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Advocacy Archives
December 7, 2007 -- Advocacy Report - December 2007
As a result of her work with the New York City Association of Homeless and Street Involved Youth Organizations, the Director of the Advocacy Department has been elected onto the Steering Committee for the Association. As a member of the Steering Committee, the Director of Advocacy will have the opportunity and ability to assist the Association in the creation, planning, and oversight of their advocacy agenda, upcoming events, and structure of membership meetings as they pertain to issues affecting homeless, runaway, and street involved youth. As a first endeavor, the Director of Advocacy has met with representatives from the Urban Justice Center and Safe Horizon to begin to strategize an advocacy agenda surrounding the issues and difficulties faced by youth as they attempt to obtain New York State Identification. New York State Senator Thomas K. Duane visited Covenant House New York and met with several members of the senior management team including the Executive Director, the Associate Executive Director, the Director of Program Operations, and the Director of Advocacy. Senator Duane discussed with us ways in which his office may be able to assist us in opening lines of communications with other local elected officials, among other things. He is a great supporter of Covenant House, and is eager to continue to work with us. He has also put in a request on our behalf to the State for some capital appropriations monies. For the second year in a row, Brooklyn Councilman and Chair of the City’s Youth Services Committee, Lewis A. Fidler, attended and spoke at the 17th Annual Covenant House Candlelight Vigil for Homeless Youth. Councilman Fidler spoke of the City Council’s continued commitment to improve the state of homeless youth in New York City. The Advocacy Department participated in two New York City Council oversight hearings. The first was a Youth Services Committee hearing on the topic of Disconnected Youth and Workforce Development/Job Readiness. Testimony was presented by the Department of Youth and Community Development and a variety of agencies speaking to what resources were available for disconnected youth as it pertained to assisting them in obtaining employment. The second hearing was a joint hearing between the Youth Services and the Mental Health Committees on the topic of Runaway and Homeless Youth’s Access to Mental Health Services. Covenant House New York’s Director of Mental Health testified at this hearing in regards to the lack of age appropriate services and supportive housing beds for this population. According to testimony from the Department of Youth and Community Development and the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, 152 supportive housing beds will be made available for youth in the coming year. Our Advocacy Attorney brought in a group from the CUNY School of Law Immigrant and Refugee Rights Clinic to present a “Know Your Rights” workshop at our Queens Community Resource Center. Clients were able to learn the answers to important immigration questions, and had the opportunity to speak one on one with legal advocates. Our attorney also conducted two successful staff trainings entitled “An Overview of the Advocacy Department” and “Youth Aging Out of Foster Care”.
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