We work together to end youth homelessness.
The HHYP works to shape the service environment, increase youth access to housing and supportive services, and advocate for policy changes needed to prevent and end youth homelessness.
Staff and young people with lived experience collaborate in working groups to actualize the goals of the HHYP.
ANTI-RACISM: The Anti-racism workgroup exists to confront white supremacist modalities and systemic oppression within the collaborative and within the homeless response system. Working group members develop frameworks and models for change rooted in radical imagination and education. The group amplifies the voices of young people experiencing homelessness through the collaboration of BIPOC/LGBTQ+ individuals.
INNOVATIONS & BEST PRACTICES: The Innovations & Best Practices workgroup is a collaboration of thought leaders who work together to ensure that young people experiencing homelessness have access to a high-quality, coordinated system of care that helps them move to stability. Members of the workgroup facilitate HHYP-wide trainings, challenge current practices, and drive innovation that better meets the diverse needs of youth experiencing homelessness.
STEERING COMMITTEE: The Steering Committee provides strategic direction and operational objectives, ensures that the HHYP has adequate structures to achieve its goals, hires and supervises staff, oversees fund development, and manages finances. Steering Committee members are committed to leveraging their power, privilege, passion, experience, and expertise to build collaborations as leaders of change. The group strives to ensure equity and diversity throughout our systems of care and amplifies the voices of youth to ensure the needs of young people are heard and prioritized.
SYSTEMS CHANGE: The Systems Change workgroup works to ensure that young people have adequate representation and voice in larger system conversations around housing and homelessness. Group members aim to strengthen existing systems of care for marginalized populations through advocacy, funding and policy. Together, the group works to target systemic inequity and the discrimination that BIPOC/LGBTQ+ youth face.
HHYP agencies collaborate to maximize service impact, conduct collaborative needs assessments; monitor the landscape for emerging trends and challenges; and research, develop, adapt, test, and evaluate evidence-based interventions and promising practices.
HHYP agencies are engaged in research and evaluation activities designed to increase their understanding of youth experiencing homelessness in the target community and the impact of their services.
As a collaborative, the HHYP has a commitment to ensuring that our staff are well trained, knowledgeable, and have the skills to deliver high quality services. The HHYP sponsors regular training for member agencies. Additionally, HHYP members are available for training, consultation, information sharing and select research collaboration.
HHYP members are actively engaged in local, regional, and national policy efforts to ensure that youth experiencing homelessness are prioritized by our representatives and benefit from available resources.
The HHYP supports and facilitates the Young Adult Steering Council (YASC), a youth board that represents and uplifts the voices of unhoused young people in Service Planning Area 4 of Los Angeles, California. The YASC is an advocacy board of young people ages 18-28 with lived experience in the SPA 4 youth homelessness system who advocate for intentional and meaningful change in the youth homeless system. The board aims to cultivate coordination with agencies and providers in order to bridge the gap between unhoused young people and the structures that serve them.
Young People to the Front is a campaign developed in collaboration with HHYP agencies, young people, and the Los Angeles Coalition to End Youth Homelessness (LACEYH) to elevate priorities for preventing and ending youth homelessness in Los Angeles. The platform includes a 5-point plan to prevent and end youth homelessness in Los Angeles. The plan includes: ensuring equitable access to services for young people at highest risk of homelessness; investing in TAY set asides in all existing and new funding streams; ensuring young people have decision-making power in addressing youth homelessness; investing in youth-specific services; and decriminalizing homelessness in Los Angeles. To learn more about the Young People to the Front campaign, go to www.youngpeopletothefront.org
