Special to The Truth<\/p>\n
When families have safe, stable housing, access to high-quality early development programs, and other supports that meet their needs, young children have a strong foundation to grow. However, too many families are struggling to meet children\u2019s basic needs.<\/p>\n
Nationwide, 450,000 infants and toddlers are experiencing homelessness. Among them, 70,000 were born to mothers who experienced homelessness within 12 months of giving birth. \u201cToo often, homelessness for infants and toddlers is \u2018invisible\u2019 \u2014 a newborn sleeping in a different place every week, a toddler cycling between couches \u2014 while families still can\u2019t easily access child care, early intervention, shelter, housing or other services that support healthy development,\u201d said Barbara Duffield, executive director of SchoolHouse Connection. \u201cThese data show that homelessness among infants and toddlers is everywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n
Advocates say that building a coordinated, holistic support system for infants, toddlers, expectant parents, and their families that unites the early childhood, housing and homelessness sectors can ultimately prevent homelessness in the first place. This means:<\/p>\n
\u201cHomelessness during pregnancy or within the first three years of a child\u2019s life has lifelong consequences on physical health and mental well-being,\u201d said Jamie Colvard, senior policy and systems director at Zero To Three. \u201cWe can\u2019t overstate how important it is for partners to come together to address homelessness and housing instability among young children and their families.\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s where initiatives like Thrive From the Start are making a difference. Thrive From the Start is a cross-sector national network offering actionable, evidence-based recommendations for federal, state and local leaders. Among the organizations involved are Housing Is, the National Collaborative for Infants & Toddlers, Prevent Child Abuse America, SchoolHouse Connection and Zero To Three. The network recently announced that 10 state teams have each been awarded $100,000 to educate key constituencies in their state and localities about the impact of homelessness and housing instability on babies, infants and their families.<\/p>\n
\u201cChildren are at greatest risk for experiencing homelessness during their first year of life and the number of families in homeless shelters is rising. There is a prevalence of housing instability and homelessness among pregnant people and families with young children, but it is often less visible and in people\u2019s minds compared to other populations,\u201d said Abra Lyons-Warren, director of Housing Is.<\/p>\n
For more information about these efforts, and to learn how coordinated action can help solve the homelessness crisis, visit thrivefromthestart.org.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know that when we alleviate chronic stress\u2014a contributor of child abuse and neglect \u2014 we can foster healthy and stable environments for families,\u201d said Catherine Murphy, senior research manager, Prevent Child Abuse America. \u201cBy partnering across sectors at the local, state and national levels, we can build a more supportive system for families and prevent homelessness for our youngest children.\u201d<\/p>\n
Courtesy StatePoint<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Special to The Truth When families have safe, stable housing, access to high-quality early development programs, and other supports that meet their needs, young children have a strong foundation to grow. However, too many families are struggling to meet children\u2019s basic needs. Nationwide, 450,000 infants and toddlers are experiencing homelessness. Among them, 70,000 were born […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"wf_post_folders":[330],"class_list":["post-18251","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18251","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18251"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18251\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18252,"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18251\/revisions\/18252"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18251"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18251"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18251"},{"taxonomy":"wf_post_folders","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wf_post_folders?post=18251"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}