SUMMIT DRAFT AGENDA

**subject to change

VIRTUAL – THURSDAY, MARCH 02, 2023 (ET)

9:00 AM Welcome
9:30 AM Equity and Power: A candid conversation with the NN4Y National Youth Advisory Council
NYAC This interactive session with our National Youth Advisory Council provides the opportunity to learn about their work and how to advance equity by sharing power with young leaders to define a policy agenda and educate the public, youth service providers and policymakers as experts on ending youth homelessness.
10:30 AM Federal Policy: What is Hot on Capitol Hill
Darla Bardine NN4Y has co-created a federal policy agenda with young leaders and our members that focuses on promoting flexible solutions to youth homelessness. NN4Y promotes proactive legislation with Congressional partners and advocates for federal agencies to improve their grant administration and policies. Learn from our Executive Director about our federal policy work and how you can get involved.
11:15 AM What is Your Why? Strategic Storytelling to Drive Systemic Change in Your Community 
Andrew Palomo

Yorri Berry

 As a young person with lived experience, community-based provider, homeless liaison, or government official, you can drive systemic change at local, state, and national levels. The power of NN4Y’s 47 years of history is our deep connection with youth with lived experience and community-based youth service providers. Together, ​​we have been pushing to ensure that youth and young adult homelessness is an issue policymakers address. The roots of systemic change are found in everyday experience. The stories of people who have lived experience or are working in communities are vital to shed light on youth and young adult homelessness in the US.  In this session, we will craft our WHY and share why we continue to do this work. 
11:45 AM Networking Break
12:00 PM Lunch Break
12:40 PM Keynote
Jonathan Jayes Green Jonathan Jayes-Green (they/them) is an activist, philanthropic strategist and believer in a free and just world. Jonathan is an independent consultant supporting nonprofits and philanthropic entities aligning their strategies and practices towards racial justice and power-building. Jonathan’s a queer undocumented Afro-Panamanian and one of the co-founders of the UndocuBlack Network. They also served as Senator Elizabeth Warren’s National Latinx Director during her 2020 Presidential Campaign.
                  BREAKOUT SESSIONS
1:45 PM HOUSING TRACK: Specialized Services for LGBTQ+ Youth that Don’t Violate Fair Housing Law 
Lambda Legal

Ali Forney Center

 LGBTQ+ youth are overrepresented among youth and young adults experiencing homelessness compared to their non-LGBTQ+ peers. Many providers have stepped up their game and developed specialized programs to meet the unique needs of LGBTQ+ youth and provide housing and other services in a respectful, affirming way. Some providers have been told the LGBTQ+-focused name of their organization or their specialized services violate the federal Fair Housing Act (FHA) while simultaneously hearing LGBTQ+ youth need such services and they should provide more of them. What’s a provider to do given these mixed messages? We’ll separate fact from fiction and participants will learn how they can meet the needs of LGBTQ+ youth and young adults without violating the FHA.
1:45 PM INNOVATION TRACK: Going Beyond Diversity – How to Refocus Our Equity Work
Andrew Palomo

Liam Spady

 Organizations use the term “inclusion” in their everyday work, yet struggle with how to fully embed Justice, Equity, Diversity & Inclusion (JEDI) practices into their milieu. This session will have young leaders discuss how organizations can incorporate JEDI practices into their everyday work, how to build systems of accountability that translate intent to action, and how to transform systems authentically without tokenizing historically marginalized people. 
1:45 PM EDUCATION TRACK: FAFSA Fixes for Homeless and Foster Youth 
SchoolHouse Connection The FAFSA Simplification Act aims to remove many FAFSA challenges faced by youth experiencing homelessness or with experience in foster care. Most of these new provisions are in effect now (2023-2024 award year). High school seniors who complete the FAFSA are 63% more likely to enroll in higher education. As more states create FAFSA completion graduation requirements, students should be informed of all their options (e.g. career and technical education, community colleges, four year institutions). This presentation will provide a general overview for helping students experiencing homelessness fill out the FAFSA, review the new changes to the FAFSA, and offer strategies to help empower and excite students to plan out their future. 
1:45 PM Youth Partnerships Track: Authentic Youth Partnership 
New Beginnings

A Way Home America

Sasha Bruce

 Not all engagement with youth is genuine. Often, adult-youth relationships suffer when adults struggle with who is in charge and who should be making decisions on youths’ behalf. This session provides foundational knowledge around building and maintaining meaningful, intentional partnerships with youth who have lived experiences with homelessness. It also dives into adultism and how adult attitudes about youth can make or break their relationships with them. Attendees will learn about the core concepts of authentic youth engagement, as well as how to recognize their own biases that affect how they work with youth and how youth work with them. 
3:00 PM Break
                  BREAKOUT SESSIONS
3:15 PM HOUSING TRACK: Trauma-Informed Practices in Youth Anti-Trafficking Housing Programs 
Freedom Network Housing is often the most immediate need of survivors as they exit trafficking situations. Survivors often rely on time-limited shelters, transitional housing, and rental assistance programs administered by anti-trafficking service providers to access safe housing. Historically, there have been practices employed by programs that restrict survivor autonomy by establishing prerequisites such as sobriety and limiting communication. Furthermore, once housed, some practices may resemble power and control dynamics of a trafficking situation, such as participating in required programming. This workshop will provide participants an overview of the housing landscape available to youth, trauma-informed practices, and how programs can provide services that center on survivor voice and choice.
3:15 PM INNOVATION TRACK: Creating Direct Cash Transfers to End Youth Homelessness
Point Source Youth 

Oregon DHS

 Direct Cash Transfer (DCT) initiatives are an anti-poverty strategy that puts money in the hands of people experiencing poverty. DCT is very new in the youth homelessness sphere and has been progressing due to young people’s expressed need for cash to help them transition out of homelessness. The State of Oregon’s Youth Experiencing Homelessness Program (YEHP) brought forward this initiative in early 2022 as a way to support young people in need of housing support. This session would allow participants to learn more about all aspects of a DCT program – from preparation and readiness, to implementation and funding – as well as hear directly from some amazing Young Leaders from Oregon who assisted in bringing this program to life.
3:15 PM EDUCATION TRACK: Addressing Barriers Our Youth Face Through Policy Advocacy
SchoolHouse Connection Over the past year, several states have passed or introduced laws aimed at eliminating barriers to things like emergency shelter, medical care, driver’s licenses, and high school and college graduation that keep youth experiencing homelessness from accessing needed resources and improving outcomes. These policy reforms will help thousands of youth from Virginia to Florida to California. Momentum for state policy reform continues to build and this session will focus on key trends for 2023, opportunities for educators, advocates, and youth with lived experience to help drive more change, and strategies for engaging in effective advocacy in your state.
3:15 PM YOUTH PARTNERSHIP TRACK: Youth and Young Adult Systems Change
Andrew Palomo NN4Y launched its Local Cross System Collaboratives (LCSC) on Youth Homelessness initiative in 2019. We are ready to share our learnings on this powerful approach to end youth homelessness. Central to this initiative is investing in and sharing power with youth with lived expertise. People with lived experience are vital partners in ending homelessness.  Learn how youth and young adults are creating systemic change throughout the country through local advocacy efforts. The speakers will inspire you with their strategies on organizing people with lived experience for advocacy.  In this session, participants will learn how to leverage LCSCs to address the root causes of homelessness among young people and help to build strong collaborative relationships among youth-serving agencies, leading to improved youth outcomes and system functioning.
5:00 PM Virtual Networking 
Please join us for some fun and connect with your fellow advocates and youth workers committed to preventing and ending youth and young adult homelessness.