ACTION ALERT: Federal Funding Update for RHY and YHDP

Welcome back to the sixth installment of Youth Collaboratory’s Government Relations blog series. Today, we’ll be discussing how you can help support the Senate funding levels for the RHY and YHDP by calling your Representative in Congress. To learn more about Youth Collaboratory's Government Relations work, click here.  

🏛️ What You Need To Know 🏛️

The U.S. House of Representatives returned to D.C. this week to resume deliberations on federal funding for Fiscal Year 2019. The current fiscal year ends in just 24 days and Congress is in a race against the clock to finalize as many spending bills as possible before October 1.

Among the programs under consideration by Congress in the coming days and weeks includes funding for:

1. the Runaway and Homeless Youth (RHY) program, and
2. Youth Homelessness Demonstration Projects (YHDP).

During August, the U.S. Senate passed legislation funding these programs at a level higher than the House’s recommended level.  In the limited time before October 1, the two halves of Congress must reconcile their differences in spending.  If Runaway and Homeless Youth programs or the Youth Homelessness Demonstration Projects are important to your community, now is an excellent time to call your Representative in Congress to ask them to support the Senate funding levels for the RHY and YHDP.

Pictured: To call your Member, go to www.House.gov and type in the zip code for your organization in the box at the top right.

 🏛️ What You Can Do To Help 🏛️

Don’t worry! – calling your member of Congress is less daunting than it seems and can be done in three easy steps:

1. To call your Member, go to www.House.gov and type in the zip code for your organization in the box at the top right. The site will present you with a link to your Member’s website.  Phone numbers for their DC offices are at the bottom of most Members’ homepage.
2. When you call, simply ask to leave a comment for the Member on an issue.  They may direct you to an automated system – this is normal and does not mean you are being ignored! Messages in the automated systems are checked, cataloged, and often receive prompt replies.
3. To leave comment, provide your name, organization, and a callback number or email.  Since the Senate has provided higher funding for both RHY and YHDP, we recommend asking your Representative something similar to the following: “Please support the Senate positions for the Runaway and Homeless Youth program within Health and Human Services, and the Youth Homelessness Demonstration Projects at the Department of Housing and Urban Development during FY19 conference negotiations.” Additionally, it is often useful to provide brief context (no more than a sentence or two) about your organization and why YHDP and/or RHY are important to you.

 We hope this action alert has been a helpful resource in alerting you to opportunities to weigh in on behalf of federal funding impacting you, your community, and the youth and families you serve. Be on the lookout in the coming weeks for additional opportunities to engage on these issues, as well as in support of FY19 funding for Youth Mentoring Grants. For additional information regarding the status of federal funding, please see our most recent blog post. Please direct further questions to Christopher.Fisher@SpinnakerGR.com.