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

Youth Homelessness Resources

Funders Together to End Homelessness supports philanthropy to end youth homelessness through organizing the Funders Network for Youth Success, which is open to any FTEH member with an interest in these issues. This Network has composed the following resources: 

 

Upcoming Learning Opportunities

 

December 13th, 2023, at 2:00pm - 3:15pm ET
Preventing Youth Homelessness Series: Interrupting Incarceration 

Continuing a series of webinars on preventing youth homelessness, this edition will examine the promise of Housing Stability for Youth in Courts (aka H-SYNC), a Washington state navigation program supporting young people in the juvenile court system who are at risk of homelessness. We will learn from its designers both to envision replication across the country and to use H-SYNC as an entry point to broader conversation about disrupting carceral systems for youth homelessness prevention. We’ll invite the tension between reformists working to reduce incarceration and abolitionists dismantling oppressive systems altogether. We hope funders leave challenged to fund advocacy and programs that get at the root of injustice.    

 

2024 Youth Homelessness Funder Strategy Circles 

Launching in 2024, the Funders Network for Youth Success will host bimonthly forums to discuss emerging issues affecting philanthropy’s role in preventing and ending youth homelessness. This is the opportune place to showcase your work, ventilate struggles, get input from colleagues, and build relationships with others in similar roles. 

All members of Funders Together to End Homelessness are eligible; simply fill out this form, after which you’ll receive a calendar invitation from Michael Durham.

Meetings next year will take place on the 4th Tuesday every other month at 2:00 ET, 1:00 CT, 12:00 MT, 11:00 PT, beginning January 23rd.  

Funders Together Resources

Past Webinars

Preventing Youth Homeless Series: Identifying Student Risks through the Upstream Project 

The prevention of youth homelessness requires interventions at the roots, stabilizing young people’s living situations before crisis culminates in homelessness. Participants learned about The Upstream Project and how it has been effective in preventing youth homelessness abroad, including both the funder and practitioner perspective, and lessons for implementing it in the United States.

Mobilizing Philanthropy for Youth Homelessness Prevention 

During this funder call with the Funders Network for Youth Success (FNYS), participants discussed effective solutions for youth homelessness prevention, heard from partners within the movement, and connected with other funders to share their organization's efforts to address the issue.

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: 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 homleessness, 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: 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 Homelessness in America (2023) 
Annie E. Casey Foundation

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

AWHA Policy Agenda
A Way Home America 

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

youth/young adults youth youth pinned

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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