Urban Nights Fashion Show to Benefit Homeless LGBT Youth

On Friday, August 23rd, the Urban Nights team will unveil Denver's longest fashion runway under the stars at Mile High Station to help support youth experiencing homelessness. They'll transform one of the city's most historic viaducts into an elegant outdoor runway for a two-hour fashion show featuring designers from all over the country, including fashions designed by youth from Urban Peak.

Urban Peak provides services to 2,600 homeless youth every year--many of them gay or bisexual.  

Grammy nominated, Broadway superstar Deborah Cox (now starring in Broadway's Jekyll & Hyde) will perform!

CYNDI LAUPER JOINS HUD TO SPOTLIGHT LOCAL EFFORTS TO END HOMELESSNESS THROUGH ONE-NIGHT HOMELESS COUNTS

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and Grammy Award-winning singer and songwriter Cyndi Lauper are joining the effort to “Make Everyone Count,” a national campaign to support local one-night counts of homeless persons and families.  Cyndi Lauper and the True Colors Fund’s Forty to None Project produced a national public service announcement to encourage viewers to contribute their time to gather needed data on the scale of homelessness throughout the U.S.

            During the last 10 days in January, HUD asks more than 3,000 cities and counties to conduct “Point-in-Time” counts of homeless persons that reveal the number of persons in shelters and on the streets on a given night.  Ultimately, these one-night counts provide local planners with data they need to understand the number and characteristics of persons who are homeless so they, in turn, can develop a thoughtful response to confront homelessness. 

            “We’re thrilled to have Cyndi join us in this national campaign to expand our understanding of homelessness and to accomplish that, we need people power,” said HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan.  “You can’t solve a problem without understanding it.  President Obama has set an ambitious goal to end homelessness as we know it and this effort is critical toward reaching this goal.”

            Lauper, co-founder of the True Colors Fund, said, “The True Colors Fund is proud to work with HUD through our Forty to None Project to raise awareness about the important count of homeless people that occurs every January.  Every day across America, people struggle to overcome homelessness and we as a society need to join together to ensure that we do all that we can to help them. The first step in being able to do that is to understand how many people are actually in need. I encourage everyone to get involved and be a part of this important effort so that we can make sure that everyone counts.”

                       

            This year, volunteers will collect more detailed information about their local homeless populations including more precise age data, the number of homeless children in families, and even the gender of homeless veterans.  In an effort to better count and serve homeless youth, HUD changed its data collection requirements for 2013 to better identify homeless children and youth.  Additionally, HUD is engaged with the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness, the Department of Health and Human Services, and the Department of Education in a special nine-city initiative called Youth Count! to evaluate best practices for counting homeless youth. 

            In the joint public service announcement, Lauper describes why the HUD’s Annual Point-in-Time count is a vital step towards better serving our homeless population and ultimately ending homelessness once and for all.  Visit HUD’s website or www.fortytonone.org to learn more about how you can help.  In addition, interested people can also participate in an ongoing Twitter conversation #EveryoneCounts.

White House Highlights “Champions of Change” in the Fight Against Youth Homelessness

On Thursday, July 12, the White House will honor leaders who have made a significant difference in the way their communities combat homelessness among children and youth as “Champions of Change.”

“Today’s Champions of Change have made extraordinary commitments to helping children and youth reach their full potential despite the challenges arising from the experience of homelessness,” said Barbara Poppe, Executive Director of the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness. “The efforts of these Champions, and others like them across the country, are critical to achieving our goal of preventing and ending homelessness for families, youth and children by 2020, and ensuring that every child has a safe and stable place to call home.”

The Champions of Change program was created as a part of President Obama’s Winning the Future initiative. Each week, a different sector is highlighted and groups of Champions, ranging from educators to entrepreneurs to community leaders, are recognized for the work they are doing to serve and strengthen their communities.

To watch this event live, visit www.whitehouse.gov/live at 1:30 pm ET on July 12.

And don't forget that LGBT youth are twice as likely to be homeless. Cyndi Lauper's The Forty to None Project is working to bring an end to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender youth homelessness. Learn more at www.fortytonone.org!

Homeless LGBT youths are victims of culture wars, budget cuts

LGBT youth make up between 20% and 40% of all homeless young people, but recent budget cuts in places such as New York have left many from this demographic to fend for themselves, according to this article. Nonprofit groups that focus on the problem are often unable to serve the growing numbers of young people who need shelter, health care and counseling.

Resources for homeless gay youth

A few years ago there were very few resources, studies, or guidelines addressing the issue of LGBTQ youth homelessness.  Things are beginning to change. USICH has compiled a list of online resources that address the statistics, best practices, and networks that are available to help youth in need.

Click Here to View the complete List

USICH on LGBTQ Youth Homelessness

The United States Interagency Council on Homelessness recently published several articles pertaining to the issues of gay homeless youth including the following:


LGBTQ Youth Homelessness

 Youth homelessness is a problem that doesn’t fit neatly into a box. The exact number of youth experiencing homelessness is difficult to determine: they are undercounted in national data as unaccompanied youth are often unconnected to services or shelters.  Though they do not have a safe stable place to call home, many wind up “couch surfing” with friends, relatives, or acquaintances.  There does appear to be agreement that twenty to forty percent of youth experiencing homelessness self-identify as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, or Queer/Questioning (LGBTQ), which is disproportionate to the percentage of LGBTQ youth in the general youth population.

Like many homeless youth, LGBTQ youth either runaway or are forced out of the home due to severe family conflict, abuse, neglect, mental health or physical disabilities. They are more at risk once they are homeless for sexual abuse and exploitation.   There is a high incidence of depression, suicide initiations, and other mental health disorders among all youth experiencing homelessness, and chronic physical health conditions are common as are high rates of substance abuse disorders.  Yet, in spite of all this, if you’ve ever had the opportunity to hang out with LGBTQ youth in a drop in center or elsewhere, you know they are energetic, funny, thoughtful teenagers who have the same hopes and dreams as their peers.

Across the country, there are programs aimed at reaching out to and assisting LGBTQ youth experiencing or at risk of homelessness, we highlight two such programs below. There are people and programs across the Federal government working to provide housing and services that will best help LGBTQ youth to become stable enabling them to lead safe, healthy and productive lives.  We provide a list of resources below that help to paint a picture of the difficulties LGBTQ youth encounter in America and the work that is being done around the county to aid these youth in finding a sense of self they can celebrate.

There is more we can and should do to help these young people to safety. Opening Doors: the Federal Strategic Plan to Prevent and End Homelessness sets the goal of ending youth homelessness by 2020. Through collaborations between the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness and 19 federal agencies, we are working to make sure that all youth, including LGBTQ youth, do not fall through the cracks and that they receive the following:

   1. Low Barrier Housing
   2. Education that helps lead to employment
   3. On-going support services connected to mainstream resources
   4. Independent Living Skills Training
   5. Connections to supportive and trusting adults and a support network

In collaboration with the Interagency Working Group on Youth Programs, USICH will draft a framework to specifically address the housing and service needs of youth at risk of or experiencing homelessness. This group will also examine ways that Federal agencies can better collaborate and allow better access to existing resources for those most at risk, including LGBTQ youth.

Urban Peak keeps up the good work

There's a heartwarming Urban Peak success story posted up on DenverPost.com today.

Urban Peak is a great shelter for homeless youth in Denver and in Colorado Springs, and they focus on GLBT kids as well, who are still often in danger of being kicked out of their home if they come out.

Urban Peak always needs volunteers and funds, so check them out.