Five Communities Take On Youth Homelessness

Baltimore (MD), Columbus (OH), Hennepin County (MN), Louisville (KY) and Palm Beach County (FL) will be setting ambitious goals to end homelessness among young people in their community.

Building on the success of three cities who made remarkable progress last Fall, A Way Home America (AWHA) is proud to announce that Baltimore (MD), Columbus (OH), Hennepin County (MN), Palm Beach County (FL), and Louisville (KY) will launch 100-Day Challenges to accelerate efforts to end youth homelessness in their communities this summer.

This work is made possible through funding from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and private philanthropic partners. RRI will provide the overall design of the 100-Day Challenges and is partnering with HomeBase to offer coaching support to each community as they embark on their 100-Day Journey.

The 100-Day Challenge is a project designed to stimulate intense collaboration, innovation, and execution, all in pursuit of a wildly ambitious 100-day goal. The method was pioneered by the RRI to help communities around the world tackle tough problems. In youth homelessness, these 100-day goals will involve ending the experiences of homelessness for a large number of young people in each community. With just 100 days to make things happen, everyone from community leaders to front-line workers are challenged to do their work differently, change systems, and innovate their way to their desired goal. The compressed timeframe, high visibility, and support from coaches, peers, and federal leaders creates rapid progress.

By meeting and then exceeding their goals Austin, Cleveland, and Los Angeles set the bar high in the Fall of 2016: together, they housed nearly 450 young people in just 100 days. These three communities pioneered the use of 100-Day Challenges on youth homelessness.

Terrance Walker, a representative from the National Youth Forum on Homelessness who supported the work with Austin, Cleveland and Los Angeles, said “Along this journey, not only did we meet our goals, we exceeded them. We tried new and innovative approaches and tested old existing methods. Through collaboration we got the job done! We look forward to supporting similar success in all five communities launching this summer.”

“Cleveland’s 100-Day Challenge on youth homelessness created a learning lab – an opportunity to test, refine and build on planning work we had already been doing in our community to end homelessness among young people,” shared Angela D’Orazio, program officer at the Sisters of Charity Foundation of Cleveland. “With support from the RRI, A Way Home America and our peer communities, we moved quickly to put systems and processes in place that helped us surpass our goal over the 100 days, and they still support our coordinated response to youth homelessness long after the challenge has ended. We are excited to encourage the upcoming cohort of communities as they innovate, execute and learn, as well.”

Ann Howard, the Executive Director of ECHO in Austin, shared “Hosting the 100-day challenge kick-off and sustainability review was a highlight for our Coalition last year. We wish the next cohort a world of success. I know they will learn a lot about working together to make good things happen for young people.”

Individuals, organizations, and communities interested in following the 100-Day Challenge progress can sign up to receive news from AWHA at www.awayhomeamerica.org. Those interested can also follow the challenges using #100DayChallengeAccepted and #endyouthhomelessness on Twitter.

About A Way Home America

AWHA is a national initiative to build the movement to prevent and end homelessness among young people. AWHA is made up of local and state public sector organizations, advocates, researchers, young people, homeless youth providers and philanthropists united behind the goal of ending youth homelessness by the end of 2020. www.awayhomeamerica.org

About The Rapid Results Institute

RRI is a non-profit organization that creates transformative and sustained impact on tough societal challenges. RRI uses its 100-Day Challenges to support front-line teams to shape and deliver seemingly impossible goals, and it helps leaders leverage these initial 100-day goals into sustained, long term, impact. www.rapidresults.org

About HomeBase

HomeBase is a nonprofit public interest law firm dedicated to the social problem of homelessness. The mission is to end homelessness, prevent its recurrence, and decrease its effect on communities. HomeBase works on the state and national level to support communities in implementing responses to homelessness while fostering collaboration in addressing the political and economic causes of homelessness. www.homebaseccc.org