Running head: THE COMMUNITY ANTIDOTE

Community As A Healer
Sidney George
A project for PSYC159E at the University of California, Santa Cruz
March 23rd 2017
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Community As A Healer

When we talk about youth homelessness it is not only important to

bring awareness to the fact that there are thousands of youth today without

a stable home but it necessary that we talk about the invisibility of these

youth. These youth get by slipping under the radar of recognition because

they dont fit our stereotypical image of what homelessness looks like. But

their invisibility doesnt mean that their struggles arent significant or that

they hurt less. It needs to be acknowledged that with community help and

support we can combat the obstacles that may confront us when as we work

towards harnessing the resilience and strength within these youth.

Why Is This An Important Issue?

Why is it even important to talk about homeless youth? Why might it

be even more pressing to talk specifically about youth, when there are still

adults that face homelessness? It may seem a little counterproductive to

solely only focus on youth homelessness, when in California alone there are

approximately 115,738 people considered homeless (Golden, 2016). That

number not only takes into account unsheltered people but individuals that

might be couch surfing with friends or relatives. The main reason why it is

important to talk about our youth is because of the simple fact they are our

youth: as youth who are homeless, they will lose out on many life

opportunities without shelter and the protection of family life. It can be hard

as a developing youth but with supportive systems put in place youth are
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able to flourish and develop into an adaptable adult that can succeed even

when faced with adversity. We want a country, better yet a world of strong

adults. The only way this can be achieved is if we are constantly working to

better the lives of our youth through positive and individualized services.

In the case of many homeless youth they are lacking in the first

support system given to them, their family. They may have been in and out

of the foster system. Their family might have kicked them out over their

sexual orientation/non-conforming gender, for having a child at a young age,

because they are struggling with an addiction, or just because they are done

raising them. Instead of using our usual explanation that homeless youth

deserve to be where they are at or arent trying hard enough to seek out

support, we need to focus more on what we can do to help. These youth are

not weak and neither are they useless just because they are or have been

homeless for a period of their life.

Who Are They?

When trying to understand youth homelessness it is important to first

understand the causes of homelessness, who can be affected by it and are

there factors that place a youth at a higher risk for becoming homeless.

Unfortunately youth homelessness can affect anyone and it doesnt

discriminate based on race or gender, however some race/genders are at a

higher risk for becoming homeless (African American & Hispanic). While the

issue at hand is youth homelessness that does not mean that the problem is

due to actions brought on by the youth community. The problem stems from
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us, the adults. As parents/guardians we have failed. We have destroyed their

self-esteem because of our intolerance of their gender/sexual orientation. We

have allowed our own issues with addiction create an unhealthy home

dynamic. We as society let our youth who have aged-out of the system at

the age of 18, left without proper support. Our children have been beaten

and bruised physically, mentally, emotionally and in some cases sexually. We

have either kicked them out or left them feeling alone with nowhere to turn

so they runaway. However, it is unfair for me to generalize to all

parents/guardians. There are many adults that do all they can to support

their youth, and unfortunately their youth still falls prey to addiction or gang

violence. In Youth Homelessness Is An Invisible Issue, But It Doesnt Have To

Be it was stated that, Theyre fleeing or leaving situations they cant go

back to and of course in their minds theyre safer away from that, though the

reality is that they actually might not be at all safer (Erbentraut, 2014). This

makes it a community issue when our youth will challenge the unknown of

the streets because their homes arent providing adequate care.

Turning Wrongs Into Rights

We must not forget that the blame cannot solely be placed on our

parents and guardians. Our society has put into place specific systems, in

this case the juvenile justice system that works in many ways benefitting

itself and not the youth. When it works in the circular sense it turns into a

cycle of oppression, acting like a revolving door. After the Coalition for

Juvenile Justice interviewed runaway and homeless youth they found that,
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44% had stayed in jail, prison or juvenile detention center, approximately

78% had at least one interaction with the police and about 62% had been

arrested at some point (Pilnik, 2016). These are high percentages of youth

that are usually arrested for substance possession, stealing, prostitution,

sleeping in places they arent suppose to or curfew laws. These youth are

being arrested for engaging in survival tactics. Without proper supportive

services available it makes sense that a youth engages sexual exploitative

acts to receive a few bucks or steals from a grocery store just to ensure that

they have food that day. Instead of our justice system providing resources or

aid at the time of the arrest, these acts are seen as criminal and the youth

are booked and taken to a jail or juvenile detention center.

When Congress first initiated the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency

Prevent Act in the 1970s, its aim was to reintegrate and rehabilitate young

offenders into independent and self-sufficient community members

(Covenant House, 2017). Unfortunately when these youth were released

from jail they were released back into the same environment that they

started in, only to commit the same or harsher crimes or left without support

struggling to find employment, stay off the streets and make ends meet.

According to Covenant House, the recidivism rate of youth is significantly

higher than that in the adult criminal justice system (Covenant House,

2017). Without our support these youth have very low success rates after re-

entry because they lack the life skills and knowledge that are needed to be a

successful adult. If we dont provide the support how will they know how to
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reenroll in school or apply for government documentation? Who is going to

teach them skills of responsibility, communication, and relationship building?

As individuals who were able to complete school and live at home until we

ready to move on, we were taught these skills. We need to stop penalizing

these youth for not succeeding when our juvenile justice system was not

made for them and they have stunted growth when it comes to skill

development.

Reform

We want to positively reform, but how can we do it? Ive proposed my

solution for improving the juvenile justice system and it includes practicing

positive youth justice while making sure that the steps taken are evidence-

based. Positive youth justice is focused on resilience and strength of the

youth with the message that even the most dis- advantaged young person

can develop positively when connected to the right mix of opportunities,

supports, positive roles, and relationships (Bazemore, Butts & Meroe, 2010).

The youth does this by actively engaging in the two core assets while they

work on the 6 practice domains. The two core assets are Learning/Doing and

Attaching/Belonging. These are necessary assets that the youth needs to

successfully develop under each practice domain. The practice domains are

as follows: work, community, relationships, health, creativity and education

(Bazemore, Butts & Mare, 2014). Under the relationships domain, the youth

might learn conflict resolution and under education, they might learn career

planning. All crucial skills to have in this world. Through working on the core
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assets and the practice domains the youth will develop positive relations

with others and their community which will instill within them the value that

ones community has on them. They will see first hand how community can

heal. It is important to recognize that not all juvenile justice system programs

are ineffective. Yes, some definitely are and those are the ones that we need

to reform. We know now, without a doubt, that there are current programs

that are working for the youth instead of against them. These programs

understand the challenges that many youth struggling with homelessness

deal with on a daily basis. The sooner we build more programs with a focus

on efficiency and youth success we will see a turn around for our juvenile

justice system.

Tackling A Community Problem

I mentioned before the importance of using the community as a

healing factor. I believe that a key factor to ensuring the success and

livelihood of homeless youth is the involvement of the youths community in

the youths development. The ones who know the most about the

communities strengths and weaknesses are the ones living there. That is

why I created the Youth Over The Rainbow foundation. The foundations

purpose is to provide continuous support to youth who have/are experiencing

youth homelessness to encourage the youth to be the leaders of tomorrow.

When creating this foundation I was inspired by the work of Lateefah Simon.

She served as an example of someone who came from very little but wanted

to do better for herself and wanted to provide her community with positive
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contributions (Goodcharacter1, 2009). In Lateefahs TEDxPeacePlaza talk she

discussed the importance of using ones community as a healing factor (Tedx

Talks, 2014) as she experienced the difficulty of a loved one fighting an

aggressive form of leukemia. She spoke on the positive effect that having

support from family members, friends and strangers from Facebook had on

that experience. The support from the community was the medicine, or the

elixir that they needed (Tedx Talks, 2014). This same elixir can be applicable

to the problem of youth homelessness. It is the responsibility of the

community to provide this elixir for our homeless youth.

Conclusion

Even as homeless youth today struggle within their family/home life

and our current juvenile justice system, that doesnt mean that those

individuals are lost. It is never to late to focus on reforming our ineffective

and out dated methods of tackling this problem. The time is now to focus on

changing the systems that help govern our communities while these

communities and our youth are being rebuilt. Without our efforts the number

of homeless youth will continue to steadily rise. If we want our communities

to be stronger then we need to put more work into the youth that will

eventually be leading those communities.

References
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Bilchik, S., Carver, D., Dhere, S., Howell, J. C., Kelly, M. R. (2014). Juvenile
justice system
improvement project. Center for Juvenile Justice Reform.

Bazemore, G, Butts, J. A, Mare, A. S. (2010). Positive Youth

Justice--Framing Justice Interventions Using the Concepts of Positive Youth
Development. Washington, DC: Coalition for Juvenile Justice. 2010

Carver, D., Chapman, G., Howell, J. C., Lipsey, M. W. , Kelly, M. R. (2010).

Improving the
effectiveness of juvenile justice programs: A new perspective on
evidence-based
practice. Center for Juvenile Justice Reform.

Covenant House. (2017). Juvenile justice. Retrieved from

https://www.covenanthouse.org/homeless-teen-issues/juvenile-justice

de Mare, A., Kelly, K. (Producers/Directors). (2014). Homestretch [Documentary].

United States: Spargel Productions

Erbentraut, J. (2014). Youth homelessness is an invisible issue, but it doesnt

have to be. The Huffington Post.

Pilnik, L. (2016). Youth homelessness and juvenile justice: Opportunities for

collaboration
and impact. Coalition for Juvenile Justice.

Root Cause. (2016). Guide to giving: Improving outcomes for homeless

youth.
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