Richmond Region Applies for Federal Resources to Address Youth Homelessness
Jul 28, 2021
Richmond, VA – July 28, 2021 – The Greater Richmond Continuum of Care (GRCoC) submitted an application for additional federal funds to address youth experiencing homelessness in our region. Homeward led the application development and submission as the GRCoC’s coordinating agency. Additional partners who supported the application include Commonwealth Catholic Charities, Virginia Home for Boys and Girls, Counties of Henrico and Chesterfield Departments of Social Services, and the City of Richmond Department of Social Services.
The GRCoC applied on behalf of the Richmond region to qualify for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Youth Homelessness Demonstration Program (YHDP). If selected, funding will support the planning and implementation efforts for youth-driven projects that do not currently exist in the Richmond region.
“The GRCoC and our partners continue to conduct meaningful engagement with youth and young adults to identify needs for those experiencing homelessness,” said Frances-Marie Pugh, Special Projects Manager with Homeward. “This approach ensures that we are developing programs based on lived experience and that our application is as competitive as possible.”
YHDP is intended to support selected communities in the development and execution of a coordinated approach to prevent and end youth homelessness. As defined by the program, the population served by YHDP funds is youth experiencing homelessness, including unaccompanied youth as well as pregnant or parenting youth.
Youth homelessness is a challenge in the Richmond region and selection for YHDP will provided needed resources to combat this issue.
“As a young adult with lived experience in housing instability and experience in youth advocacy, I’m excited that various stakeholders in our region have come together to address youth homelessness in a collaborative manner,” added Pugh.
The YHDP application deadline was July 27, 2021 and funding is highly competitive. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development will announce communities selected for the program in the months following submission.
Additional information about the GRCoC and community-based efforts to reduce homelessness, including youth homelessness, is available at endhomelessnessrva.org.
Richmond, VA – May 1, 2024 – Homeward – the planning agency for the Greater Richmond Continuum of Care (GRCoC), a network of homeless service providers that deliver coordinated and compassionate solutions to homelessness in the Richmond region – will host its annual Best Practices Conference on Friday, May 3, 2024 at The Westin Richmond hotel in Henrico County.
From experiencing homelessness himself to now helping others who are going through similar crises, Choice East brings invaluable empathy and insight to his work at Homeward.
The last week of February, Homeward hosted a series of learning opportunities in a Best Practices in Youth Services Summit. Over two days, GRCoC partners, YAB members, and TA support staff delved into the core competency topics of youth services, Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI), prioritizing joy for young people, and federal grant regulations.
Unsheltered Homelessness Continues to Rise as Housing Instability Remains a Top Regional Issue.
This post is part of a series that explores the ways in which the Richmond region addresses homelessness and provides context on how our collaborative and regional network operates. You can access other posts in this series on Access Versus Resources , Funding by The Numbers , and Keys to Helping More People .
This post is part of a series that explores the ways in which the Richmond region addresses homelessness and provides context on how our collaborative and regional network operates. You can access other posts in this series on Access Versus Resources , Funding by The Numbers , and Supporting Frontline Staff .
This post is part of a series that explores the ways in which the Richmond region addresses homelessness and provides context on how our collaborative and regional network operates. You can access other posts in this series on Access Versus Resources , Keys to Helping More People , and Supporting Frontline Staff .
This post is part of a series that explores the ways in which the Richmond region addresses homelessness and provides context on how our collaborative and regional network operates. You can access other posts in this series on Funding by The Numbers , Keys to Helping More People , and Supporting Frontline Staff.
Collecting reliable and consistent regional data about individuals and families experiencing homelessness is crucial in building an effective community-wide response.
On behalf of Homeward, we want to thank Mayor Levar Stoney, City Council President Michael Jones, Committee Chair and Councilmember Stephanie Lynch, all of the members of Richmond’s City Council, and the truly dedicated members of the City administration for making this significant and compassionate expansion of homeless assistance available. For 25 years, our community has come together across organizational and jurisdictional differences with a shared goal of reducing the crisis of homelessness.
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end homelessness.
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info@homewardva.org
If you are within 3 days of losing housing, call The Homeless Connection Line: 804-972-0831 . If you are more than 3 days away from losing housing, call The Housing Resource Line: 804-422-5061