A Collaborative Approach to Help Teachers Support Youth Experiencing Homelessness During COVID-19

• In Event: Poster Session 01
  In Poster Session: PS 01 Topic - Solicited Content: COVID-19 Related

Abstract

During the 2016-2017 school year approximately 1.36 million students in the United States were identified as homeless under the McKinney-Vento Act. Under this legislation youth experiencing homelessness may be living in shelters, hotels or motels, doubled-up (i.e. living with others due to housing loss or hardships), or other temporary housing (parks, campgrounds, or cars). These youth are at a heightened risk for many negative developmental outcomes such as low academic achievement and mental health difficulties. Furthermore, 2019 has created an even more challenging landscape for this population to overcome difficulties. Millions of people are sheltering in place and social distancing from others in order to reduce the transmission of COVID-19. However, many families experiencing homelessness don’t have the privilege of protecting themselves by not utilizing public transportation or avoiding close contact with others. The effects of COVID-19 have also caused a significant increase in mental health difficulties for many people, including those experiencing homelessness. As a result of these identified difficulties, a cross-institutional partnership was formed between university researchers, a national homeless education non-profit, and the North Carolina Homeless Education Program with the goal of releasing a brief to help teachers identify students experiencing homelessness and help teachers connect students to needed resources. The purpose of the proposed presentation is to inform researchers about how to collaborate with other institutions to translate research into briefs to drive awareness and advocacy. In the presentation we will (a) describe the process of creating this brief, (b) provide the finished product for use by other states, and (c) discuss dissemination of the brief. To produce the brief, we began by hosting a focus group with homeless liaisons from across the state. This group of advocates helped the team identify important topics for inclusion. Those key areas included: identification of youth experiencing homelessness (during virtual and in-person learning), factors associated with resilience, school-level resources, and state-level resources. In addition to the brief, the focus group also provided key themes for dissemination, including using a multi-method approach to release information, providing a brief professional development for teachers, and updating information in state homeless liaisons’ website. We are currently analyzing data from the 2019 North Carolina Youth Risk Behavior Survey (NCYRBS) to explore prevalence rates, help-seeking behaviors, and other factors that may help teachers better support these students. According to the 2019 NCYRBS, approximately 3% of middle students and 7% of high school students experienced homelessness during a 30 day period (an increase from the 2017 NCYRBS). Upon completion of our NCYRBS analyses, we will collaborate to produce the brief and disseminate it across the state in Fall 2020. Therefore, we will have time to disseminate the brief and assess the success of the distribution of the product. We hope this presentation will help inspire others working in child development to create partnerships to support homeless youth during COVID-19.

Authors

• Amanda Jones, North Carolina State University
  Presenting Author

• Caitlyn Reis Owens, North Carolina State University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Mary Haskett, North Carolina State University
  Non-Presenting Author