The “State-Level Brief Update – A Call for Action: Participation of Young Children Experiencing Homelessness and Young Children in Foster Care in Early Childhood Programs in Pennsylvania” was released by the Pennsylvania Head Start State Collaboration Office (PA HSSCO) and HopePHL in February.
The brief update “highlights key state-level housing, education, and early childhood sector data regarding young children experiencing homelessness and it expands earlier efforts by including data related to young children in foster care. The briefing continues and broadens the discussions of earlier State Level Brief documents, and it includes in the Appendix more extensive information such as trend data and links to obtain local data.
“The brief provides templates that can be used by communities to guide data gathering and planning at the local level and concludes by posing questions to consider as efforts are made, and action is taken to ensure equitable participation of the priority populations of young children experiencing homelessness and young children in foster care in quality early childhood programs.”
The materials will play a role in continuing the conversation about the Commonwealth’s over 12,000 infants and toddlers experiencing homelessness.
LAMPa works in coalition with partners such as HopePHL and others to make Pennsylvania a place where everyone has a safe place to call home. You can take action here on two bipartisan measures pending in the Senate.
As Christians, we are called to walk alongside people experiencing homelessness and people at risk of experiencing homelessness “in their daily struggles, sufferings, and hopes,” as laid out in our ELCA social teaching that reminds us to seek “just…solutions that uphold human dignity.”
