Empowering Change: The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Youth Action Board’s Journey to End Youth Homelessness

HOMELESS YOUTH ACTION BOARDS

A Homeless Youth Action Board (HYAB) is typically a group or committee composed of young people who have experienced homelessness or housing instability. The primary purpose of a HYAB is to advocate for the rights and needs of homeless and at-risk youth within a community or region.

The key functions and goals of a Homeless Youth Action Board may include:

• Advocacy for policies and programs that benefit homeless and at-risk youth.
• Youth Engagement that empowers homeless youth to share their experiences, challenges, and suggestions for addressing homelessness with policymakers and service providers.
• Providing insights and perspectives to inform Program Development for programs and services aimed at helping homeless youth.
• Community Outreach to raise awareness about youth homelessness such as organizing events, conducting educational campaigns, or participating in public speaking engagements.
• Participating in and providing insight and support for Research and Data Collection efforts such as research projects on youth homelessness or local data collection like the annual Point in Time Count (PIT).
• Providing a Support Network for homeless youth, offering guidance, mentorship, and a sense of belonging to young people experiencing similar challenges.
• Formulating Policy Recommendations on how to improve services and policies related to youth homelessness.
• Collaborating with other organizations, service providers, and advocacy groups to ensure efforts to address youth homelessness are effective and meaningfully coordinated.

CHARLOTTE-MECKLENBURG YOUTH ACTION BOARD

In 2020, The Relatives received a grant to support the creation of a Youth Action Board (YAB) for Mecklenburg County. The YAB held its first meeting in June 2021 and was formally designated as a Continuum of Care (CoC) Committee in July 2021. Once established, the YAB began the work of solidifying its mission and vision.

The YAB’s mission is to help create a community where no youth are homeless. We do this by guiding youth to stability and building youth leaders, bridging the communication gap between youth, leaders, decision-makers, and organizations, and increasing awareness of youth homelessness and the resources needed to end youth homelessness such as housing, mental health support, education, employment, and life skills.

For an introduction to the YAB, you can check out the YAB podcast on Spotify HERE.

In 2022, they co-planned a 2022 youth-focused PIT Count. The Count was named “Reach One, Teach One,” because it aimed to “give a voice to youth experiencing homelessness – a population that is often hesitant to share their housing status and experience homelessness in ways that differ from the traditional perception of sleeping on the street.” In addition to enumerating youth experiencing homelessness that fall within the federal definition of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), “Reach One, Teach One” also engaged youth who experienced other forms of homelessness, collecting information to inform local efforts to combat youth homelessness. “Reach One, Teach One” also helped raise awareness of the issue of youth homelessness in Charlotte-Mecklenburg. In 2023, the YAB supported the development of the youth questions that were included in the 2023 unsheltered PIT survey.

In 2023, the CoC Board designated CoC Planning Grant funds to the YAB to initiate a podcast to raise awareness about youth homelessness and highlight their work. They also hosted a community resource fair where youth were able to engage with organizations and learn about the community resources available to them.

HOW TO GET INVOLVED

The YAB is interested in expanding and is seeking new members. A good YAB member is someone who is dedicated, open to having a positive impact on community and willing to help come up with goals to end youth homelessness. They are open-minded, like to speak, and willing to participate and be a team member or team player. The YAB might also appeal to people who have been through homelessness or a life circumstance where they have had to overcome adversity. Previous or current experience of homelessness is not required but welcome.

If you are interested in participating in YAB, they will be having an open interview event. During the event, current YAB members will interview people interested in the YAB. No appointment necessary. The event will be held on October 11, 2023, at The Relatives On Ramp Resource Center, 2219 Freedom Dr., Charlotte, NC 28208. Interviews will be conducted starting at 3PM and will continue until all people who are interested are interviewed.

The YAB sees the importance of networking to end youth homelessness. They will be participating in the Networking to Bridge the Gap: Youth Edition event hosted by Alliance Health on October 17^th.  They are also interested in additional community networking opportunities. Specifically, they hope to connect with and partner with other Youth Action Boards locally and in other cities and counties. The YAB views homelessness as a global cause and sees networking as an opportunity to be able to make a broader impact.

The CoC and The Relatives partner to provide financial incentives to persons with lived experience to participate in meetings, as well as food for meetings and transportation to meetings, as needed.