BACKGROUND

Lasting social change occurs only when solutions to community challenges are developed in partnership with and leadership from those who are most impacted. The Youth and Young Adult (YYA) Collective Funding Pool (The YYA Pooled Fund) is setting a new path for investing in the homeless response system, one led by young people with lived expertise, in partnership with funders and providers. Building on the momentum of the two-year, $15 million federally funded Youth Homelessness Demonstration Project (YHDP), the YYA Pooled Fund is a collaborative, youth-led effort towards a more effective system for serving YYA experiencing homelessness in Los Angeles. The YYA Pooled Fund’s efforts complement the YHDP process by allocating $1.6M (for Round 1) in flexible private philanthropic funding to support compensated youth collaboration, as well as to create housing and services projects joined with capacity-building technical assistance for small organizations, focusing on agencies and projects that are not eligible or appropriate for YHDP funding. Such support could include organizations that applied for YHDP funds but were not successful due to low capacity or eligibility issues, as well as projects that focus on populations not included in YHDP’s target population and/or projects that include critical innovative components that are not yet eligible uses of YHDP funds.

In addition to youth leadership from the LA Emissary, Round 1 project collaborators include Cedars-Sinai, Center for Strategic Partnerships, Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, Housing Justice Collective, Los Angeles County Office of the CEO’s Homeless Initiative, Lens Co, Shelter Partnership, True Colors United, and Watson Consulting Group.

PURPOSE & PROCESS

The work of the YYA Pooled Fund is led by youth with lived experience and includes ongoing conversations and collaboration among grantees and funders, bolstering the movement towards a system that works for youth, designed so that homelessness is rare, brief, and nonrecurring. This RFP and its prioritization, scoring, and ongoing reporting processes have been developed and administered by youth. Lessons learned encourage youth-led decision-making and leadership practices related to funding stewardship and YYA homeless services delivery and inform future year funding for Cycle 2 and beyond with the overall aim of driving systemic change and innovation that can meaningfully impact homelessness among YYA in Los Angeles County.