Youth Homelessness In The United States

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There are various social issues that we are currently facing as a nation, I believe that all are of importance and should be addressed. One social issue that is important to me is that of youth homelessness. The National Center for Housing and Child Welfare states that there are between 1 million and 1.7 million homeless youth in the United States (Fernandes-Alcantara, 2013). There are various reasons on why there are so many homeless youth; one reason is that a good amount of these kids are in the foster care system and once they age out of the system, some have no where to go and are unable to financially support themselves. Between 11% to 37% of youth aging out of foster care experienced homelessness and around 25% to 50% of youth aging …show more content…

Which in turn would give me the opportunity to focus on social/institutional change on issues such as youth homelessness. I would be interested in being able to better collaborate with other fields such as education. I would be able to provide resources and services to at risk students in the classroom along with providing outside services. I plan to address youth homelessness the best way I possibly can. That includes, researching the various organizations throughout the city that aim to help homeless youth, conducting and researching data, mentoring homeless youth, participating in community outreach, and actively attending programs that target to end youth homelessness and creating prevention or early intervention services in hopes that it may help someone avoid homelessness. I would work towards finding solutions; according to The National Alliance to End Homelessness (n.d) there are several solutions on how we can all address this issue. To create prevention programs, I would address the underlying causes for youth homelessness, providing crisis and early intervention programs that will provide support to those who have recently become unaccompanied youth, work with shelters, and find the best resources so that no youth has to spend a night on the streets to fend for themselves. Providing and being aware of all long term housing services is something I would focus on as well, this will provide support and resources for youth that have no where to live, especially to those that cannot return home. It is important that these services are accessible to youth that need help and are widely available everywhere in the country, which is what I will work to do, seek every option and collaborate with other social workers, lawmakers, and the

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