A Strategic Plan for Addressing Youth Homelessness in Pinellas County
Abstract:
Through a collaborative process that started over a year ago, a group of community stakeholders including our youth came together to talk, listen and find meaningful resolutions to address and end youth homelessness, especially as it relates to our most vulnerable population of LGBTQ+ youth. The following is a plan of action involving our community so that we can take valuable steps in supporting youth in our community who find themselves homeless.
We had three main objectives when we started this process: safety, support, and housing. Those three areas were focal points as we explored how to ensure all homeless youth had those three basic needs met. We evaluated our strengths and weaknesses as a community and built our plan around our ability to really impact change through coordinated and consistent efforts in the areas of 1. Prevention and diversion, 2. Access and assessment, 3. Coordinated entry and housing.