ANNOUNCING
The 2023 Youth Advocacy Fellowship
About This Initiative
The PSY Youth Advocacy Fellowship builds on PSY’s mission to end youth homelessness by prioritizing housing and care solutions that have proven success rates, such as direct cash transfers and peer navigation interventions.
The goal of the Youth Advocacy Fellowship is to increase the capacity of youth leaders to participate in, and ultimately lead, local and national policy advocacy campaigns as it pertains to innovative, affirming, and youth-driven solutions to homelessness, particularly direct cash transfers (DCTs) and supportive services like peer navigation. DCT is a growing movement that works to end youth homelessness by placing money, power, and resources into the hands of young people and providing optional wraparound supportive services that youth can define and use in the ways that best meet their needs and self-defined goals.
Applications are now Closed
Selection of the 15 advocates is expected to be announced by the beginning of early August, with an initial welcome meeting taking place in September 2023 (after Labor Day).
who Is This For?
PSY is seeking applicants committed to building and advocating for creative, youth-led initiatives and youth-led solutions addressing housing and healthcare that meet the needs of their communities.
Eligible Youth Advocates/Leaders must meet the following criteria:
Be a young leader aged 18-30
Be located in the U.S. or a U.S. territory.
Be driven by community organizing and supporting HIV, housing, and youth-serving organizations in their community
Priority consideration will be given to applicants who live in Southern and/or Rural communities, identify as QTBIPOC, and have compassion for advocacy and policy support for grassroots HIV or housing organizations.
How the Fellowship Works
The PSY Youth Advocacy Fellowship will provide one-year advocacy grants of up to $10,000 to up to 15 QTBIPOC youth and leaders. PSY will support fellows by:
1.
Providing training in basic civics and government, how public policy gets developed, budget appropriations, history of activism around housing/homelessness, and HIV activist histories.
2.
Working together to develop an advocacy plan/campaign to boost HIV-impacted youth knowledge, engagement, and interest in housing interventions in direct cash transfers and peer navigation.
3.
Educating fellowship members on pathways to career options in policy advocacy work including community organizing/mobilization, policy/legislative advocacy, digital organizing, and narrative & communications work.
“Housing instability is one of the major predictors of vulnerability to HIV, particularly for LGBTQ+ youth. While the federal HOPWA program exists to support housing for people living with HIV, it's underfunded, hard to navigate, and doesn't help people who are not living with HIV. We hope our Youth Advocacy Fellowship will create a new pipeline of young policy advocates to help systems create new and innovative housing solutions for young people living with, and most impacted by HIV.”
— Kenyon Farrow,
VP, Policy, Point Source Youth
This initiative presented by Point Source Youth is supported by ViiV Healthcare’s
Positive Action Community Grant Program