
Young people will soon play a more central role in preventing and ending youth homelessness in Chicago
$500,000 in grants will help bring this proven national approach to Chicago
CHICAGO (August 14, 2019) — There are 15,744 unaccompanied homeless youth in Chicago, according to the most recent count from Chicago Coalition for the Homeless. Nationally, there is growing recognition that partnering with young people, particularly youth of color and LGBTQ youth, is the fastest way to dramatically improve outcomes for young people experiencing housing instability and homelessness. Ending youth homelessness in Chicago is possible, especially when young people who have experienced homelessness are leading the way.
Through a new Youth Homelessness Innovation Fund, Polk Bros. Foundation and The Crown Family are collaboratively investing $500,000 to encourage new local momentum on an issue that has seen tremendous innovation nationally. The two foundations, both longtime supporters of efforts to prevent and end youth homelessness in Chicago, created the Fund earlier this year in coordination with the City and with support from the Chicago Community Trust.
“Nationally, there has been a focus on bringing young people with lived experience of homelessness into the center of this work, particularly youth of color and LGBTQ youth, who are disproportionately impacted,” says Polk Bros. Foundation Senior Program Officer Debbie Reznick. “I’ve been inspired by how other cities have brought young people to the table, to define what’s needed, to decide where resources go and to become leaders in the work. I believe the initiatives funded through the Youth Homelessness Innovation Fund will increase meaningful youth leadership here in Chicago, and help bring their expertise to the effort to end youth homelessness in our city.”
One in 10 young adults experience homelessness over the course of a year, according to Chapin Hall’s 2017 “Missed Opportunities” report. LGBTQ youth and youth of color are at greater risk of experiencing homelessness. LGBTQ youth are also at greater risk for experiencing high levels of hardship, including higher rates of assault, trauma, exchanging sex for basic needs, and early death. Black LGBTQ youth, especially young men, have the highest rates of homelessness.
Young people with lived experience of homelessness informed the creation of the Youth Homelessness Innovation Fund Request for Proposals earlier this year, and emphasized that investments to end youth homelessness must be informed by them, and their voices must also be represented in proposed solutions.
Specifically, young people recommended that youth homelessness solutions in Chicago should:
- Be based on young people’s feedback and ideas
- Widen support for activities that promote young people’s housing stability
- Support self-efficacy for young people by providing opportunities for paid and unpaid peer-to-peer supports within programs, leadership opportunities, employment and vocational exploration, education and skill-building, particularly life skills
- Minimize harm and trauma by connecting young people with support, particularly in a peer-to-peer approach, providing training and accountability for staff and fostering safe spaces for youth, particularly gender non-conforming youth and youth of color
- Attend to the social and emotional needs of young people at various stages of development by promoting relationship development, positive communication, restorative practice, and youth-directed efforts to build community and chosen family
To change the odds for young people experiencing homelessness in Chicago, and to bring nationally-proven approaches to Chicago, the Youth Homelessness Innovation Fund is investing $500,000 across three strategies:
- Grants totaling $420,000 to eight nonprofits (detailed below) — ranging from $15,000 to $210,000 — will support new and creative efforts to improve outcomes for young people in Chicago experiencing housing instability and homelessness.
- Funding to bring the A Way Home America 100-Day Challenge to Chicago will encourage new ways to leverage existing resources. Building on the success of Chicago’s 100-Day Ending Veteran Homelessness Initiative, the effort will stimulate intense collaboration, innovation and execution in pursuit of an ambitious 100-day goal.
- Funding to support the Chicago Continuum of Care’s application for the latest round of U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Youth Homelessness Demonstration Program (YHDP) funding, which will enable Chicago to attract additional resources. Later this summer, HUD will announce up to 25 communities as recipients of $75 million in YHDP funding and technical assistance for the development and implementation of innovative coordinated community plans, including funding to invest in new housing and services.
“As a previously homeless youth, I’ve encountered many things that tested the strength of my will and integrity,” says Caprice Williams, member of Chicago Continuum of Care’s Youth Action Board. “There is a cycle of unfortunate events that can cause homelessness. Generational trauma, poor education systems, domestic violence, gun violence, lack of access to mental health care, and much more. I continue to see other young people that do not have what I did, someone who was always there to pull me through. Young people need each other, and they need adults who can become allies. The best way to resolve youth homelessness and make sure it never occurs again is to make sure young people are heard, so everyone understands the root of it all and what it will take to change things. Our strength is in each other.”
The funded Youth Homelessness Innovation Fund solutions will ignite new and expand existing work in the youth homelessness sector, creating meaningful pathways for young adults to access quality jobs that provide economic mobility, secure stable and long-term housing, realize their potential and lead efforts to end homelessness. These initiatives will also develop avenues for organizations advancing innovative service delivery and structural change work to grow, influence collective efforts, address systemic barriers and engender insights that benefit the field. They demonstrate that those most affected by youth homelessness should inform and lead the solution and that efforts are accountable to low-barrier, harm reduction and trauma-informed models. Young people who have experienced homelessness have heavily informed and influenced these innovative ideas and will be co-leaders in implementing them.
“We were impressed by the scope and creativity of submissions and grateful for the dedication of changemakers in our city to ending youth homelessness,” says Crown Family Philanthropies Program Director of Health and Human Services Christy Prahl. “Together these efforts, driven by young people with lived expertise, will test new ideas and build on previously gained wisdoms. We believe these grants will generate insights and learning that will shape new ways forward.”
The Youth Homelessness Innovation Fund grantees are:
- Alternatives, Inc. will train young people as paid Peace Ambassadors to assess and implement restorative justice practices in agencies that support youth experiencing homelessness or housing instability. Restorative justice practices reduce conflict, and create more cohesive and stable communities.
- Brave Space Alliance (the first Black-led, trans-led LGBTQ center located on the south side of Chicago) will ensure transgender and gender nonconforming youth of color are represented and supported in the city’s collective response to youth homelessness.
- Chicago Coalition for the Homeless will help plan and launch the Illinois Youth Homelessness Prevention Committee, an unprecedented collaboration that will bring service providers and young people experiencing homelessness together with seven state systems of care, including foster care, juvenile justice and state mental health facilities. Young people in Illinois who interact with these systems are disproportionately represented in the population of young people who experience homelessness. This committee will develop a system to track the long-term housing stability of young people discharged from these systems, and create coordinated sustainable housing, education and employment plans among state agencies.
- Howard Brown Health and the Broadway Youth Center with partners Brave Space Alliance, Street Youth Rise Up, and TaskForce Prevention and Community Services will leverage the voices and lived experiences of LGBTQ youth, youth working in the sex trade or street economy, and youth seeking to prevent the spread of HIV and STIs to expand access to drop-in spaces and support for their peers on the south and west sides of Chicago. A key piece of this initiative is focused on building the capacity of youth to step into paid leadership roles, and to become part of a community of learning among their peers that will enable them to grow together and to share what they know works.
- Inspiration Corporation will conduct research that will increase understanding among decision makers and service providers of the employment needs and interests of 18-24 year old youth who are experiencing homelessness and inform the development of a collective employment and career services approach.
- One Roof Chicago will partner with youth from Ignite to design Chicago’s first and the country’s second intergenerational LGBTQ-centered community for seniors, older adults living with HIV and youth experiencing homelessness. This community will include transitional housing and job training opportunities for young people in elder care, a rapidly-growing employment sector.
- Samuel Dewitt Proctor Conference (SDCP) will equip faith leaders to support families with trauma-informed tools that build safe and affirming spaces for LGBTQ youth of color.
- Young Invincibles, the convener of the Illinois Apprenticeship Collaborative — consisting of more than 40 agencies spanning education, employment, and the community, workforce and youth development sectors — will leverage its unique position to build the capacity of Illinois agencies to better access federal apprenticeship funding to dramatically expand apprenticeships that are accessible to young people experiencing homelessness. Governor Pritzker and Mayor Lightfoot have both expressed a public commitment to expanding apprenticeships.
“Public/private partnerships are critical to evolving effective solutions for people experiencing homelessness,” says Chicago Department of Family and Supportive Services (DFSS) Director of Homeless Prevention, Policy and Planning Maura McCauley, who helped shape the Youth Homelessness Innovation Fund RFP and participated in the grant review committee. “DFSS values the partnership with the Youth Homelessness Innovation Fund because it creates the space for community partners to innovate and test new strategies, with particular attention to the needs of LGBTQ+ youth and youth of color, without the restrictions that often come with public funds.”