The nonprofit Center for Impact Research (CIR) has published “Wherever I Can Lay My Head: Homeless Youth on Homelessness,” featuring an executive summary, a complete report, and a Homeless Youth Resource Directory.
The report “presents the data from CIR’s 2004 survey of 400 homeless youth to learn what the youth themselves identify as their needs, the resources available to them, and the ways that the various systems serving homeless youth might be improved.”
The study provides a good look at how homeless youth “get by” (or do not) and the variety of services that help them (or do not).
The finding of this study that merits particularly close attention is that there are particular groups of homeless youth who are at even greater risk than others because of their age, pregnant/parenting status, sexual orientation, or place of residence. Addressing the needs of these youth requires different outreach efforts and resources … New and expanded resources are necessary to help homeless youth become stable and safely housed and to prepare them for self?sufficiency.
What can libraries do to help?
Other CIR publications are available here.
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