Runaway and Homeless Youth

Date: 08/18/2008 | Time: 08:49 | Size: 8.1 MB NCFY staff member Eman Quotah talks to an adolescent girl about her life and her experiences in a summer program for at-risk youth. Visit these afterschool and out-of-school time links for more information about positive activities for young people.
Youth homelessness is strongly associated with living in poverty, not finishing school, not having a job, being in foster care or the juvenile justice system, getting pregnant or having a child, drinking and using drugs, and having poor mental and physical health. All of those factors are important for youth workers to recognize and address, as the authors of Covenant House Institute’s...
A restaurant, a fire station or a library could save a young person’s life. In more than 1,500 communities across the nation, these and other sites have been designated “Safe Place locations” where young people can go when they have nowhere else to go. Safe Place sites provide emergency assistance to youth who are homeless or abused or who have clashed with their families.
As a case manager at Adams House, a transitional living program for older adolescent boys in Gastonia, N.C., Ed Smith is always looking for ways to keep residents active. This year, that quest led him to organize a weight-loss competition modeled after “The Biggest Loser,” the reality TV show in which overweight people diet and train hard to lose weight.
NCFY staff members shadow two Philadelphia street outreach workers who make contact with runaway and homeless youth and link them to services. Time: 10:01 | Size: 9.2 MB | Transcript
A young mother talks about the challenges of adolescent parenthood and homelessness and how she has worked to overcome them with the help of a FYSB-funded maternity group home. Time: 11:05 | Size: 10.4 MB | Transcript
NCFY interviews a young man who has survived hurricanes, tropical storms and floods in his native Florida. Time: 6:51 | Size: 6.4 MB | Transcript
Around the country, runaway and homeless youth organizations are facing the challenge of accommodating more youth as a result of the current economic downturn. The relentless surge of home foreclosures, massive unemployment, stifling consumer debt and bankruptcies are  conspiring to break up families and force more young people to the streets, youth workers say. In this issue of the Exchange...
When times get tough, programs that serve families and youth find themselves in a difficult spot: More people need more help, but at the same time, funding for social services begins to dry up. So say a trio of recent publications addressing the effects of the economic and housing crises on vulnerable families and at-risk youth. (Publications discussed here do not necessarily reflect the views...
The Family and Youth Services Bureau recently awarded grants to three States – Colorado, Iowa, and Minnesota – to carry out demonstration projects helping young people in rural areas (including Tribal lands and other rural Native communities) who are approaching young adulthood and independence but have few or no connections to a supportive family or community resources.
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