Youth Today News podcast: Season 1 — Episode 1
When schools closed and the states locked down against COVID-19 in March 2020, employees at organizations serving homeless youth felt a wave of panic. How would they aid students trying to attend remote school from inside a car? Or reach kids quarantining in crowded homes where money for food and rent already was stretched thin?
As COVID-19 upended their usual protocols, some nonprofits saw the tally of homeless youth they served plummet. But for other organizations across the country, the pandemic spurred innovations in how they find and serve a population whose needs were amplified and, in some ways, made more acute because of COVID-19.
A number of service providers adopted online and telephone-based options for young people to apply for housing, attend support groups and connect with case managers, mental health counselors and doctors. Other groups went in the opposite direction, delivering food and other supplies directly to youth and their families wherever they were sheltered, including in cars and motel rooms. Several organizations around the country also began experimenting with giving cash directly to young people, allowing them to determine how best to meet their own needs.
For this episode of the Youth Today News podcast, we focus on two providers in one city that responded to the pandemic in very different ways, saw the benefits of doing something new and were forever changed by it.
This podcast episode was produced in partnership with Crosscut. It is part of an ongoing series on homelessness in Washington state, made possible, in part, by support from the Raikes Foundation. Youth Today and Crosscut maintain editorial control.
Read the full story on Youth Today.
Podcast credits
Host: Patrick L. Riley
Producer/reporter: Sam Leeds
Reporter: Allegra Abramo
Story editor: Mark Baumgarten
Related videos and stories:
• Video and story: Washington state young adults often end up homeless after leaving treatment
• Video and story: Education for young people in shelters was already a challenge — then coronavirus hit
• Story: Upended by COVID-19, some nonprofits went online, on the road and otherwise innovated to aid homeless youth
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