Starting Wednesday, legal advocates will be driving around Hartford to connect with homeless youth. The Center for Children's Advocacy has purchased a van to create a mobile legal aid office.
The program is the second of its kind in the nation according to The Center for Children's Advocacy, which represents kids who are abused and neglected. Stacey Violante Cote is an Attorney and Director of the center's Teen Legal Advocacy Project. She said their clients include homeless youth but there are challenges reaching them. Violante Cote said, "They often lose their minutes on their phone, have phones for short periods of time, move around quite a bit and we've always wanted to be able to go out to where these young people are." The mobile van will go to schools and other agencies to find the teens.
She said one of the reasons these youth aren't accessing vital programs and services is because they don't think of themselves as homeless. "Most of them are couch surfing, staying with friends or relatives for very short periods of time, " said Violante Cote. "And as long as they have some place to stay that night, they would not consider themselves homeless. So they are not aware that there are a whole host of legal rights that they have because they are moving around or homeless."
They have rights to an education, even attending the school they are used to despite moving out of a certain neighborhood. The teens can also qualify for childcare assistance or connecting to services offered by the state Department of Child and Families and Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services.
The pilot program, largely funded by Stamford based, Herbert and Nell Singer Foundation, will begin in Hartford with plans to expand later to the Bridgeport area.
More info at the Speak Up Teens website
