This page provides resources and guidance around By Name List Scorecard questions 2A, 3A and 4:
2a) Does your homelessness system partner with, and have specific protocols for coordinating with other key systems to quickly and accurately identify young people within those systems who are experiencing homelessness including: Your child welfare system
3a) Does your homelessness system partner with, and have specific protocols in place for coordinating with other key systems to ensure that young people in those systems experiencing homelessness are added to your by-name list, including: Your child welfare system
4) Is your community able to track young people exiting the foster care system without stable housing and to ensure that those individuals are added to your by-name list if they are experiencing homelessness?
Example Protocols and MOUs:
Questions to Consider:
Are young people experiencing homelessness and/or housing instability in the child welfare system quickly identified as such?
How would they be identified and by who?
Once identified, what process does your local office follow to stabilize housing?
How would the homelessness system be utilized? What would the impact on data collection on the YBNL be?
What protocols or policies already exist between local partners in the child welfare system and homelessness system?
How could this partnership be formalized? What would need to happen and who would need to be involved?
How does your local child welfare system define homelessness and does it align with the definition above? What is the impact on what is known/unknown in the homelessness system?
Does your community have clear protocols in place to coordinate with the Child Welfare System to identify YYA who are experiencing homelessness?
Who has the most influence over this being a yes?
What things are already happening to turn this into a yes?
Actions to Consider:
Meet with your local Independent Living Program provider, local DCYF Regional Coordinator, and ACI Coordinator to discuss this question and action plan as needed.
Meet with your local Extended Foster Care to discuss this question and action plan as needed.
Meet with your local Foster Care Liaison/DCYF Contact through OSPI to discuss this question and action plan as needed.
Ask young people with experience in the foster care system what they think about this question, and how they would go about answering it. Who would they talk to? What questions would they have? What do they think is working/not working? Get support from your local Youth Advisory Board, Mockingbird Society Chapter, etc.
Foster Care Exits
Example Protocols and MOUs:
Spokane Example Protocol for DCYF and ILP
Washington State Dept. of Commerce Resources for YYA Exiting Foster Care
Questions to Consider:
How would a young person in your local foster care system access housing resources? Where would they go, and who would they talk to?
Is this information being captured on your YBNL? Why or why not?
What housing resources already exist in your community for young people exiting foster care? How are these resources connected (or not) to your YBNL?
Who has the most influence over this being a yes?
What things are already happening to turn this into a yes?
Actions to Consider:
Meet with your local Independent Living Program provider, local DCYF Regional Coordinator, and ACI Coordinator to discuss this question and action plan as needed.
Meet with your local Extended Foster Care to discuss this question and action plan as needed.
Develop a referral process between your ILP and homeless services system to ensure YYA who are exiting foster care and experiencing homelessness are swiftly and accurately connected to housing resources.