WORKING PARTNERS
FOR YOUNG CHILDREN
WHO ARE HOMELESS
kids need housing programs and schools working together Questions?
Elizabeth Hinz District Liaison for Homeless and Highly Mobile Students NAEH Webinar
[email protected] October 3, 2013
WHAT’S OUR GOAL – TOGETHER?
How do schools & housing & homeless service providers
maximize their services for children?
• Every community is unique
• What do you have to start or renew your work together?
What makes Minneapolis work?
• Information: documenting number of children identified as
homeless in community
• Working relationships
• C o C requirements from HUD (per Hearth Act)
• Home visiting programs working with schools
Information: documenting number of
children identified as homeless in
community
• Implementing McKinney Vento Education law in letter &
spirit; child focused law
• Documenting children 0-4 years: 29-30% of total
homeless children & youth identified in Minneapolis each
year since 2003; 1,868 in 2012
Relationships: Work with the McKinney
Vento Homeless Student Liaisons in your
Community
• All shelters in community
• Stable staff representing MPS & shelters
• MPS has had early & long interest in affordable housing
issues
• Partnership in housing/school program – Kids
Collaborative
New C o C Requirements to
Implement HEARTH Act Pre K-12 education
for programs
serving children
and youth
Meets HUD requirement:
written plan and staff in
place to ensure children &
youth enrolled in and
attending school and
connected to services to
support their educational
needs per McKinney Vento
Education law
Meets HUD requirement
plus:
Education plan for
children & youth
part of family’s case
plan
Staff development
Appropriate study
space
Measures in place
Meets HUD requirement
plus:
Education plan
Staff development
Appropriate study
space
Measures in place
Demonstrated
success
Early Childhood
Development for
programs serving
youngest children
Meets HUD requirement:
written plan and staff in place
to ensure families can
access Head Start and other
public early childhood
education programs; facilitate
participation
Meets HUD requirement
plus:
Coordinates with
providers for birth – 5
screening
Space for early
intervention providers
to serve children >3
years with
developmental delays
Facilitate access to
family education
Meets HUD requirement
plus:
Coordinates with
providers for birth – 5
screening
Space for early
intervention providers
to serve children >3
years with
developmental delays
Facilitate access to
family education
Demonstrated
success
Home Visiting Programs Working with Schools
• Parent support outreach program (PSOP) with young
mothers for children abuse prevention
o Short term case management
o Parenting skills
o Connect to community & cultural & public resources
• Public Health Nurses with teen parents
o Meet work/school requirement of MFIP/TANF
o Increased HS graduation during 1.5 year pilot
MPS – Implementing
MCKINNEY VENTO Education
• Strong shelter & housing program relationships
• Strong & stable staff
• Districtwide, systemic attention to children & youth who
are homeless and highly mobile • Small central staff
• Training & contractual agreements with departments & schools
• Clear information to district staff & community about
numbers & impact of homelessness for children & youth
• Research partnerships with UMN & county confirm great
disparity issues & opportunities
What we do: systems impacts child & youth services
• Outreach & information to staff, community, housing programs & shelters
• Facilitate housing & education focus on children & youth
• Shelter services coordination
• Research & program partnerships
• Advocate in community & statewide
• Identify per McKV Education law
• Immediate & continued enrollment at same school
• Provide school supplies & uniforms, transportation, etc.
• Priority for early childhood screening; ECSE assessments, High 5, preschool priorities
• Advocate to resolve needs & advance benefits for students
OUTCOMES?
• Greater awareness/acknowledgement of children & youth
who are homeless throughout our schools & community
• Increased training opportunities about child development
for shelter & housing staff
• Increased attention & programming for youngest children
at shelters & supportive housing programs
• State & local public policy shifting attention & resources to
families, children & youth who are homeless
• Research partnerships focus: • impact of homelessness on children’s educational outcomes & their
futures;
• effective interventions at early age
Research Partnerships study examples
• UMN, Institute for Child Development:
• “Academic Achievement Trajectories of Homeless and Highly Mobile Students;
Resilience in the Context of Chronic and Acute Risk,” Child Development, Volume
84, Issue 3
• “Early reading skills and academic achievement trajectories of students facing
poverty, homelessness and high residential mobility”; and
• “Executive function skills and school success in young children experiencing
homelessness,” Educational Researcher, Volume 41
• Visible Child Initiative
www.visiblechild.org
What’s your opportunity?
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