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Ending Youth Homelessness
Each night in the greater Seattle area, hundreds of children, youth, and young adults are unaccompanied and have no place to go for a warm, safe place to sleep. Our community collectively spends over $7 million a year to combat youth and young adult homelessness and we have some of the best non-profit organizations in the country working on the front lines. Yet, the number of homeless youth is growing. As a region, we need to do more to stop the flow of young people to life on the streets and more quickly stabilize youth who are already homeless. We must help more youth get back on a safe path to independent adulthood.

To support this vision, in 2011-2012 the Raikes Foundation participated in an extensive community planning process that involved more than 100 stakeholders, including 30 homeless youth and young adults. This six-month process culminated in the development of Priority Action Steps to Prevent and End Youth and Young Adult Homelessness. This action plan aims to significantly enhance our region's capacity to provide prevention programs, systematically assess needs and match youth with effective services and housing interventions, and improve coordinated data collection and reporting.

Over the next three years, the Raikes Foundation's grantmaking will support implementation of the Action Plan. As a result of this Plan, there will be a more cohesive system that ties disparate programs and services together to provide efficient access points for young people in need, ensures they get the right services at the right time, and generates the data that helps all stakeholders monitor key outcomes for youth. And, new resources will be directed to enhancing prevention programs and services so that fewer young people end up on the streets. Click here to learn more about the Raikes Foundation's grantmaking strategy to end youth and young adult homelessness.

Proposals for this Initiative are by invitation only.