

Agenda

You can find a working agenda for the convening here.

Registration

To register for this webinar, please use the register button below.

Please note: Participation in Funders Together programming is limited to private funders, United Ways, philanthropy-serving organizations, and/or members of Funders Together. Public funders, government employees, and staff at organizations where grantmaking is not the primary function are not eligible to participate. If you have any questions about your eligibility to participate, please contact Stephanie Chan, Director of Membership and Programs.    

Technology

This webinar will take place via Zoom. If you have any technical questions or do not have your Zoom link at least 24 hours before this webinar begins, please reach out to Tabitha Blackwell, Director of Networks and Programs.

WHEN
February 01, 2022 at 2:00pm - 4pm
CONTACT
Tabitha Blackwell ·

Showing 1 reaction

  • Tabitha Blackwell
    published this page in Programming 2021-12-09 18:07:55 -0500

We joined Funders Together because we believe in the power of philanthropy to play a major role in ending homelessness, and we know we have much to learn from funders across the country.

-Christine Marge, Director of Housing and Financial Stability at United Way of Greater Los Angeles

I am thankful for the local partnerships here in the Pacific Northwest that we’ve been able to create and nurture thanks to the work of Funders Together. Having so many of the right players at the table makes our conversations – and all of our efforts – all the richer and more effective.

-David Wertheimer, Deputy Director at Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Very often a lack of jobs and money is not the cause of poverty, but the symptom. The cause may lie deeper in our failure to give our fellow citizens a fair chance to develop their own capacities, in a lack of education and training, in a lack of medical care and housing, in a lack of decent communities in which to live and bring up their children.

-President Lyndon B. Johnson, 1964 State of the Union Address

Funders Together has given me a platform to engage the other funders in my community. Our local funding community has improved greatly to support housing first models and align of resources towards ending homelessness.

-Leslie Strnisha, Vice President at Sisters of Charity Foundation of Cleveland

Our family foundation convenes local funders and key community stakeholders around strategies to end homelessness in Houston. Funders Together members have been invaluable mentors to us in this effort, traveling to our community to share their expertise and examples of best practices from around the nation.

-Nancy Frees Fountain, Managing Director at The Frees Foundation


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