Maryland's First Unaccompanied Homeless Youth & Young Adult Count: Findings from Youth REACH MD Phase 2
Date
2016-05Publisher
University of Maryland, Baltimore. School of Social Work. Institute for Innovation & ImplementationType
Report
Metadata
Show full item recordOther Titles
Findings from Maryland's First Unaccompanied Homeless Youth & Young Adult Count: Youth REACH MD Phase 2 Report.Abstract
Every night in Maryland, thousands of youth and young adults living on their own turn to their a friend's couch, a stranger's house, a vacant building, the street, or some other tenuous or unsuitable location for a place to sleep. These are unaccompanied homeless youth - youth or young adults under 25 years old who are not in the care of their parents or guardians and lack access to safe, adequate, and reliable housing. We know these youth are individuals with their own stories and experiences and that they are not defined by their housing status. This report—and all of the work of Youth REACH MD—is designed to identify the common challenges and barriers that result in youth and young adults experiencing homelessness in order to end youth homelessness. No finding, statement, or analysis in this report should be taken to diminish the importance of the voices of youth and young adults or to minimize the individual experiences, preferences, and vision for the future that each youth and young adult has for themselves. This report reflects the aggregate findings regarding a diverse population of youth and young adults who were willing share of themselves by participating in this survey, and we are grateful to them for sharing their stories and experiences with us and for helping us to gain new and deeper understanding of what it means to experience homelessness.Table of Contents
Note to Readers; Introduction & Purpose; Methods, State Preparation & CoC Engagement, Refining the Definition, Social Marketing & Incentives, Local Implementation, School Engagement, Enumeration, Data Strategy; Findings, Results from the Survey, A Closer Look: Survey & HMIS Data in Baltimore City; Conclusions; Works Cited; Appendices, Appendix 1: Youth REACH MD Definition Guidance, Appendix 2: Youth REACH MD Survey, Appendix 3: Local Implementation Strategies: Anne Arundel County, Baltimore City, Baltimore County, Prince George's County, Lower Shore, Washington County; Appendix 4: Foster Care in MarylandDescription
This report, with contributors from the Youth REACH MD Steering Committee, the Baltimore Homeless Youth Initiative and the Youth Empowered Society, describes common challenges and barriers that result in youth and young adults experiencing homelessness.Sponsors
Funding for the Demonstration Project was provided by the Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development.Keyword
unaccompanied homeless youthYouth REACH MD
Homelessness
Youth
Maryland
Surveys and Questionnaires
Identifier to cite or link to this item
http://hdl.handle.net/10713/7407Collections
Related items
Showing items related by title, author, creator and subject.
-
Parent - youth discordance about youth-witnessed violence: Associations with trauma symptoms and service use in an at-risk sampleLewis, T.; Thompson, R.; Kotch, J.B.; Proctor, L.J.; Litrownik, A.J.; English, D.J.; Runyan, D.K.; Wiley, T.R.A.; Dubowitz, H. (Elsevier, 2012)Objective: Studies have consistently demonstrated a lack of agreement between youth and parent reports regarding youth-witnessed violence. However, little is known about whether disagreement is associated with poorer outcomes and less utilization of mental health services. The purpose of the current study was to examine disagreement among youth and parents about youth witnessed violence, and determine whether concordance predicted trauma symptoms and recognition of need and receipt of counseling services. Methods: Concordance about youth-witnessed violence was examined in 766 dyads from the Longitudinal Studies of Child Abuse and Neglect (LONGSCAN). Youth participants self-reported trauma symptoms, caregivers indicated youth need for and receipt of services. Both youth and parents provided information about youth-witnessed violence exposure in the last year. Results: Results showed youth and caregivers differed significantly about youth-witnessed violence. Specifically, 42% of youth reported youth-witnessed violence, compared to only 15% of parents. For those parents who reported youth-witnessed violence, only 29% reported an identified need for services and only 17% reported the youth had received any mental health services. Concordance between parent-youth dyads was associated with greater identified need for services but was not associated with the use of counseling services or trauma symptoms. Conclusions: Youth who reported witnessing violence reported more frequent trauma symptoms regardless of concordance. Parents from dyads in which both informants reported youth-witnessed violence were more likely to endorse need for, but not receipt of counseling services. Given this association between youth-witnessed violence and mental health problems, more work is needed to identify barriers to concordance as well as service utilization. Copyright 2012 Elsevier Ltd.
-
Youth risk factors and educational outcomes of mentored and non-mentored youthCastellanos-Brown, Karen; Harrington, Donna (2010)As mentoring is receiving increasing attention as a method to improve youth educational outcomes, it is important to continue to examine the effects of mentoring on these youth outcomes. This study uses secondary data from Waves I and III of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health) and transcript data from the Adolescent Health and Academic Achievement Study (AHAA). In seeking support for the compensatory model of resilience, this dissertation uses multiple and logistic regression analyses to examine the direct effects of youth risk factors and the compensatory factor (mentoring) on the educational outcomes: cumulative grade point average (GPA) and graduation from high school. The moderating effects of mentoring on the relationship between youth risk factors and these educational outcomes are also examined. The findings from this study suggest the following characteristics are risk factors for a lower cumulative GPA: younger age, academic risk, racial/ethnic minority status, low maternal education, living with less than both biological parents, lower levels of parental closeness, and lower levels of parental school involvement. On the other hand, only academic risk, low maternal education, and lack of parental participation in school fundraising and volunteering appear to be risk factors for not graduating from high school. Findings also indicate that the compensatory factor, mentoring, is significantly associated with a higher GPA, but is not significantly associated with graduation after controlling for youth risk factors and demographic factors. In support of the protective factor model, two significant moderating relationships were found in terms of predicting graduation between mentoring and the risk factors of living with less than both biological parents and lack of parental participation in school fundraising and volunteering. This study also found that cumulative risk (cumulative risk score was composed of 5 of the risk factors examined) is significantly related to both GPA and graduation, suggesting that youth with more risk factors have worse educational outcomes. The findings of this dissertation add to the existing literature on mentoring and youth educational outcomes. This dissertation's implications for theory, social work, educational practice, policy, and research are discussed as well as this dissertation's strengths and limitations.
-
Correlates of parent-youth discordance about youth-witnessed violence: A brief report germanyLewis, T.; Thompson, R.; Kotch, J.B.; Proctor, L.J.; Litrownik, A.J.; English, D.J.; Runyan, D.K.; Wiley, T.R.; Dubowitz, H. (Springer US, 2013)Studies have consistently demonstrated a lack of agreement between youth and parent reports regarding youth-witnessed violence (YWV). However, little empirical investigation has been conducted on the correlates of disagreement. Concordance between youth and parents about YWV was examined in 766 parent-youth dyads from the Longitudinal Studies of Child Abuse and Neglect (LONGSCAN). Results showed that significantly more youth (42%) than parents (15%) reported YWV. Among the dyads in which at least one informant reported YWV (N =344), we assessed whether youth delinquency, parental monitoring, parent-child relationship quality, history of child maltreatment, income, and parental depression were predictive of parent-youth concordance. Findings indicated that youth engagement in delinquent activities was higher in the groups in which the youth reported violence exposure. More empirical study is needed to assess correlates of agreement in high-risk youth to better inform associations found between exposures and outcomes as well as practice and policy for violence exposed youth. Copyright 2013 Springer Publishing Company.