Executive Summary
Homelessness is a crucial concern affecting populations globally, nationally, and locally. This initiative addresses homelessness in rural Beaufort among high school students from the County School District. The leading cause of homelessness is rapid population growth and economic disadvantages. Most high school students from the County School District come from economically disadvantaged families due to unemployment and low wages, which contributes significantly to homelessness. At the same time, the number of homeless students and families continues to increase due to population growth and urbanization, which increase the cost of living and obtaining affordable housing. Other factors include child abuse, violence, and hunger, pushing the youth to the streets in search of comfort from harsh conditions. More than 300 high school students experience homelessness in the County and the number continues to increase each year, which demands immediate attention.
Despite the high population of homeless students, the region has inadequate shelters for homeless people, with only one available shelter called Family Promise Beaufort County, which cannot contain the vast population of homeless families and students in the area. Other homeless shelters are located in Charleston and Savannah, far from the County School District community. Many homeless students are in shelters, while others who cannot access the shelter live in motels, relatives’ places, and the streets. Therefore, there is a pressing need to address the issue since experiencing homelessness has adverse impacts on homeless students and families. This initiative aims to reduce and end homelessness among high school students and enable them to become productive citizens by providing shelter and supportive programs for social, academic, and mental wellness. The initiative aims to empower homeless students toward a better and sustainable future through education and employment opportunities that enhance financial stability.
Statement of Need
Homelessness is a plague in Beaufort County and surrounding cities in South Carolina. The increasing number of cases of homelessness in families and high school students without adequate shelter and care poses many challenges. High school students’ age ranges from fourteen to eighteen years old, marking the beginning of adolescence, social awareness, and cognitive skills. Experiencing homelessness can lead to behavioral, social, and emotional challenges, adversely affecting the youth’s well-being (Radcliff et al., 2019). The initiative has identified the need to provide shelter for homeless youth to prevent risk factors such as dropping out of school, psychological trauma, criminal activities, and drug and substance abuse. According to Bowman and Popp (2022), high school students experiencing homelessness may develop social problems such as low self-esteem which can negatively impact their academic performance. In other cases, the students may prefer dropping out of school, leading to unproductive futures and delinquent activities.
Notably, the unavailability of shelters to accommodate the homeless youth worsens the situation due to insecurity living in the streets and motels. Living in the streets and motels without the supervision of adults can lead to delinquent activities for sustenance or peer pressure. At the same time, insufficient shelters mean the students cannot obtain basic amenities such as clothing and food, which weakens their immunity and ability to be resilient and thrive regardless of the circumstances. Additionally, poor housing conditions pose significant health risks such as chronic respiratory diseases, mental health, and physical injuries (Bowman & Popp, 2020). Therefore, buffering students against the adverse experiences of homelessness can help reduce the risks of negative outcomes and enhance security and health wellness. The initiative seeks to expand the capacity of existing shelters and collaborate with them to ensure that homeless youth have better accommodations. Hence, families and high school students from the School County District will receive necessities and shelters to end homelessness and its associated adversities.
Mission Statement, Goals, and Objectives
The initiative’s mission is to support homeless families and high school students by providing shelter and necessities to enable the population to overcome the hardships of experiencing homelessness. The initiative is founded on the belief that providing comfortable living conditions fosters hope and motivates students to work hard for a better tomorrow. The primary goal of this initiative is to provide reasonable shelters in Beaufort County for homeless families and high school students. Secondly, the initiative aims to ensure that homeless students thrive socially, emotionally, and academically to empower them into productive citizens. Providing shelters is essential in preventing and reducing homelessness since the primary factor enhancing homelessness is inadequate shelters in the region. At the same time, ensuring the homeless student’s welfare socially, mentally, and academically allows them to break the cycle of homelessness and poverty (Morton et al., 2018). The move enhances the transition to higher learning and better employment opportunities, which foster independence.
Consequently, better employment ensures adequate housing, healthcare, and community outreach to help others experiencing homelessness. Three objectives will guide the initiative to ensure effective management and distribution of resources to accomplish the desired outcomes. The first objective is to ensure that 90% of the homeless population gets access to shelter and maintains permanent housing for more than a year. Secondly, the initiative aims to provide shelters with immediate supportive resources and programs to enhance their academic, social, and health welfare. Thirdly, the initiative aims at empowering existing shelters and community partners to foster rapid responses for families and students experiencing homelessness, as well as expand the capacity of the shelters to accommodate more homeless persons. Thus, the initiative will engage the community and build effective relationships with partners and stakeholders to achieve the desired goals.
Proposed Community Change
Proposed Solution
The most effective solution to homelessness is providing permanent shelters or housing that provide safety and stability. Homeless people, exceptionally high schoolers, need stable homes and comfortable living conditions that allow them to face challenges associated with adolescence and pursue opportunities for a better future. Providing housing solutions forms a foundation for accessing basic amenities and support, which enhances recovery from homelessness and its associated trauma, such as stigmatization (Radcliff et al., 2019). The initiative will apply the “Housing First” approach to provide permanent housing with rental subsidies for homeless students and their families. The strategy is proven to provide permanent housing for individuals experiencing homelessness quickly and efficiently, facilitating immediate support for recovery (Baxter et al., 2019). This strategy aims to ensure that 90% of the homeless population gets access to better accommodations and maintains permanent housing for more than a year.
Consequently, the solution aims at providing new housing and extending aid to the existing shelter with immediate supportive resources and programs that can enhance their academic, social, and health welfare. Providing supportive programs and resources for the student’s academic, social, and mental welfare aims to empower them toward better futures and diverse opportunities to prevent and end homelessness. By expanding the capacity of the existing shelters and sensitizing the community on rapid response, homeless youth and families will be able to obtain permanent housing, which can reduce and end homelessness.
Project Description
The initiative will affect the solution by partnering with housing providers to obtain immediate housing for homeless families and students. The partners include the community and volunteers currently providing emergency shelters and outreach programs for street children who can aid in locating youth living on the streets and connect them to better housing. This initiative will employ a data-driven system that can identify and match homeless youth and families according to their homeless experiences and needs. For instance, veteran and chronic homeless individuals have unique needs that require special treatment to foster recovery than those with episodic homelessness. The program will create a unified and user-friendly rapid-response system that the community and homeless individuals can use to apply for housing support and intervention for homeless youth. To that end, the initiative will achieve the empowerment practice of ensuring future sustainability and dependability in society by fostering academic achievement and better employment opportunities resulting in productive citizens.
Significance of the Project
This project is significant in reducing and ending homelessness locally and nationally. The initiative will enable community sensitization on the adverse effects of homelessness and the need to support homeless youth and families to obtain better housing and essential resources. The community will be extensively aware of the meaning of homelessness and rapid response actions that facilitate intervention measures and a smooth transition to permanent housing. The project’s success will encourage the establishment of other initiative programs toward ending homelessness. Consequently, the project will enhance donor grants to support projects in communities experiencing homelessness with practical proposals. The information obtained during service delivery can be used for making effective public policies regarding homelessness, which can aid in ending the vicious cycle. At the same time, the project will provide a baseline for future assessments on the prevalence and nature of homelessness to provide the best approaches to addressing the situation towards a definite end of the homelessness plague.
Action Plan
Statement of Feasibility
The project’s focus on high schoolers is crucial to their well-being and the community in general. The goals and objectives of the project demonstrate the feasibility of achieving positive and measurable outcomes. Providing permanent housing through the “Housing First” approach is practical for achieving the initiative’s primary goal, reducing and ending homelessness. The strategy has been proven effective in providing long-term residence and support to individuals experiencing chronic homelessness and improving their mental and health well-being (Baxter et al., 2019). Ultimately, the approach led to financial stability and a transition to individually owned housing plans among the youth.
With the donor’s grant worth $100000, the initiative will be achievable through effective management and utilization of the financial resources. Engaging the community and existing shelter in the intervention and recovery process for homeless students facilitates effective outreach services, cost-effective service delivery, and permanent retention in the provided homes compared to hiring professionals (Morton et al., 2018). Thus, this initiative demonstrates a feasible and acceptable approach to ending homelessness that places maximum utilization of financial resources to support services and materials instead of administrative duties.
Budget Justification
Given the vast number of homeless high school students in Beaufort, the project aims at six units of permanent housing, each containing five reasonable rooms for accommodating each student’s family. The cost of obtaining each unit is $12000, which totals $72000. The initiative prefers buying and owning the units so that the subsidized rental payments can be added to the budget to facilitate other services. Owning the permanent units ensures the longevity and growth of the program, which can aid in ending homelessness. The remaining $28000 will be used for necessities such as food, clothing, and bedding at $ 20000, while $8000 will aid in providing support in academic resources and health services.
Evaluation
The program will utilize a mixed evaluation method, including quantitative and qualitative methodologies. The initiative should be able to obtain efficient and affordable housing units within six months of the initiative’s commencement. The homeless students should be accommodated immediately within nine months of the project’s initiation. The students will obtain permanent housing and basic amenities on a first come service which will be facilitated by matching individual needs to specific housing needs. The project should have funded the students’ schools in one year to ensure they receive equal opportunities and resources to enhance their academic performance. By the end of one year, the project aims to have assisted more than two hundred high schoolers from the streets, emergency shelters, and motels by offering support and recovery services.
The program will include quarterly evaluations on the progress of reducing homelessness and student experiences in the housing units. The evaluation will include qualitative data collection and analysis where the students will be issued questionnaires on their experiences in the housing units. The questionnaire will be open-ended to get individual views and avoid bias in service delivery. The student’s responses will be analyzed thematically and should reflect the success or failure of the project depending on the positivity or negativity in their experiences. As a long-term project, the initiative aims to ensure that 90% of the students living in the provided housing units are employed and financially stable when they graduate from the program. Empowering the students financially helps ensure they obtain permanent homes and assist their families and community members who may be homeless.
References
Baxter, A. J., Tweed, E. J., Katikireddi, S. V., & Thomson, H. (2019). Effects of housing first approaches on health and well-being of adults who are homeless or at risk of homelessness: Systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, 73(5), 379–387. Web.
Bowman, D., & Popp, P. A. (2020). Students experiencing homelessness. Supporting and Educating Traumatized Students, 125–146. Web.
Morton, M. H., Dworsky, A., Matjasko, J. L., Curry, S. R., Schlueter, D., Chávez, R., & Farrell, A. F. (2018). Prevalence and correlates of youth homelessness in the United States. Journal of Adolescent Health, 62(1), 14–21. Web.
Radcliff, E., Crouch, E., Strompolis, M., & Srivastav, A. (2019). Homelessness in childhood and adverse childhood experiences (aces). Maternal and Child Health Journal, 23(6), 811–820. Web.