Youth Collaboratory Comments on USICH Strategic Plan
The United States Interagency Council on Homelessness Commitment (USICH) is currently in the process of creating a new Federal Strategic Plan to Prevent and End Homelessness. Recently, USICH invited input and recommendations for the strategic plan from any interested stakeholder, particularly people who have experienced or are currently experiencing homelessness, people who serve the LGBT, BIPOC, or veteran communities, and people whose work involves the justice system.
Youth Collaboratory submitted comments for the new strategic plan, encouraging USICH to adopt a targeted universalist approach to ending homelessness. A targeted universalism framework establishes, “universal goals for all groups concerned; but the strategies developed to achieve those goals are targeted, based upon how different groups are situated within structures, culture, and across geographies to obtain the universal goal.” Leveraging the findings of the 2019 “Activating Uptake” survey and other emerging research on youth and young adult homelessness, Youth Collaboratory recommended that USICH incorporate targeted strategies for young people based on eight critical components:
- Authentic youth collaboration in project design and implementation
- Centering equity
- Prevention focus
- Collective ownership
- Strong local leadership
- Cross-system collaboration
- Effective data collection and utilization
- Capacity to drive change within local systems
To read more about these critical components and Youth Collaboratory’s full recommendations to USICH, please click HERE. As USICH moves forward in the development of a new strategic plan, Youth Collaboratory looks forward to continuing this conversation to ensure the most effective strategies to ending youth and young adult homelessness are being employed throughout the nation.
