Ending Homelessness by Forging Partnerships with Nontraditional Community Entities

Marney Thomas Director of Partnerships and Community Engagement

Overview of YouthLink 41 year old organization located in downtown Minneapolis Continuum of services including: i.Street Outreach ii.Drop-in center/Youth Opportunity Center (host 27 onsite partners) iii. 5 housing programs Serve youth ages Average 110 visits per day In 2014, we saw just under 2000 individual youth come thru our doors Our working is guided by 9 principles

9 guiding principles for helping youth overcome homelessness Journey-Oriented: We work with youth to help them understand the interconnectedness of past, present and future as they decide where they want to go and how to get there. Trauma-Informed: We recognize that most homeless youth have experienced trauma; build relationships, responses and services on that knowledge. Non-Judgemental: We work with youth without labeling or judging them on the basis of background experiences, choices, or behaviors. Harm Reduction: We contain the effects of risky behavior in the short term and seek to reduce it’s effects in the long term.

9 guiding principles continued… Trusting Youth-Adult Relationships: We build relationships by interacting with youth in an honest, dependable, authentic, caring and supportive way. Strengths-Based: We start with and build upon the skills, strengths, and positive characteristics of each youth. Positive Youth Development: We provide opportunities for youth to build a sense of competency, usefulness, belonging, and power. Holistic: We engage youth in a manner that recognizes that mental, physical, spiritual, and social health are interconnected and interrelated. Collaboration: We establish a principles-based, youth- focused system of support that integrates practices, procedures, and services within and across agencies, systems and policies.

The Downtown 100

2012 We started to hear from youth that they were being stopped from our youth that they were being stopped more often by the police for livability crimes such as spitting, loitering and carrying an open bottle Geographical Restriction We also started to hear from our clients with more robust criminal histories that they were being put on geographical restriction. A geo restriction is a map places they weren’t allowed to be in DT. The YouthLink building

DT Council DID Ambassador s Probation Attorney’s Office Social services including YouthLink Minneapolis Police Department The Collaborative

Program Goals Increase Safety Decrease involvement in the criminal justice system Establish stable housing

How does it work? EDUCATION Collaboration Weekly meetings IMPACT

Results In 2014, recidivism in arrests rate was reduced by 74% In 2013, of the 24 youth in the original cohort with a combined arrest rate of 208 times, after six months they had a combined arrest rate of 29 times. At $500 per arrest, that saved tax payers close to $90, 000. Play Video

Downtown Youth Street Outreach

The Background The downtown businesses became increasingly frustrated with the large quantity of perceived homeless persons busking, panhandling and hanging out in the downtown area. As a result they decided that they wanted to end street homelessness in downtown Minneapolis by 2025

YouthLink’s response Historical overview of YL outreach Understanding that the downtown area is the geographic “home” to the majority of the youth we serve. As youth move throughout the downtown community, they have multiple experiences and interactions with the business community, transit, shoppers, visitors, employees, security guards, law enforcement and other downtown stakeholders.

YouthLink’s response continued… Recognizing these interactions and experiences are varied in nature, YouthLink proposed to the Downtown Improvement District to invest in the strategic placement and schedule of intentionally trained youth outreach workers. YouthLink believed that the youth outreach workers could strengthen relationships and intentional collaborations by promoting and fostering a safer, more welcoming culture for all stakeholder groups in downtown Minneapolis.

Our Goals Engage Inform Defuse Build trust Collaborate Educate Disseminate Communicate

As a result of our proposal, the Downtown Improvement District invested $100k into a Youth street outreach program

Earning and Learning YouthLink has always believed that education is a way out of poverty so in addition to employing youth part-time, we asked Minneapolis Community and Technical College (MCTC) to provide free tuition and fees for our outreach team. They agreed, supporting youth on their career and educational journeys, long after their employment experience.

Perceptions Barriers Challenges Lessons learned

Questions and discussion