No Youth Alone

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No Youth Alone

• Working for the Human Rights of Illinois
  Homeless Youth

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What is the No Youth Alone Campaign ?

• A collaboration of allies and advocates concerned
  about youth homelessness in Illinois
• An effort to secure 15 million from the State of
  Illinois to substantially increase housing,
  education and transitional jobs for unaccompanied
  homeless youth
• An activist campaign involving affected youth to
  raise awareness about the human rights of
  homeless youth in Illinois

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House Bill 4455

• Would increase funding for homeless youth
  programs by 7 million
• 5 million to double the number of beds
  throughout the state for homeless youth AND
• 2 million to create pilot transitional jobs
  programs to serve homeless youth

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House Bill 2210

• Will provide an additional 8 million for
  educational services for homeless school-age
  children.
• This extra funding will
• Help school districts facilitate enrollment,
  attendance, and success in school for homeless
  kids
• Provide additional transportation services
• Ensure each school district has a well-trained
  homeless liaison and
• Provide extra monies for teachers, social
  services, after school and tutoring programs for
  homeless students.

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Endorsers
Chicago Alternatives, Inc. Blue Sky Inn Chicago
Alliance to End Homelessness Heartland
Alliance/Mid-America Institute on Poverty Hull
House/Emerge La Casa Norte New Phoenix Assistance
Center Public Action for Change Today (PACT) Teen
Living Programs The Night Ministry, and HELLO (a
Homeless Youth Activism Group) Unity Parenting
and Counseling Chicagoland area/suburbs Aunt
Martha's Youth Service Center, Oak Forest Aunt
Marthas (TIPS), Riverdale Community Crisis
Center, Elgin Dominican University Graduate
School of Social Work, River Forest DuPage
Housing Action Coalition Outreach Community
Ministries/Wheaton Youth Outreach YMCA of
Metropolitan Chicago/YMCA Network
Downstate Association for Individual
Development, Aurora Project Oz, Bloomington
SIRSS, Carbondale Youth Service Bureau,
Springfield Statewide Illinois
Collaboration on Youth (ICOY)
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The Universal Declaration of Human Rights

• Everyone has the right to a standard of living
  adequate for the health and well-being of himself
  and of his family, including food, clothing,
  housing and medical care, and necessary social
  services..
• Article 25(1) (1948)

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Sources of Human Rightsfor Youth

• Charter of the United Nations
• Universal Declaration of Human Rights
• Convention on the Rights of the Child (U.S.
  signed1995, not yet ratified)
• Convention on Economic, Social and Cultural
  Rights
• Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of
  racial Discrimination
• Charter of the Organization of American States

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Special Protection for Children

• United Nations children shall enjoy special
  protection and shall have the right to
  adequate housing
• UN Declaration on the Rights of the Child
  Principles 2 and 3 (1959)
• To the maximum extent of available resources,
  governments should ensure children an adequate
  standard of living, continuous improvement of
  living, housing conditions
• UN Sub-Commission On Prevention of
  Discrimination and Protection of Minorities
  Resolution On Children and The Right to Adequate
  Housing

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Convention on the Rights of the Child

• State Parties in accordance with national
  conditions and within their means shall take
  appropriate measure to assist parents and others
  responsible for the child to implement this right
  to an adequate standard of living and shall in
  the case of need provide material assistance and
  support programmes, particularly with regards to
  nutrition, clothing and housing.
• Article 27(3)

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Education

• Adolescents have a human right to education and
  to an adequate standard of living, health and
  freedom from violence and harassment. UN
  Commission on Human Rights Resolution on the The
  Plight of Street Children (1994)
• Schools must be readily accessible and must
  search for those adolescents who have dropped out
  or are excluded. UN General Assembly Resolution
  A World Fit for Children

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Implementing Human Rights

• Governments have the obligation with others to
  progressively realize these rights
• Special measures must be taken to protect
  adolescents and to support and prepare them for
  their own lives
• Resources must be allocated to fulfill these
  rights
• By Resolution the UN General Assembly has vowed
  to end child poverty in a single generation. A
  World Fit for Children (2002)

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SODo YOU think Illinois is violating the human
rights of homeless youth?

• WHY???

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Illinois

• No Youth Alone is a campaign
• that seeks a greater realization
• of these human rights for the
• children and youth of Illinois
• 25,000 homeless adolescents in Illinois lack
  these basic rights and are consigned to the
  desperate life of street children unless we
  obtain additional resources for education,
  housing, and job preparation

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Illinois

• Currently only 318 state-funded beds for youth.
• Last year 3,088 requests for services were denied
  due to lack of resources (52 were turned away.
• Only a handful of Illinois more than 800 school
  districts receive federal funding to serve
  homeless students.
• Currently only 3 million a year
• It is estimated that approximately 60,000 school
  age children are homeless in IllinoisBUT
• ONLY 22,321 are identified and served by school
  districts.

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Ways to Talk Human Rights

• Assert these rights as you would other legal
  obligations
• Appeal to the legislators sense of principles
• Refer to number of homeless adolescents and their
  condition as shocking, embarrassing for IL,
  implicating human rights
• Link the campaign to the UN Millennium goals
• Link the campaign and the Human Right to housing
  to the From Poverty to Opportunity Campaign
  (campaign to halve extreme poverty in Illinois by
  2015)
• Refer to the Campaigns goals as modest and
  necessary to progressively work towards human
  rights of youth

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Why A Human Rights Message Is Important!

• Makes people take things more seriously- Human
  Rights are reinforced by international laws and
  treaties.
• Connects us with an international community.
• Starts people thinking about holding our own
  government (including state and local)
  accountable for human rights.
• Appeals to peoples aspirations of creating a
  fair and just society for all. The aspiration to
  protect the rights of all people.
• Connects us with other people, communities and
  organizations fighting for basic human rights for
  all (such as civil, political, economic, social
  and cultural rights).

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Quick Resources

• Homeless children are forced into a precarious
  existence on the streets. This not only violates
  their right to adequate housing, but also
  threatens their right to personal security, their
  right to education even their right to life.
• Defending the Housing Rights of Children
• Center on Housing Rights and Evictions
• June 2006
• Go to www.chicagohomeless.org for a link to this
  report

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More Resources

• Convention on the Rights of the Child can be
  found at
• www.unhchr.ch/html/menu3/b/k2crc.htm
• Intl Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural
  Rights
• www.unhchr.ch/html/menu3/b/a_cescr.htm
• Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of
  Racial Discrimination
• www.unhchr.ch/html/menu3/b/d_icerd.htm
• Universal Declaration of Human Rights
• www.un.org/Overview/rights.html
• General Comment 4 on the Right to Adequate
  Housing
• www.unhchr.ch/tbs/doc.nsf/0/469f4d91a9378221c12563
  ed0053547e?OpenDocument