About the Youth Action Board

Salt Lake County Youth Services Youth Action Board is a youth-driven Board, unified in preventing and ending youth homelessness. The Youth Action Board's mission is to advocate, empower, and elevate youth voices within the Salt Lake Valley Coalition to End Homelessness and Salt Lake County (SLCo), with an emphasis on bringing about change and creating avenues for partnership and collaboration. In support of its mission, the Youth Action Board's purpose is to provide youth perspective, voice, and expertise to Salt Lake County Youth Services, Salt Lake Valley Coalition to End Homelessness and the extended SLCo community.

Authentic youth collaboration is defined in our community as young people who are respected and valued for their unique perspective, experience, skills and are integrated into the decision-making process. This type of collaboration goes beyond simply giving young people a seat at the table and not having tokenistic youth engagement; it requires a genuine commitment to create an opportunity for youth to lead and take ownership of their experiences. Authentic youth collaboration in our community is a meaningful and equitable partnership between young people and adults working together to create a positive change in their community. It involves a process of engaging youth in decision-making, planning, and implementation of projects that impact their lives and the lives of those around them. It requires adults to learn from and be led by young people. Authentic youth collaboration is about empowering young people to be the change in their communities and creating a more just and equitable society for all.

Youth Action Board, 2022

The Youth Action Board's Guiding Principles are:

• Commitment to Purpose: Focused on preventing and ending youth homelessness.
• Representation: Amplifying a variety of youth perspectives.
• Authentic Collaboration: Building meaningful partnerships that empower youth leadership.
• Catalyst for Change: Bridging youth and community to foster better outcomes for all.
• Leadership and Advocacy: Promoting equity and youth-driven solutions.

Core Beliefs

• Youth voices make a difference.
• The Youth Action Board's work has a tangible impact on the community.
• Youth deserve to be heard, respected, and prioritized. 

Goals

1. Elevate Youth Voices: Ensure that youth perspectives are integrated into community discussions and decisions.
2. Raise Awareness: Highlight youth issues and needs in the community.
3. Promote Equitable Partnerships: Work with government, business, and community stakeholders to achieve equity for youth.
4. Provide Expertise: Share insights with YS and the SLVCEH.
5. Organize Community Activities: Identify and lead events addressing youth priorities.
6. Promote Continuous Improvement: Support ongoing evaluation and enhancement of youth-focused programs.

Youth leadership and youth voice are critical to the success of Youth Services. The Youth Action Board provides this opportunity. In collaboration with our community, their vision is to prevent and end youth experiencing homelessness by housing that is supportive and equitable, creating pathways of employment, education, and leadership to ensure youth experiencing homelessness is rare, brief, and nonrecurring. With an emphasis of recognizing systematic failure for youth identifying as black, indigenous, and people of color and LGBTQIA2S+.Refer to 2024 Salt Lake Youth Needs Report.

Youth Action Board provides an opportunity for youth to advocate, it gives them a voice and aids them in progressing through emerging adulthood with a sense of leadership and a focus on lived experience and youth voice. It provides an opportunity for youth to lead through a paid Peer Mentor position that requires an average of five hours of work monthly. Youth Action Board provides feedback at a monthly meeting on policies and rules for Youth Services from a youth/client perspective and collaborates with State and local partners including the SLCo Mayor as requested. Youth Action Board is actively involved in supporting and participating with the SLCo Milestone Transitional Living Program service projects and program implementation. Refer to Salt Lake Youth Housing Needs Report.

The lived experience experts of Youth Action Board, in partnership with Milestone staff, provide Milestone youth and youth in the broader community with opportunities to be involved in community service and service-learning activities. All participating youth receive education on how to become a Youth Action Board member, which provides ongoing referrals for Youth Action Board, fosters the peer mentor role, and promotes long-term youth engagement.

Youth Action Board was involved in the renovation of a Sandy Milestone Home, providing design feedback and engaging in a service project for the Ribbon Cutting and dinner on July 15, 2024. In partnership with Milestone staff and participants, Youth Action Board helped set up, decorate, present, and take down a dinner for 180 community members. The purpose of the dinner was to educate public officials and community members on the Milestone and how to duplicate the Milestone model throughout the state.

For the past two years, the Milestone and Youth Action Board have partnered with Volunteers of America, Youth Resource Center, to complete a youth-specific Point-in-Time Count. This required the Milestone and Youth Action Board leadership to attend Point-in-Time Count Work Group meetings and collaborate with Youth Resource Center administration to plan the youth count at the Youth Resource Center youth shelter, including the plan for food and activities for youth experiencing homelessness. Youth Action Board members created flyers to notify youth experiencing homelessness of the date and time of the count, collect donations, and deliver donations on the day of the event. Youth Action Board produced a youth-specific Point-in-Time Count training video, as an online education resource for the community. The Youth Action Board further improved the Point-in-Time Count and Housing Inventory Count for youth who enter the homelessness system.

Youth Action Board members have also presented at national training, to local elected officials, and to community members.

• Provide youth perspective and expertise to Youth Services and Salt Lake Valley Coalition to End Homelessness on issues that affect youth and youth experiencing homelessness in our community.
• Provide the primary communication link for youth to government, business, and the entire community on a variety of subjects and opportunities.
• Identify and advocate for the needs of youth in our community.
• Identify and carry out events and activities for the community which are important to youth.
• Promote continuous quality improvement.