As a result of COVID-19 and mandates for schools to move to virtual learning, thousands of youth experiencing homelessness have faced new barriers to accessing education. So far, school districts are reporting a decrease in homeless youth enrolled in school by over 40%. Hundreds of youth who are newly homeless, along with youth and families with historical housing instability, are missing, and schools have limited resources to find them. Therefore, HYC has created a new outreach initiative to search for, find, connect with and resolve barriers for youth to help get them re-enrolled in school.

The goal of this initiative is to find these missing youth and help them re-enroll in school, connect with their peers, and get them back on track for graduation and their future, while meeting their basic needs and providing ongoing support through program services.  We are currently making contact with students who were in the HYC program during the Spring 2020 semester but are not in our program now. This may be because they are no longer McKinney-Vento eligible, or it may be another legitimate reason. We typically connect with our youth by phone or email, but in response to how many of our students prefer to communicate and get information, we have launched an Instagram page exclusively for our youth (@HYC_students). This page provides program updates and news, as well as offers a more convenient medium for our youth to reach out to us. If HYC is unable to contact the student and they are not enrolled in school, HYC sends a team of two youth coaches to the most recent address we have available to engage the student.  Although our goal is to assist the student by helping the student re-enroll in high school by referring them to the McKinney-Vento* liaison, we are also providing the student with basic hygiene supplies and gift cards to assist with food. If they have graduated from high school but are unstably housed, etc., we determine the best course of action. We also reach out to district liaisons in partnership to contact previously identified McKinney-Vento students from the former school year who have disengaged and are not enrolled in the current school year.

“It is such a critical time for us take on this challenge and expand our role within the community,” said Lisa Miller, Director of Youth Services at HYC. “We’ve seen the numbers increase across the country, and we know that HYC is uniquely positioned to address this issue.”

*The McKinney-Vento Act provides rights and services to children and youth experiencing homelessness, which includes those who are sharing the housing of others due to loss of housing, economic hardship, or a similar reason; staying in motels, trailer parks, or campgrounds due to the lack of an adequate alternative; staying in shelters or transitional housing; or sleeping in cars, parks, abandoned buildings, substandard housing, or similar settings.