Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, Community Based Organizations (CBOs) have responded quickly and nimbly to ensure Black, Indigenous, and other people of color who have been most impacted have access to timely and accurate information in multiple languages, tests and vaccines, food, internet, and so much more. These organizations are essential partners, trusted by the people they serve, who have taken on public health work that often goes beyond their core missions and programming because their communities need it.
Youth involved in the legal system are much more likely to experience housing insecurity. In turn, youth who are homeless are much more likely to be incarcerated. These facts are so well documented that they’re truisms. What’s less established is how we interrupt carceral cycles so that homelessness is never the result for young people in the legal system.