Uplifting Youth With Lived Experience
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The "Vehicle for Change" was a key initiative of the Housing Collective's Young Adult Advisory Board.
Historically, people who have experienced homelessness and housing insecurity–especially youth and young adults–have not had a seat at tables where decisions are made about homelessness services and assistance. Traditional decision makers were not inviting those voices to the table, or if they did, the table was not always set to encourage or incorporate those voices. As a result, as recently as the mid-2010s, there were few models for effectively incorporating young people with lived experience (PWLE), or lived expertise, into homelessness response work. The Housing Collective, at the time known as Supportive Housing Works, sought to address this gap.
In 2015, through Opening Doors Fairfield County (ODFC), we established Youth to Lead Change (YTLC), a volunteer board composed of young adults who have experienced homelessness and housing insecurity, to advise ODFC’s efforts to prevent homelessness in the region. Soon after, we recognized members must be compensated for their advisory roles, and a broader group of voices must be incorporated, including individuals who may not meet the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) at times narrow definition of homelessness.
In 2017, with support from United Way Fairfield County and collaboration from the Youth Action Hub and the Youth Engagement Team Initiative of the Connecticut Coalition to End Homelessness, we transformed YTLC board positions from volunteers to contractors, and adopted more inclusive criteria for board membership. In addition, advisory board members became responsible for most of the board’s operations, including hiring and recruiting new members. These responsibilities were formerly handled by a Housing Collective staff member.
Subsequently, Youth to Lead Change began to invest in new, innovative projects. The group painted rocks with messages of hope and resilience on one side, and information about 211 on the other, then placed them in locations where at-risk youth congregated in Bridgeport and Norwalk. As part of Fairfield County’s 100 Day Challenge, YTLC co-hosted an event at the Triangle Community Center where at-risk youth could get a free haircut, and have some of their basic needs met.
With support from Impact Fairfield County and in partnership with Greater Bridgeport Area Prevention Program, YTLC purchased and operated a youth outreach van–the Vehicle for Change–that served as a mobile station for resources, advice, and assistance. YTLC also invested in education and outreach to help young people identify homelessness in their own lives and the lives of their peers, and assisted with the Connecticut Youth Count to gather greater insights into youth homelessness.
In 2020, YTLC was instrumental in helping Opening Doors Fairfield County secure a $3m grant for youth homelessness response projects through HUD’s Youth Homelessness Demonstration Program. With this support, YTLC has been strengthening their impact in Fairfield County, developing bylaws, improving its onboarding process, collaborating with other youth advisory boards across the country, and providing consistent training opportunities.
Youth to Lead Change–today known as the Young Adult Advisory Board–has transformed the response to youth homelessness in Fairfield County, and represents an innovative and proven method for incorporating people with lived experience into efforts to prevent homelessness.
Since the initiative began, dozens of youth and young adults have served on the advisory board, and the Chair has become a part-time staff member at The Housing Collective, further incorporating lived expertise into our operations. The group’s efforts, particularly through the Youth Homelessness Demonstration Program, has helped generate nearly $1.4 million in annual funding for the region’s youth and young adult homelessness response system.
Today, the board has four young adult contractors. Moving forward, The Housing Collective is striving to staff the board with four contractors below the age of 25, and four above the age of 25, so that dedicated and experienced contractors are not forced to “age out” of the program.
“Youth to Lead Change is more than a chance for me to find meaning in my lived experience through advocacy; it’s a chance for me to make real change and to uplift my peers who feel stepped on and unimportant, just as I have…it’s a space where I feel powerful, hopeful, meaningful.”
