PATHS: Preventing Youth Homelessness for Youth Aging Out of Foster Care

There’s no other feeling like being able to walk up to your door and turn your keys and open the door and say, I’m home.

– PATHS Client

At a Glance

Youth aging out of foster care face high rates of homelessness and some of the highest barriers to health and well-being in the nation. National and Wisconsin data indicate that one in three youth aging out of foster care will stay in a homeless shelter within two years of exiting the system, and 42 percent will have a homeless experience by age 21. Through further research and evaluation, this project aimed to expand an innovative model of service delivery to address youth homelessness in Wisconsin and beyond.

This project expanded the evidence base for an innovative solution to the challenges of youth homelessness that has been piloted in Milwaukee. Pathfinders, a nonprofit organization that serves youth in crisis in Milwaukee, was able to expand the program’s capacity to enroll youth in the PATHS pilot program. The PATHS program represents an innovative approach to preventing homelessness for youth aging out of foster care. Youth enrolled in the PATHS program exceeded every outcome target within the five PATHS domains: stable housing, positive connections, academic progress, training and employment, and social-emotional wellness.

The Challenge

National and Wisconsin data indicate that one in three youth aging out of foster care will stay in a homeless shelter within two years of exiting the system, and 42 percent will have a homeless experience by age 21. Homelessness itself is a danger to youth’s physical and mental health, and young people aging out of foster care already face some of the highest barriers to health and well-being. This results in a higher burden of mental illness, complex trauma, suicide attempts, substance use, chronic health conditions, HIV/STIs, exposure to violence and abuse, economic obstacles and low access to healthcare. Youth who are involved in the foster care system are disproportionately from low-income communities and communities of color, where generational traumas and structural institutional racism contribute to youth of color being disproportionately represented in the foster care system.

Project Goals

The project’s overarching goal was to expand on a pilot of an innovative model approach to preventing youth homelessness for youth aging out of foster care. The grant team aimed to support additional youth to join the PATHS supported housing program pilot. This pilot program provides stable housing and supportive, wraparound services that promote safety connectivity, healing, and overall improved outcomes for youth ages 17-21. They sought to extend the program to offer youth-centered and trauma-informed supported housing to young people who exited the foster care system into homelessness.

Results

This grant provided resources for Pathfinders to add additional housing units as critical program supplies to the PATHS pilot program, allowing them to expand the program’s capacity to enroll and support more young people, and their minor children when relevant as part of the larger cohort of the pilot. Utilizing a model that emphasized immediate housing access without preconditions (“Housing First”) informed by Positive Youth Development and trauma-informed practices, the program provided unique wraparound support to youth through stable housing, positive connections, academic support, training and employment, and social-emotional wellness to support youth’s journeys toward long-term safety, stability, and well-being. Youth enrolled in the PATHS program exceeded every outcome target within the five PATHS domains: stable housing, positive connections, academic progress, training and employment, and social-emotional wellness.

The grant team presented and shared their work with partners and the public, receiving multiple recognitions. Pathfinders was recognized as “Large Nonprofit of the Year” in Milwaukee by the BizTimes Nonprofit Excellence Awards, and their Director of Supported Housing was awarded the 2020 “Caring for Kids” Award from the State of Wisconsin Department of Children and Families. The PATHS team conducted many presentations locally and nationally, including presenting at the Family and Youth Services Bureau National Grantee Training, A Home for Everyone Regional Conference, UW-Milwaukee School of Continuing Education Trauma Conference, and eight trainings a year for the Medical College of Wisconsin’s Community Pediatrics Training Initiative about best practices in working with transition-age youth/youth aging out of foster care. The team also shared their expertise about the intersections of youth homelessness and the foster care system for many groups including local Rotary Clubs and schools, and national volunteer groups such as Dressember and Impact100.

Looking to the Future

The success of the pilot has led to the expansion of the PATHS model in Wisconsin, with increased allocation of state funding for PATHS in Milwaukee County and in northern Wisconsin, and additional awards secured by Pathfinders to double its housing efforts using PATHS as the framework. PATHS is preventing youth homelessness in high-risk populations and is helping make the case for change on a larger scale in Wisconsin, challenging traditional models of service delivery for youth aging out of foster care.

Lasting Impact

The successes of PATHS emphasized the importance of housing, and recognizes that, without it, success in any area of life becomes nearly impossible. Housing provides a platform of stability to build upon, and if the cycles of homelessness and trauma for youth who are exiting the foster care system are to be broken, there needs to be effective housing programs that invest in young people. The successes of the PATHS pilot reinforce that effective housing programs are Housing First, youth-centered, and trauma-informed. The grant team was able to gather more outcomes data to successfully make this case for the state and other funders to invest in the PATHS model of supported housing as youth homelessness prevention. The importance of strong landlord partnerships was emphasized by this success as well, and that diverse scattered site apartments are critical “program supplies”. They anticipate the impact of this model will continue to grow as they gather more outcomes beyond the pilot period and disseminate the impact of the program locally, statewide, and nationally.