Youth Leadership
It can be hard to measure youth homelessness through a PiT Count. Youth are more likely to experience hidden homelessness and can be missed during unsheltered and sheltered counts. A PiT Count provides a snapshot of homelessness in a community, but it can’t provide a complete picture of homelessness in any specific group. Engaging youth to help plan and implement your count will improve the quality of your data and give youth a chance to share their experiences, knowledge, and expertise. As part of the Point-in-Time Count Toolkit, this document provides guidance to Point-in-Time (PiT) Count coordinators and youth agencies on partnering to develop youth leadership councils or advisory teams as a key element as you plan and implement your PiT Count. We include a case study on The Youth Leadership Council, a youth leadership group instrumental in planning and implementing a youth magnet event as part of the 2016 St. John’s Coordinated Count.