This was an awesome and super productive meeting! We even ran a half hour over!
Announcements:
1. The Flyers are in! I’ve been posting them around Santa Fe and will hopefully be heading to other areas ASAP to hang more. If You would like me to mail you some to display around your area please let me know!!
2. Our donation campaign in honor of National Youth Homelessness Awareness Month is active! It’s posted on the NM Housing Youth Facebook and Instagram pages as well as on the YAB website! Please share it if you can!
Link to Donation Campaign: https://www.justgiving.com/campaign/youthhomelessnessawarenessmonth?success=true
3. We will be presenting at the PED Community of Practice Meeting on December 9th. Next week we will be going over the details!
4. A YAB member shared with us an awesome opportunity to get your foot in the political door and do some community service! Voting is happening and Poll Watchers are in high demand! Visit this link to learn more! https://www.sos.state.nm.us/voting-and-elections/voter-information-portal/election-challengers-watchers-observers-information/
Main Topics:
Wednesday was our NM Housing Youth Core Team Meeting! We discussed the exiting protocol/process for Rapid Rehousing programs. The recording of this meeting will be available by next Friday. But in the meantime here's a brief summary of what happened. Currently there are no official forms or processes but generally all the providers are doing the same things; constantly discussing plans for after the exit, working on goals (education and employment). We identified barriers to successful exits such as lack of motivation, the mindset that being housed is temporary, systemic rebellion, fear and mental health. It was agreed that youth who are just being housed will need time to relax and evolve out of the survival mode they have grown accustomed to and that mental health should be prioritized during their housing journey. We came up with some awesome ideas like a peer support network and focusing on career training so the client is working on something they are passionate about and evaluating alternative work and living options like working for room and board. I am thoroughly impressed with the conversation that happened and I can’t wait to publish the recording.
We talked about the Point Source Youth Western Conference! The conference is November 16th from 1pm until 5pm. Our plan with this conference is to divide and conquer. There are several awesome topics being talked about at the same time and unfortunately I can’t be in multiple places at once. So we reviewed the agenda and the YAB members selected which presentations they would like to attend. When attending your designated topics be sure you are taking comprehensive notes that you can share with the rest of the board during the following YAB meeting (11/17). I will remind everyone about which topics you volunteered for during next weeks meeting as well as sending out reminders the day before and day of the conference. PLEASE REGISTER ASAP! Click this link to register!
We evaluated our Cold Weather Gear Drive! First reviewing and adding to our list of requested items. At the bottom of this paragraph is the full list we’ve come up with. It’s a lot so I think we will need to narrow it down and be sure we emphasize that donations are not limited to those items. The Coordinated Entry Team from the Coalition is completely on board to help us out! Which is super exciting. We just need to let them know how they can help! There are several details that need to be worked out and we brainstormed them during the meeting but I want official answers from every YAB member so I’m attaching a link to a survey, if you are unable to access the survey PLEASE send answers to these questions to my email (maya-f@nmceh.org)
How Should We Advertise The Drives?
Where Should We Host The Drives? (cities or specific sites) List as many as you’d like!
When Should The Drives Take Place (Be as specific as possible)
How Should We Distribute the Items Collected?
Link to Survey: https://s.surveyplanet.com/tayrl6em
Link to Donation Request List: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1I5vHdBE-p2PP3VxSF0B2BvjDR-HHJzQlx4l8RxCzkRc/edit?usp=sharing
We went into break out rooms to discuss the presentations we will be doing in schools! One idea that we will definitely be doing is unpacking a pack filled with necessities of street living. But here are the other ideas we came up with:
-A video with real life testimonials about youth homelessness and statistics, -Going over stigma and the importance of being non judgmental and highlighting that people experiencing homelessness are human and deserve kindness and going into being trauma informed.
- Talking about what causes homelessness and that it can happen to anyone for a variety of reasons.
-The dangers and risks of being unhoused.
- Asking for 3 words that describe how you feel about homelessness.
-Having an interactive story ex: this is Tom, he’s 17 and his parents just kicked him out. What should he be sure to pack? Where should he go now? Etc. and throw in twists like it’s pouring rain now how is Tom going to stay warm and dry?
I LOVE all these ideas so much and next week we will be elaborating on how to put all this together and develop the presentation and hopefully get it finalized so we can get this done!
I’m so immensely proud of the YAB and words cannot express how excited I am to execute all these events and projects with you! As always if you have any questions, comments or concerns please feel free to reach out to me!