Policy Platform

Organizational Public Policy Focus

The National Network for Youth was the architect of the federal Runaway and Homeless Youth Act (RHYA) and still considers that law today as our primary public policy accomplishment. The NN4Y will remain vigilant over the RHYA and continue to be the lead national organization dedicated to ensuring the Act’s continuation.

Our public policy work reaches far beyond the RHYA, however. The NN4Y also devotes attention to ensuring that runaway, homeless, and other disconnected youth receive full and fair access to child welfare, juvenile justice, physical health, mental health, education, workforce investment, positive youth development, and housing opportunities and supports.

Place to Call Home Campaign and Place to Call Home Act

In February 2007, the National Network for Youth launched A Place to Call Home: The National Network for Youth’s Permanency Plan for Unaccompanied Youth. As a long-term campaign to end youth homelessness, A Place to Call Home seeks to build the conditions, structures, and supports to ensure permanency for unaccompanied youth.

The Place to Call Home Act, comprehensive legislation to prevent, respond to, and end runaway and homeless situations among youth was introduced in 2007. This act offered ultimate solutions to the causal factors of unaccompanied situations among youth and included provisions in the homeless assistance, housing, child welfare, juvenile justice, public health, education, workforce investment, teen parenting, and immigration areas. Unfortunately, the Act never made it out of committee.

The Place to Call Home Act, as well as the overall Campaign, guides NN4Y’s strategy and actions and involves activities in four work areas: public policy advancement and system change; practice improvement and professional development; public awareness and stakeholder education; and research and knowledge development.