This report serves as an account of the 2014 Massachusetts Youth Count initiative. The Youth Count initiative was a project of the Massachusetts Special Commission on Unaccompanied Homeless Youth (Commission) meant to more fully inform the scope and nature of homelessness among unaccompanied youth in the Commonwealth. The 18 Continuums of Care (CoC) in Massachusetts served as the implementing bodies for the Youth Count, though this report is not intended to detail every aspect of each of their efforts. Rather, this report provides a summary of efforts in each of the key planning and implementation components with examples of notable successes or challenges. Aggregate results from the Youth Count are provided in order to offer a statewide picture of the scope of unaccompanied youth homelessness. Data from the point-in-time (PIT) census count and survey are included to help demonstrate the need for further development of the Youth Count initiative. Thorough analysis of the results from the Youth Count for each geographic region will be left to individual CoCs. This report concludes with a set of policy recommendations for the Commission to consider for improving future counts.
Click here to read this report.