Addressing Rural Youth Homelessness

Chapin Hall and National Network for Youth (NN4Y) have released a report exploring the challenges rural youth experiencing homelessness face and ways to strengthen the response to these needs. The report explores and makes recommendations for identifying youth, services and support, equity and inclusion, and collaboration. Access the report here.

Developing a Direct Cash Transfer Program for Youth Experiencing Homelessness

Chapin Hall, in collaboration with Point Source Youth, has released a new report that explores effective ways to develop and execute a direct cash transfer program (DCTP) as a tool to help youth experiencing homelessness. According to the report, DCTP’s are most effective when they center on youth, equity, and trust; boost housing stability and employment; adopt a flexible and simple approach, and identify and manage barriers to success. To read more, access the report here.

Bullying Prevention Month

October is National Bullying Prevention Month. All month, NSPN will be sharing resources on social media and NSPNsights, to raise awareness about bullying prevention and highlight the ways in which we work to create a world where all youth are safe. Additionally, PACER's National Bullying Prevention Center, which created National Bullying Prevention Month in 2006, has resources for youth and adults on bullying prevention.

Building Better Relationships with Youth: A Checklist for Reaching Out Virtually during COVID-19

The Search Institute has released a two-page checklist of simple outreach actions youth program workers can take to build better developmental relationships with young people when they can’t be with them in person. The checklist includes examples of how direct care workers can connect and support youth in five categories: expressing care, challenging growth, sharing power, and expanding possibilities.

Access the checklist here.

Running Away and Homelessness are Powerful Risk Factors for Sex Trafficking

A new article from Youth Today discusses the risk factors contributing to the sex trafficking of youth under the age of 18. Reviewing the growing body of research on this issue, the authors find that experiencing homelessness or running away are significant risk factors. Others include age, ethnicity, and sexuality, with LGBTQ youth at much greater risk than heterosexual youth of being trafficked. In one survey of adults participating in sex work, respondents who said they ran away as youth (63%) were more likely to have been trafficked than those who did not run away (27%). Overall, the research indicates that risk factors such as whether or not a person has been a runaway or homeless are more predictive of future involvement in trafficking than demographic factors.

Read the article here.