Snapshot: SPARK Initiative – Youth Supporting Youth
The SPARK Initiative has developed collaborative teams that together help locate, engage, and support youth who interacted with the child welfare system and are either homeless or at risk of homelessness. The collaborative teams include three key roles: lawyers, social workers, and peer mentors.
As of January, the peer mentors have worked with 340 homeless youth in San Francisco, Alameda, and Contra Costa counties, building relationships and connecting these young people to case management, as well as legal, housing, and mental health services. Working with youth to set realistic and achievable goals, SPARK takes a wholistic approach to the youth's circumstances while helping them obtain or maintain housing.
Data collection is a core element of the SPARK Initiative. There are currently no data sets in the Bay Area (or anywhere else) tracking the intersection of child welfare involvement and homelessness. Tipping Point’s investment will contribute to a new database, built in partnership with University of Southern California, that will offer an accurate picture of the needs of homeless foster youth and enable service providers to enhance their efforts.
As part of connecting homeless youth to services, the collaborative team’s lawyers have helped their SPARK clients leverage approximately $1 million dollars annually in federal, state, and local funds for services. The SPARK team is hoping to partner with the public sector to adopt and maintain the program into the future.
