Focusing on Outcomes for Youth: Self Sufficiency

Based on years of work with runaway and homeless youth and the best emerging evidence about what they need to succeed, the Family and Youth Services Bureau believes the most crucial outcomes for runaway and homeless youth include: well-being, permanent connections, safety and self-sufficiency.

In a new issue of The Exchange, we focus on ways to improve self-sufficiency for runaway and homeless youth. First, we hear from a group of youth workers about the biggest barriers to formerly homeless young people's independence and how they can be overcome. Next, we learn how formerly homeless youth can market their "street skills" as valuable job skills. And last, we look at some different ways to prepare youth for college--potentially the greatest single step they can take to attain permanent self-sufficiency.

Past issues of the Exchange have dealt with well-being, permanent connections and safety.