Youth Voices

On Wednesday, May 11, SchoolHouse Connection, John Burton Advocates for Youth, and the Youth Law Center, organized a Congressional briefing in collaboration with the Offices of Representative Danny Davis and Senator Bob Casey. Senator Patty Murray was an honorary co-host. Young people with lived experience in the foster care system and with homelessness explained four higher education bills that would have a significant and positive impact on the lives and futures of young people. These young leaders also discussed the need for reform of the Chafee Education and Training Voucher Program and in the Satisfactory Academic Progress requirement for federal financial aid.

SHC is working with Florida’s Children First, Florida Youth SHINE, and many other young people, educators, and advocates on two bills to help unaccompanied youth experiencing homelessness get driver licenses and car insurance, persist in postsecondary education, and access medical care. Read SHC Scholar Rebecca’s testimony about how educators helped her, and how bills before the state legislature could make a difference for other youth experiencing homelessness in Florida.

“Wherever I stayed and whoever I stayed with, regardless of their intent, if they learned about my sexuality, it still put me in the vulnerable position of unstable and inconsistent housing; and when I was already vulnerable, I felt like I needed to obscure that side of me as a means of exercising control in my life over what little I had authority: the story that I presented to others.” In this powerful blog, SHC Young Leader Brandon Plowman discusses the complexity of homelessness among LGBTQ youth.

“I am the second youngest of 7 children and growing up, my siblings and I relied heavily on each other to navigate the challenges we faced. Though we ended up being split apart at a young age, we managed to survive, and to this day I would not be who I am if it wasn’t for them. This is my story.” By Danny, SchoolHouse Connection Scholar

“You could tell early on in my childhood that my mother had never truly wanted to be anything other than young and carefree, while many parenting responsibilities fell onto me with full accountability. This meant that, while some kids got cared for by loving parents, I was raised early on to be self-reliant, and when the time came, I was taught to be a caretaker for my sister too.” By Aseret, SchoolHouse Connection Scholar

By Ed Vere. Ed graduated with Highest Honors from a Blue Ribbon High School District in Illinois. He is a third-year Urban Studies student at Wheaton College. “This past June, my SchoolHouse Connection peers and I came from all over the U.S. to Washington, D.C. to speak truth — our truths — to power and to each other… Our time together was a revival of some sort … of resiliency, of being nurtured, and of past pain and trauma.”

By Destiny Dickerson, an SHC scholar who is majoring in Psychology at San Diego State University. “I did not sleep in a tent, or on a park bench, but I was still homeless. There are many students and people who are living just like me and deserve to be validated in their homeless status. We have already lost so much. We deserve to be recognized.”

By Megan “Mutt” Martin. Megan, age 20, graduated from the Anchorage School District, AK. She is majoring in Nursing at The University of Alaska, Anchorage. “I realized that I was an advocate. I wasn’t just a youth spinning a sob story to get someone’s attention. I was a young adult talking about the realities that homeless youth face. I faced these realities in my childhood, and I know that many others still face them, and will continue to face them in childhoods yet to come.”

By Susan Piazza, Assistant Director, Title I and School Support Team, WI Department of Public Instruction. “I recently had the honor of introducing a session at the National Title I Conference, hosted by the National Title I Association in Philadelphia, PA. The session was titled, ‘Voices of Youth: Education, Homelessness, Hope.’ As I sat there listening, I was once again reminded of the truth behind the impact that school, district, and state level systems can have on the future of a child or youth experiencing homelessness.”

By Jessie McCormick. Jessie works at Sasha Bruce Youthwork and is passionate about making resources such as education and health care available to homeless youth and young adults.

“I want to stress the importance of the Higher Education Access and Success for Homeless and Foster Youth Act (HEASHFY). I, myself was an unaccompanied homeless youth throughout high school and college and I know first-hand how homelessness can affect access to higher education. I have created a list of reasons why HEASHFY is important to me and why it will be instrumental in the lives of students experiencing homelessness.”

By Jordyn Roark, BSW candidate, University of North Carolina at Pembroke. “You walk into an office and are asked for your name and address. You reply that you don’t have an address. The secretary looks confused and says, ‘You must have an address. Where do you sleep?’ You cringe and restate that you do not have an address. The secretary fumbles through some papers, lets out a strained breath, and finally looks up to state: ‘We need an address in order to move forward.’”

By Dakota Chronis, Student, North Seattle Community College. Early in life I struggled significantly with schooling because there were many basic needs that I never had met. I lived in unsafe environments due to financial instability. The constant threat of being harmed or becoming sick was scary because I didn’t have access to medical care. My untreated chronic health issues prevented me from focusing on schooling.

“The issue of homelessness is often an invisible burden outshined by images of tattered clothes and messages written on cardboard. The true face of homelessness is so much broader than that. We will truly elicit change when we are able to help our community and those in power see those faces.” We present a very special guest perspective. Two SHC Young Leaders – student and peer mentor – share their thoughts and feelings about speaking truth to power in Washington, DC.

For years before I lost my housing, I was trapped with a parent in a home that was unsafe and unsuitable for living. I spent three years parenting my own child as a minor, aware that if I were to reach out for housing supports or express fear for my safety, I could be forcibly separated from my daughter and we could both end up worse off.

By Lizzy Shoben, AA, Social Welfare, Central College of Florida. I didn’t know what to expect the first time I stepped foot in a college financial aid office, I assumed it would be the easiest part of college. Ha, joke was on me. Who knew I would be bawling in front of a stranger, telling them about one of my most humiliating and heartbreaking experiences of my life?

By Irene Sauceda, BSW, MSW Candidate, Texas State University. I walked into the counselor’s office, a place I sought out to check the status of my GPA, but this time I was called in. Curiosity raving in my heart, I walked to the back office of the counselor for the senior class. “What could a senior counselor want with me if I’m only a junior?,” I asked myself.