Annotated Bibliography: Teen Homelessness in Utah

Our group is focusing on Teen Homeliness. With a focus on; Homelessness, Hunger, and Poverty. With a
plan to promote awareness and information to help those that are able to fight this epidemic. No youth in
America should have to call the streets home. Here in Utah we have a plethora of outreach programs,
shelters, and many other options for the homeless. Our mission is to be able to help inform the public
about these programs in an order to raise awareness, and lower the amount of youth we have in and on
our streets. Homelessness can derive from many different situations. Including, but not limited to;
religion, sexual orientation, money, violence in the home, addiction, and mental health. There are many
resources in Utah, but we still struggle with an epidemic, and growing problem in our streets. The V.O.A.
is one such source in Utah that is helping to educate, inform, and help those in need. They have many
outlined ideas and areas from which they reach out.
VOA, Strengthening Relationships While Reducing Behavior Problems At:
http://www.voaut.org/youth-mental-health#sthash.rnkonVHU.dpuf, 2016 Volunteers of America
The VOA or Volunteers of America (Utah), is a local chapter of the larger group aimed at
creating awareness, education and understanding of homelessness. Their slogan Helping
Americas most vulnerable targets youth in the streets, and getting to the route of the issue by
preventions, and also aiding and helping those that are already victims of the streets.
After reading through the material in their section Strengthening relationships, you can see that
the VOA places a great deal of emphasis on not only helping those that are homeless, but
avoiding the issue all together by combating the issues that cause homelessness. They also
offer aide for those that seek, and or need counseling for such conditions as; significant family
changes, psychosocial stressors, emotional or behavior problems, abuse or neglect, mood and
anxiety disorders, low self-esteem, trauma-related symptoms, engages in risky or self-harming
behaviors or threatens suicide.

The Road Home, Myths about Homelessness The Road Home,

http://www.theroadhome.org/FAQ/myths-about-the-road-home/ 2016 The Road Home

The Road Home is a Utah based organization that is aimed at helping the chronically homeless
get started on their road home. This stems from many issues, and includes a large number of
youth in their programs. In their address of Myths about Homelessness they debunk many
myths and stigmas about homelessness in Utah.
For example, Myth #5 All homeless people are alike. Reality: Just like no two people are alike,
the same is true for the homeless community. People experiencing homelessness fall into one of
three categories: situational, episodic or chronic. Situational homelessness can occur when a
family or individual is displaced from their home due to circumstances such as behavior or
evictions. People experiencing episodic homelessness fall in and out of homelessness. Chronic
homelessness is defined as either living in shelters or public places for at least the past year, or
having had at least four episodes of homelessness in the past three years. Regardless of the
category, the solution remains the same- housing. A great look into the stigma about
homelessness in Utah.

H.O.S.T. Homeless Outreach Service Team, Turn Spare Change into Real Change,
http://www.slchost.org/ 2016, HOST, Pamela J. Atkinson Foundation

H.O.S.T., aka, Homeless Outreach Service Team is a local Utah organization aimed at getting
rid of panhandling for the purpose of putting the spare change we hand the homeless into
proper use, rather than it going to other outside areas of personal and recreational aide.
As the mission states, HOST is a proactive and collaborative effort to move the community in
Salt Lake City, into a partnership with the police and homeless service providers to connect
homeless individuals with social services and resources. 100% of donations go to the Pamela J.
Atkinson foundation and are dispersed to local homeless services providers that provide help for
those that need it most. Know where your money goes and turn, spare change into real change.

Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neuroscience, University of Chicago, Chicago,

IL, USA. The mental and physical health of homeless youth Child Psychiatry Hum Dev. 2012
Jun;43 (3):354
The Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neuroscience, is a group that focuses on clinical
and educational issues that face our communities. They have done a lot of research into
homelessness amongst youth in America, this an abstract view of their findings.
This abstract review of homelessness in the U.S. discusses the difficulties in studying this
population due to inconsistent definitions of what it actually means to be a homeless youth. They
find that in their studies, the current body of research indicates that abuse, family breakdown,
and disruptive family relationships are common contributing factors to youth homelessness. The

feeling is that though some of these issues can be resolved, and or may be short lived, the
lasting effects of stress on development and functionality may be affected.

Do Something .org, 11 Facts About Homeless Teens National Alliance to End

Homelessness, 2012. Web Accessed February 18, 2015.
Do something .org is an online take action campaign organization. Their goal is to promote
awareness, and to educate people to help with causes, and issues facing our communities.
The facts listed are targeted to get people motivated to do something. They urge us to get
involved and to start making a difference. With such facts like, Some homeless children and
youth are with their families. In 2014, however, 45,205 were unaccompanied. and, About
80% of homeless youth (aged 12-21) use drugs or alcohol as a means to self-medicate to deal
with the traumatic experiences and abuse they face. These will help the reader to see the facts
up close and personal. Letting them see how difficult this can be.