 Prevention newsletter
Greetings and happy spring, I’m scratching my head wondering how we’re already a quarter of the way into this new year! So far, we’ve conceptualized what prevention is and isn’t, in addition to exploring one of its central tenets—positive social relationships. As we continue on this journey of learning prevention best practices, let's turn our eyes to housing as a core value.
 Prevention philosophy
Historically, many of our efforts have centered on an emergency response, rather than a preventative one — that is, addressing symptoms rather than root causes.1,2 When young people have been asked where significant change can be made, many point to systems — the youth homelessness crisis response system included.3,4 So, what would it take to transform the youth homelessness response system from a crisis focus to one grounded in prevention? Housing and concrete resources to either secure or preserve it.
Although ensuring sustained stability is often more complex than housing alone, remember that prevention cannot occur without either the preservation or provision of housing. The Canadian Observatory on Homelessness said it best: “Services and supports that are provided in an emergency context, no matter how helpful and beneficial, cannot be considered prevention if the young person remains in an ongoing state of homelessness with no immediate prospect of exiting.”5
Take a moment to ponder this: How can you transform your existing programs from a crisis focus to one grounded in prevention? Not sure where to start? Reach out to us to chat more, we’re here to help!
Community of practice
In February, Susan Kirchoff, director of The Youth Connection, presented on her organization's youth programs. The recording is available in Box. Thank you, Susan! As we continue to test new strategies for creating collaborative learning environments, this space will experience a slight makeover.
The concept of youth homelessness prevention is nuanced and has not held a commonly shared definition until recently. To demystify and break it down into more tangible and actionable steps, we’ll delve deeper into the prevention tidbits shared in these newsletters through facilitated discussions, in addition to leveraging the expertise of national and international leaders to learn more about evidence-based prevention strategies that you can incorporate into your programming.
Youth homelessness prevention strategy
January ushered in the onboarding of our first cohort of Steering Committee members, whom we have continued orienting in the work. You can visit our website for a refresher on the Committee and all things related to our statewide prevention strategy (Box PDF). As strategy implementation ramps up, we’re beginning to put the necessary pieces together to guide its course — namely, the Youth Homelessness Prevention Workgroup, co-led by OHY and the Department of Children, Youth and Families (DCYF).
The workgroup has a tri-lead structure with the Health Care Authority (HCA) and will include other state agencies, community-based organizations and, most importantly, the Steering Committee of people with lived experience. OHY, DCYF, HCA and our partners at Communities of Color Coalition (C3), the latter of which coordinates the efforts of the Steering Committee, will host a four-part webinar series over the next several months dissecting the Final Strategic Plan on Youth Homelessness Prevention (Box PDF) and other major bodies of work intersecting with it, further exploring each stage along the prevention continuum: universal, primary, early secondary, later secondary and tertiary. The first webinar episode was April 9 and the recording is available on Box. Stay tuned for registration invites for future episodes in this series.
Program corner
The program team has been hard at work executing contracts with grant awardees from our most recent request for proposals (RFPs) concerning protected health care services and community support teams. With these newest additions to our statewide portfolio, we are now up to nearly 200 contracts! Take a gander at our provider list (Box Excel) to see what organizations in your community are providing OHY funded services.
As a reminder, we are nearing spend down for the current fiscal year. Please keep this in mind and contact your contract manager about any funds that may go unused.
Staffing update
As our portfolio continues to grow, so does OHY. We’re thrilled to announce we’ll be adding a quality assurance arm to the team that will focus exclusively on technical assistance, ensuring best practices and alignment with the legislation that authorizes project funding. Additionally, we’ll be adding a policy position focused on education and economic opportunity. This expansion will enable us to provide a higher level of support to all our grantees.
Questions?
Contact Isaac Fall, isaac.fall@commerce.wa.gov, Prevention Manager, Office of Homeless Youth
References
1Gaetz, S., & Dej, E. (2017). A New Direction: A Framework for Homelessness Prevention. Toronto: Canadian Observatory on Homelessness Press.
2Gaetz, S., O’Grady, B., Kidd, S., & Schwan., K. (2016). Without a Home: The National Youth Homelessness Survey. Toronto: Canadian Observatory on Homelessness Press.
3Gaetz, S., Schwan, K., Redman, M., French, D., & Dej, E. (2018). The Roadmap for the Prevention of Youth Homelessness. A. Buchnea (Ed.). Toronto, ON: Canadian Observatory on Homelessness Press.
4,5Schwan, K., Gaetz, S., French, D., Redman, M., Thistle, J., & Dej, E. (2018). What Would it Take? Youth Across Canada Speak Out on Youth Homelessness Prevention. Toronto, ON: Canadian Observatory on Homelessness Press.
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