Youth Homelessness Resources

Funders Together to End Homelessness is dedicated to preventing and ending youth homelessness. We have worked with funders from around the country to create a network of learning and action. These are resources will provide a snapshot of the current youth homelessness landscape for funders and support funders in identifying the role they can play in advancing the work happening both nationally and locally. We will be updating this page with timely resources as they become available, so be sure to check back often!

Upcoming Learning Opportunities

Funder Call: Mobilizing Philanthropy in the Movement to End Youth Homelessness
Tuesday, April 18, 2023 | 1:00PM ET, 12:00 MT, 11:00 AM CT, 10AM PT

All Funders Together members who fund – or are considering funding – work related to youth homelessness are invited to this virtual gathering of the Funders Network for Youth Success (FNYS), which exists to coordinate our members toward strategic, innovative, and effective solutions to prevent and end youth homelessness.

We partner to uplift the most impactful and liberatory approaches, holding each other accountable through mutual support. Born out of a more-structured Community of Practice, the Funders Network for Youth Success is open to all Funders Together members whose grantmaking and advocacy relates to this issue, broadly defined. This event is meant to convene existing Network members and invite new ones.

Preventing Youth Homelessness Series Webinar: Identifying Student Risks through Project Upstream
Wednesday, April 26, 2023 | 2:00pm ET, 1:00pm CT, 12:00pm MT, 11:00am PT

In this webinar, we will explore Project Upstream, an international cross-sector prevention model that has been instrumental in preventing child and youth homelessness through school-based assessments and supports. We'll learn about experiences of funders and advocates in Canada who have shepherded Upstream from the beginning and discuss with Chapin Hall what makes these initiatives successful, the challenges they experience, and how they differ from other school-based assessments.

Funders Together Resources

Past Webinars

Preventing Youth Homelessness Series: The Role of Healthcare

This webinar explored the range of intersections between youth homelessness and healthcare, focusing on health policy that would improve young people’s housing security and what healthcare providers need to support young people at risk of homelessness.

Preventing Youth Homelessness Series Webinar: The Role of Education
Building off Funders Together’s February convening on prevention of youth homelessness, in addition to a September 14th companion webinar on the role of employment services, this virtual gathering will dive deeper on the role of the education system in preventing youth homelessness. Starting with a “state of the movement” on education-based services for children and youth at risk of or experiencing homelessness, we will hear about a new initiative that homes in on the intersection of homlessness, education, criminal-legal system, and foster care. Opportunities abound for funders to get involved. Come prepared to share your own work on this issue as applicable.

Preventing Youth Homelessness Series Webinar: The Role of Employment Services
Building off Funders Together’s February convening on this topic, this webinar dove deeper into the role of employment services in preventing youth homelessness by featuring national advocates and funders, including those with lived experience, in an interactive presentation.

Youth Homelessness Prevention Online Convening
This kickoff convening provided an understanding of youth homelessness prevention and the importance of using an intersectional approach to this work. Participants heard 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 had the opportunity to then dive into a breakout session with partners working in one of our five specific areas outlined above. This virtual convening acted 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.

Youth Homelessness Prevention Series: Centering Lived Expertise of Young People to Reimagine Systems
In this second session of the Youth Homelessness Prevention Learning & Action Series for Philanthropy, we highlighted the work of Think Of Us. During the February 1st convening, we had a chance in the System Involvement breakout room to meet the Chief Executive Officer of Think Of Us. Think Of Us is a Research and Development Lab for child welfare, transforming the system so that people with lived experience are at the center of designing, imaging, and building. They strategically engage projects across tech, participatory research, and state and federal partnership, driving system-wide solutions that bridge the gap between policy, practice, and people.

2021 Funders Institute: Organizing Against Anti-Transgender Policies in the Fight for Housing Justice
In this session, we heard from national and grassroots organizers about the advocacy opportunities at the intersection of anti-transgender policies and housing and homelessness.

Washington State's Youth Homelessness Prevention Programs
In 2020, the Washington State Legislature included a proviso in the 2020 supplemental operating budget (Chapter 357, Laws of 2020) to support the development of a draft strategic plan addressing the issue of youth homelessness in the state. The Office of Homeless Youth is working to ensure safe and stable housing for all young people across the state of Washington so that they may thrive in the short and long term regardless of their location, age, race, ethnicity, neurodiversity, disability, gender identity or sexual orientation. Over the last year, a team of nonprofit leaders and young people have worked to identify a preliminary strategy that outlines the underlying reasons for youth and young adult homelessness, sets a framework around prevention and identifies gaps and highlights early recommendations and immediate next steps.

Authentically Sharing Power with Young People
This webinar explored how YouthPrise has engaged young people in their mission to reduce disparities with and for Minnesota youth, involved discussion about the range of ways foundations can share power with young people authentically, and shared lessons learned and opportunities in engaging young people in the decision making process.

Removing Barriers for Youth Experiencing Homelessness
In this webinar, Casey Trupin, JD from Raikes Foundation moderated a panel of representatives from the American Bar Association, Equal Justice Works, the Family and Youth Service Bureau, and Homeless Persons Representation Project. They explored the importance of eliminating obstacles and increasing legal services for this population. We discussed how funders can support this important work to help remove barriers for youth seeking to secure identification, school enrollment, housing, employment, and much more.

Opportunities for Impact with Host Homes
In this webinar, we are joined by Larry Cohen and Orlando Roybal from Point Source Youth, Elvis Guzman from The Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation, and Tammy Marsashlian from United Way of Greater Los Angeles to discuss the work that is happening in Baltimore and Los Angeles around Host Homes, how funders are currently engaging in this work, and where they are additional opportunities.

Blog Posts

Upstream Enough? Reflections on the Canada-US Funders Forum on Prevention of Youth Homelessness

Michael Durham, Funders Together Director of Networks, attended “cross-border learners’ exchange” between Canadian and U.S. foundations around youth homelessness prevention and documented his experience in Toronto, summarizing the two-day meeting itself and reflecting on what this means for the movement stateside.

What Funders Can Learn From LGBTQ Youth Experiencing Homelessness
What can funders learn from LGBTQ youth experiencing homelessness? Our CEO, Amanda Andere, joined Kahlib Barton, True Colors United; Rivianna Hyatt, True Colors United; and Kelli King-Jackson, The Simmons Foundation to discuss this at the Funders for LGBTQ Issues Funding Forward convening in March.

Nothing About Us Without Us: Takeaways from the 2018 True Colors Fund Impact Summit
Lauren Samblanet, FTEH Program Membership Coordinator, reflects on key takeaways for philanthropy from the 2018 True Colors Fund Summit.

Ending Youth Homelessness: What Funders Need To Know
The Foundation for Youth Success presents their initial learnings.

Facilitating Systems Change to End Youth Homelessness: Foundations for Youth Success Minnesota Convening Takeaways (Part 1)

Facilitating Systems Change to End Youth Homelessness: Foundations for Youth Success Minnesota Convening Takeaways (Part 2)

Redefining "Community-wide" Responses to Youth Homelessness
Read about what Katie Hong of the Raikes Foundation took away from the Foundations from Youth Success convening in Toronto

Youth Network Newsletters

Resources From Our Members

Preventing and Ending Youth and Youth Adult Homelessness: Lessons From Five Years of Systems-Focused Grantmaking in King County, Washington (2016)
Raikes Foundation

Hidden in Plain Sight: Homeless Students in America's Public Schools
Commissioned by the Raikes Foundation, created by Civic Enterprises and America's Promise Alliance

Our Journey to Advocacy
Campion Foundation

LGBTQ Youth Homelessness Funder Briefing [Video]
The Simmons Foundation

Partners in the Work

Chapin Hall

From 2015 to 2017, Chapin Hall conducted the most comprehensive examination to date of youth homelessness, Voices of Youth Count, which incorporates youth voices to develop achievable solutions. Since the Fall of 2017, Chapin Hall has published nine seminal reports on youth experiencing homelessness, which can be found below in the Research and Solutions Resources section.

A Way Home America

A national initiative to build the movement to prevent and end homelessness among young people.

True Colors United

True Colors United implements innovative solutions to youth homelessness that focus on the unique experiences of LGBTQ young people.

Point Source Youth

Point Source Youth works to scale-up effective solutions to end youth homelessness by supporting interventions through regional experts and strong partnerships.

Youth Collaboratory

Youth Collaboratory provides consultation and technical assistance, as well as grant writing support to youth serving organizations and communities that are working to innovate, collaborate, and replicate effective practices.

Research and Solutions Resources

Voices of Youth Count Nine Reports

1. Youth Homelessness in America

2. LGBTQ Youth Homelessness in America

3. Pregnant and Parenting Youth Experiencing Homelessness in America

4. Counting Youth Experiencing Homelessness in America

5. Youth Homelessness in Rural America

6. Missed Opportunities in Youth Pathways through Homelessness in America

7. Pathways from Foster Care to Youth Homelessness in America

8. Evidence on Interventions for Addressing Youth Homelessness

9. Education Among Youth Experiencing Homelessness in America

Federal Framework to End Youth Homelessness
February 01, 2013, USICH

Preventing and Ending Youth Homelessness: A Coordinated Community Response
September 18, 2015

The Cost of Homelessness
2015, Foldes Consulting, LLC

A Way Home America Transition Plan- Actions and Strategies to End Youth Homelessness
2016, A Way Home America

Housing First for Youth

Challenges and Pilots in Youth Homelessness

Youth homelessness has a range of challenges and pilots that are catalyzing communities to collaborate across systems, as well as with young people experiencing homelessness. Learn more about these challenges and pilots.

Policy Resources

Alone Without A Home
National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty

State Index on Youth Homelessness
True Colors United

Policy Agenda
National Youth Forum on Homelessness

The Age Structure of Contemporary Homelessness: Evidence and Implications for Public Policy
January 2013, University of Pennsylvania

Criteria and Benchmarks for Achieving the Goal of Ending Youth Homelessness
January 13, 2017

National Guidance on Emergency Homeless Services for Youth and Young Adults
April 2020

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