By Caitlin Bayer

Each year in the spring, the National Alliance to End Homelessness (NAEH) convenes the nation’s experts in ending homelessness to share information and resources on ending homelessness for families with children and youth. This year, THN was fortunate to be able to send most of the TX BoS CoC Planning team to learn and collect resources.

Staff returned energized and ready to share what they learned with the CoC. They’ve compiled the best resources they found at the conference and are pleased to share them with you all. We encourage you to click through a few of them.

Youth Homelessness

• Keep up with the progress communities across the nation are making toward ending Youth homelessness by viewing A Way Home America’s community dashboards: http://www.awayhomeamerica.org/community-dashboard/
• The True Colors Fund produced a Youth Collaboration Toolkit to provide guidance on collaborating with youth in the design of project models and spaces: https://network.truecolorsfund.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/08/Youth-Collaboration-Toolkit.pdf
• Chapin Hall’s Voices of Youth Count report briefs, Missed Opportunities: http://voicesofyouthcount.org/brief/national-estimates-of-youth-homelessness/

Protecting Immigrant Families

• The National Immigration Law Center (NILC) created a toolkit to help advocates for immigrant families defend against anti-sanctuary city/community-trust proposals. It includes resources developed in both federal and state legislative battles: https://www.nilc.org/issues/immigration-enforcement/sanctuary-city-toolkit/
• The Immigrant Legal Resource Center (ILRC) developed “red cards” help people assert their rights and defend themselves: https://www.ilrc.org/red-cards
• The Special Immigrant Juvenile (SIJ) classification provides certain children who have been subject to state juvenile court proceedings related to abuse, neglect, abandonment, or a similar basis under state law the ability to seek lawful permanent residence in the United States. Learn more here: https://www.uscis.gov/green-card/sij

Partnering with Mental Health Authorities

• The US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) released a Policy Brief to provide clear guidance regarding the expected and effective operation of the subset of HUD-funded Recovery Housing programs in order to strengthen performance and improve the achievement of outcomes by these programs. https://www.hudexchange.info/resource/4852/recovery-housing-policy-brief/
• The Family and Youth Services Bureau (FYSB) developed an assessment and screening tool to help youth-service professionals choose appropriate interventions and tools for their agencies and clients. https://ncfy.acf.hhs.gov/publications/assessment-and-screening-tools-measuring-mental-health-substance-abuse-and-independent/intro?utm_source=page&utm_medium=hyperlink&utm_campaign=news_publication
• The United States Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH) shares strategies to address the intersection of the opioid epidemic and homelessness: https://www.usich.gov/tools-for-action/strategies-to-address-intersection-of-opioid-crisis-and-homelessness

Partnering with School and Education Liaisons

• The National Council on Homeless Education (NCHE) produced a number of briefs and fact sheets to help Homeless Education Liaisons engage with their CoCs:
  • Fact Sheet on including Youth in the Point in Time Count https://nche.ed.gov/downloads/pit-count-2017.pdf
  • Coordinated Entry Processes: Building Mutual Engagement between Schools and Continuums of Care brief https://nche.ed.gov/downloads/briefs/coord-entry.pdf
  • Aligning Education and Housing: Data Sharing Agreement Template https://nche.ed.gov/downloads/forum/clpha-data-template.pdf
• The United State Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH) and the US Department of Education provide tips on interagency data sharing to help information flow between schools and homeless services providers. https://www2.ed.gov/programs/homeless/ehcy-interagency-data-disclosure.pdf

Partnering with Child Welfare Agencies and Juvenile Justice

• Use the Child Welfare Information Gateway to learn more about the programs and practices Child Welfare Agencies employ. https://www.childwelfare.gov/catalog/serieslist/?CWIGFunctionsaction=publicationCatalog:main.dspSeriesDetail&publicationSeriesID=8
• Read a summary on the Families First Prevention Services Act of 2016 http://waysandmeans.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Family-First-Prevention-Services-Act-Summary-061016.pdf
• Plug into the Coalition for Juvenile Justice’s (CJJ) Collaborating for Change project: http://www.juvjustice.org/homelessness

Get even more takeaways and resources by searching #NAEH2018 on Twitter to view highlights from the conference sessions.