Family Conflict & Violence

Youth experiencing homelessness and youth who have runaway consistently identify family conflict as the primary reason for homelessness and they experience more conflict at home than their peers.¹ For example, a youth’s school problems, pregnancy, and substance use have been identified as primary risk factors for family conflict or disagreement.²

• Interviews with 215 young people (ages 13–25) in five U.S. counties found that most youth identify their first spell of homelessness growing out of volatile or unsafe family contexts that continually evolve and erupted into parental rejection, getting kicked out, or fleeing family conflict.³
• Of young people (ages 14–21) served by the Runaway and Homeless Youth Street Outreach program, seven of 10 reported they could not go home, with the biggest reason being their parents’ unwillingness to have them return or the existence of family conflict.⁴

Family interventions use prevention, reunification, and reconnection efforts to minimize family conflict and violence include family and individual therapy, parent education about adolescent development, assessment of family issues, conflict mediation and resolution services, and referrals to community-based supports.⁵

Resources

Homelessness Programs and Resources 
The Homeless and Housing Resource Center, supported by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, shares state-of-the-art knowledge and promising practices to prevent and end homelessness through the following: 

• Training and technical assistance 
• Publications and materials 
• Online learning opportunities 
• Networking and collaboration 

Family Violence Prevention and Services Act (FVPSA) 
The FVPSA funds the federal response system to ensure vital crisis services and shelters are available to individuals experiencing domestic or dating violence and their dependents. The Office of Family Violence Prevention and Services (OFVPS) administers FVPSA funding and grant programs to implement statutorily required services for the purposes of the following: 

• Providing immediate shelter and supportive services for individuals experiencing domestic or dating violence and their dependents 
• Increasing public awareness and primary prevention of domestic and dating violence 
• Operating a national domestic violence hotline 
• Providing specialized services to abused parents and their children  

Providing technical assistance and training relating to domestic and dating violence to local public agencies, nonprofit organizations, tribal organizations, and others, including the establishment of state domestic violence coalitions and national resource centers Through its grant programs, OFVPS puts the power to effectively address the prevalence of domestic violence into the hands of the community and supports their efforts to strengthen community-based services, while also funding prevention and public awareness efforts. These programs provide both a safe haven and an array of supportive services to intervene when help is needed and to prevent abuse. FVPSA grant programs include the following: 

• Native American Tribes Formula Grants 
• State and Territory Domestic Violence Coalitions Grants 
• Specialized Services to Abused Parents and Their Children 
• Training and Technical Assistance Resource Centers Grants 
• National Domestic Violence Hotline Grant 
• StrongHearts Native Helpline 
• Abused Deaf, DeafBlind & Hard of Hearing Services  
• Love is Respect. This project of The Hotline is tailored for young people as an initiative that engages, educates, and empowers young people to prevent and end dating abuse. It was established in 2007 (as the teen dating abuse helpline) in response to the national discourse about the need for prevention services, especially among teens. Their work is youth centered and based on real-life experiences. 

FVPSA RHY Relationship Violence Toolkit   
This toolkit was developed by and for advocates in the runaway and homeless youth (RHY) and domestic and sexual assault (DV/SA) fields to help programs better address relationship violence with runaway and homeless youth. The toolkit organizes information, resources, tips, and tools drawn from the wealth of information gathered when the two service systems were convened through local collaborative projects funded by the Family and Youth Services Bureau of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. 

National Human Trafficking Hotline
The OTIP funds the National Human Trafficking Hotline, a 24/7, confidential, multilingual resource that provides information and service referrals to emergency shelters, transitional housing, and long-term housing for people at risk for, currently experiencing, or who have experienced human trafficking. 

References