Big Goal, Small Question: How to engage YABs

To reach the ACI Youth Engagement Gold Standard, communities should have a youth action board (YAB) or other body of young people that is tasked with identifying issues, solutions and change ideas that the Core Team can put into action.

The ACI way of framing these conversations is sometimes technical and is not always as accessible as we might like. 

When bringing young people into this process, asking questions that allow their expertise to shine while bringing relevant information forward for the team is important. 

• Ask very broad questions if your Core Team is really stuck and needs direction. 

• Ask small, specific questions if your Core Team is focusing on a more targeted reducing improvement area.

This allows young people to articulate the parts of their experience with the homelessness system that went well and what could have been better. By answering small questions, young people will show you what it takes to achieve your Core Team’s big goals! 

Stories Vs Ideas

When engaging in this way, it is important to ask questions that invite young people to consider their lived experience to come up with solutions. Be careful to ensure that you are clear about why you want their input, and what you hope to change about the system by following their guidance. This allows young people to make an informed decision about what they do and do not want to share based on the goal of the discussion. Never ask a young person for their story without providing a concrete invitation to share their ideas. Check out Casey Family Programs Strategic Sharing guide for more tips and ideas on doing this thoughtfully!

These are some questions you could ask groups of young people to get insights into particular areas of your system and the ways they can be improved.

If you are talking about housing placements and length of time:

1. How long have you been trying to get housed? What do you feel like is the biggest roadblock that has slowed you down?

2. What ideas do you have for ways to speed this process up?

3. What actually is the process you went through to get housed? What were all the steps? Which steps took you way too long?

   1. Coach’s Hint: Asking young people these questions during process mapping will offer insight as to how the system actually operates, as opposed to how it should be operating. Learn more about involving young people in process mapping here! 

4. If you were in charge of x housing program for a week, what would you change?

5. Do you feel like all people can access housing programs easily? 

6. Have you ever been told you weren’t eligible for a housing program you wanted to get into? What was the reason? What did you think of that?

If you are talking about inflow:

1. Did the system find you first or did you have to find a way into the system?

2. Why do young people become homeless in the first place?

3. Is there something that, if it had happened before you became homeless, would have changed everything for you?

4. How did you first get connected to the homelessness system? 

5. Was it easy to get connected to the homelessness system? If there were barriers for you, what were they? Do you have thoughts about what could be done to eliminate this barrier? 

If you are talking about returns:

1. Is there something you wish your programs did while you were on the street or in a housing program that you think could’ve helped keep you from going through this again?

2. Do you feel like housing programs set young people up for success? Why or why not?

3. What things did you try after being housed again when you knew things were starting to go wrong? Did you reach back out to anyone in the system? What happened?

If you are talking about unsheltered homelessness:

1. Why do some young people feel like staying outside/car/other place is better for them than staying in shelter?

2. [Show the unsheltered chart in the ACI Data Dashboard] This is how many young people in our county are experiencing unsheltered homelessness each month according to our data - Do you think this is accurate? Why/why not?

3. Where do unsheltered people typically stay the most? 

   1. (Pro tip: pull out a map of the county and have them draw X’s on the hot spots, then compare to providers’ outreach schedules)

4. Why do people stay/park where they do?

5. What is it like to stay in x, y, or z shelter? 

6. What works about them? What doesn’t work well?

7. If you were in charge of x shelter for a week, what would you change?

8. Are different groups of people more welcome at shelter? Who?

If you are talking about disproportionality

1. Why do youth of color experience homelessness more often?

2. Why do LGBTQ young people experience homelessness more often?

3. Are all young people treated the same in x program? What differences do you notice?

4. [Show the ACI Data Dashboard on a tab that shows a disparity you want to talk about] This is what our our data is showing us each month - Why do you think this disparity is happening?

5. Where do [youth of color, LGBTQ young people] feel the most comfortable? What do they do differently from other places?

Pro-tip: Sometimes the issues with the youth homelessness system are talked about through the lens of people’s personal faults rather than the faults of the system itself. Young people can often internalize the idea that personal flaws are the reasons why they or others experience homelessness. Where possible, encourage them to think about how the system is failing, as opposed to how individuals are failing.