The “State-Level Brief Update – A Call for Action” continues Pennsylvania’s discussion on the Commonwealth's 12,000+ infants and toddlers experiencing homelessness.
The paper is brought to you by the Pennsylvania Head Start State Collaboration Office and HopePHL, in partnership with Grace Whitney, PhD. The Update highlights key state-level housing, education, and early childhood sector data regarding young children experiencing homelessness, including data specific to infants and toddlers, and it expands earlier efforts by including data related to young children in foster care.
It continues to be critical to understand the experience of ‘home’ for each child throughout their earliest years, to address any risks and to support and strengthen protective factors that ensure their health, development, and later school success. The brief points out that while data is available on infants and toddlers identified as experiencing risks related to housing, particularly those meeting McKinney-Vento homeless criteria, data continue to be confusing and incomplete. This makes it difficult to tell their story in advocacy efforts.
So, the Call to Action is to connect systems, work together, share what works and partner with one another to address any barriers to the housing, education, and early childhood services designed to be protective in their lives and the lives of their families.
This Call to Action is for those working in the housing, education, and early childhood sectors in communities across the Commonwealth to refine and align the data and give babies a loud voice in all of the rooms where priorities are set and policies are made!
You can find the full report here.
