The Beat: Self-sufficiency
Managing money can be one of the toughest skills for young people to learn as they transition to adulthood. We spoke to Karen Chan, creator of All My Money, a hands-on curriculum emphasizing money management skills for people with limited financial resources. In this two-part series, we share Chan’s tips on teaching young people about spending, saving and making good money choices.
Learning to live on what they earn and not overspend is the most important money-management concept for youth, Chan says. It’s also the most challenging for them to learn. For one thing, she says, the cost of very basic living today is beyond the income that many young people can expect to earn, at least in the short-term.
And when young people just start out earning money, it’s easy for them to have unrealistic expectations of their income and what they can afford. Youth workers can help young people set a budget and figure out how to stick to it.
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There’s often a special connection between animals and their caretakers. Penny Ellison, who directs the Hand2Paw Foundation in Philadelphia, sees it every day. Hand2Paw empowers young adults from Covenant House Pennsylvania to volunteer in local animal shelters and help care for homeless pets.
Young people help feed the animals, exercise dogs, and stock food and water. Ellison says, “I’ve seen big guys, who say they don’t like cats, melt when they feed the baby kittens.”
Youth from Covenant House feel a certain kinship with the animals, because they too are homeless, she says, and harnessing that special bond can benefit both the young people and the animals they care...
When 18-year-old Dan Wall started out as a messenger at the Seattle logistics company Expeditors in 1988, he had no intention of attending college. And he never imagined he would become the senior vice president of a Fortune 500 Company.
His bosses, CEO Peter Rose and President of Sales and Marketing Tim Barber, saw what he couldn’t see. They knew he had the right attitude to go far. He just needed training to help him gain the skills that would get him there.
Twenty years later, Wall founded Opportunity Knocks, an Expeditors job training program based on the philosophy that, like him, young people need to be given the chance to succeed. Expeditors recruits high school students who aren’t considering secondary education. But candidates possess what Walls calls the “organic” skills they need to succeed: “a positive attitude, good customer service and work ethic.”
A...
Seems like there’s never enough time to do all the things that need to be done to make the world a better place. Maybe that’s why Global Youth Service Day -- the largest and longest-running service event in the world, and the only day of service dedicated to children and youth -- is actually a weekend. Mark your calendar for April 20-22, 2012.
But don't stop there. Here are three things you can do to use Global Youth Service Day as a springboard for a year's worth of community service:
1. Help youth to plan and do a community service activity in April. Last year, NCFY talked to a Honolulu mentoring program before and after the big day to find out how their project went.
2. Learn about the best ways to...
Each year thousands of young women run away from home. To survive, some girls steal. Some sell their bodies for money or a place to stay. Many use drugs and alcohol to cope with life on the streets. Eventually, many girls end up in the juvenile justice system.
NCFY spoke with Lawanda Ravoira, director of the National Girls Institute, about how to keep homeless young women out of trouble, out of jail and engaged with programs that provide support.
NCFY: Which girls are most at risk for becoming involved in the juvenile justice system?
Ravoira: Girls become involved in the system from all over, but one of the first predictors is school failure (uneven grades, suspensions and expulsions). The other big thing is trauma. We know that 92 percent of girls entering juvenile justice have been victims of physical, sexual or emotional abuse. Girls coming into the system have much...
Q: I work with homeless youth who are applying for college and need federal financial aid. Can they apply for student loans or grants without a parent's signature?
A: Yes. Young people can fill out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA, as unaccompanied homeless youth if they
- meet the McKinney-Vento definition of homelessness (not having fixed, regular and adequate nighttime residence);
- support themselves financially; and
- are 21 years or younger or still enrolled in high school.
Young people who meet all three criteria can apply for a financial aid package based on their own income and sign their own paperwork, says Jan Moore, program specialist at the National Center for Homeless Education. “For students who cannot access...
Toward a Needs-Based Typology of Homeless Youth (abstract), Journal of Adolescent Health, Vol. 42, No. 6, June 2008.
What it’s about: Research suggests that homeless young people often need help with multiple issues before they can return home or become self-sufficient. To see what approaches might be most effective for youth based on the particular issues they face, the author studied data from a series of interviews with 422 street and shelter youth, conducted by the Oregon Research Institute between 1994 and 1997. The author specifically looked at seven risk factors, including physical and emotional abuse, drinking or drug problems, suicidal thoughts and behaviors, and involvement in crime.
Why read it: This article laid the foundation for a recent crop of research that proposes new ways to look at the varying needs of homeless...
The latest podcast from NCFY tells the story of Forrest Vest, a formerly homeless teen who got off the streets and started a youth-serving foundation in his hometown on Alaska’s Kenai Peninsula.
After winning $500 in a local youth scholarship competition, he asked his longtime family friend Debbie Michael to help him put the windfall to good use. The two partners now have a steady stream of donations and media attention, bringing their For Rest Foundation closer to its goal of establishing a shelter for runaway and homeless youth.
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Claire Thomas had just started Farms For Life, a program in Washington state that brings farm-fresh vegetables to homeless shelters and at-risk families and youth, when she made a delivery to the transitional living apartments operated by the Seattle nonprofit YouthCare. She had barely set the first box on a picnic table in the apartment complex, when a group of young residents came down and started happily eating right there.
“These were things they’d never seen before,” Thomas says. “Asian turnips, kale, mustard greens. One young woman turned to me and said, ‘You guys are growing this for us?’”
Like many runaway and homeless youth, YouthCare’s residents...
In "The State of Young America: Economic Barriers to the American Dream," the policy organization Demos and the nonprofit Young Invincibles portray the experiences of young Americans struggling to make it.
The report is based on a survey of young adults, ages 18-34. An accompanying data book describes the increasing gap between the wealthy and the poor and compares the economic status of today's young people to that of the previous generation.
The report finds that:
- Many young Americans are falling into personal debt. Forty-two percent of those under age 35 have more than $5,000 in personal debt.
- Among all young people who have seen their debt increase, school loans (42 percent), credit cards (35 percent) and medical bills (27 percent) are the most common.
- The percentage of young adults with jobs is at its lowest point in a...
