WCC Research Policy and Advocacy

After April 8th 2016, WCCV attendees developed a working list for priorities in research and policy advocacy within the context of young people experiencing homelessness and housing insecurity. Attendees, that included professionals in many different capacities, identified the following as some of the most immediate needs:

Advocacy

  1. Education and counteracting misinformation regarding the criminalization of homelessness

    1. fill in more information around this, legitimize the stories of youth by raising the profile of this issue through research and advocacy efforts

  2. Increased priority around funding for drop-in and out reach services

  3. State level-coordination

    1. Creation of Inter Agency Councils

    2. Connect folks working at the state level on youth homelessness to learn lessons and share best practices

    3. Explore coordination of HMIS across CA to improve system value in research

  4. Increased support and funding for education that includes formal and informal pathways to gaining knowledge

 

Continuing Research

  1. Give a voice to migratory youth (“travelers”) by potentially building a typology

    1. See Um, M. Y., Rice, E., Rhoades, H., Winetrobe, H., & Bracken, N. (2016). Influence of “traveling” youth and substance use behaviors in the social networks of homeless youth

  2. Research on the overlap of young people that enter homelessness and other public systems (community/county/state levels)

    1. Child Protection/Foster Care

    2. Department of Justice (juvenile justice & arrest records)

    3. Education

  3. The effectiveness and impact of drop-in/outreach services

    1. See: Slesnick et al. (2015) “A Test of Outreach and Drop-in Linkage Versus Shelter Linkage for Connecting Homeless Youth to Services”

  4. Continued research on the connection of youth homelessness and youth gang involvement

    1. See: Petering (2015), “Sexual risk, substance  use, mental health, and trauma experiences of gang-involved homeless youth”

    2. How is this connected to issues around CSEC