The National Network for Youth
October 31, 2008
Contact: Terry Modglin
tmodglin@nn4youth.org
202-492-9320 (Blackberry) 202-270-3083 (Cell)
National Network for Youth Celebrates Key Legislative Victories, Honors
Legislators for Leadership on Runaway and Youth Programs
October 30, 2008, Washington, DC. The National Network for Youth, the nation’s leading advocacy and service organization for runaway and homeless youth, is celebrating a major victory in fulfilling its members’ missions – to help more than a million youth each year overcome homelessness and similar dislocations. The Network, which consists of more than 200 member organizations, is honoring three national legislators who helped ensure that vital legislation continue its federally funded programs, which provide critical services to these youth.
Honorees include Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and Reps. Judy Biggert (R-IL) and John Yarmuth (D-KY). Senator Leahy, who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, took the lead in moving the key legislative package through the Senate and ensuring an affirmative vote to continue the programs. Reps. Biggert and Yarmuth provided leadership in the House of Representatives to ensure that the key authorizing provisions moved efficiently through the legislative process with substantial support from both parties.
Senator Leahy will be honored at the National Network’s annual symposium in Washington, DC in late January 2009. Rep. Yarmouth was honored in late October. Rep. Biggert will be honored in November, which is National Runaway Prevention Month, thanks in large measure to her efforts.
Rep. Biggert will be recognized for her national leadership in reauthorizing and strengthening the programs of the Runaway and Homeless Youth Act and other legislation to help provide for the safety and the positive futures of these youth.
The reauthorization of the Runaway and Homeless Youth Act, which Rep. Biggert helped to shepherd through the House of Representatives, renews funding and support for the hundreds of programs across the US that serve America’s most vulnerable youth through street outreach that helps to ensure youths’ safety and survival, basic centers that provide refuge from victimization, and transitional living programs that help young people move toward productive adulthoods. The great majority of the youth served by these programs are victims of physical and/or sexual abuse; many have been thrown or pushed out of their homes by their families.
Among Rep. Biggert’s other initiatives in the 110th Congress have been two pieces of legislation of special help to runaway and homeless youth. The first bill (known as the FAFSA Fix) became law in early October. It permits these youth to apply directly for college aid rather than through their families, again with adult oversight through the programs assisting them. The second, known as HEARTH (Homeless Emergency Assistance and Rapid Transition to Housing) Act, enables organizations to place homeless youth into emergency and longer-term housing facilities by waiving parental involvement but still providing adult supervision. It has passed the House and awaits Senate action, possibly in November. In addition, Rep. Biggert has served as the Co-Chair of the Congressional Caucus on Missing, Exploited, and Runaway Children, where she helps to lead bipartisan efforts to assist homeless, exploited, missing, and runaway youth.
Victoria Wagner, Chief Executive Officer of the National Network for Youth, praised Rep. Biggert’s record: “Judy Biggert is a thoughtful, constructive, and persistent advocate for our nation’s dislocated and missing youth. She has crafted and managed legislation with skill and compassion, helping more than 400 community programs across the nation to gain the Federal support and the program tools that they need to help these youth.”
Maureen Blaha, Director of the National Runaway Switchboard, which is headquartered in Chicago and is a member organization of the National Network for Youth, will join National Network Public Policy chief Terry Modglin in honoring Ms. Biggest at the Network celebration in November. Ms. Blaha observed, “Judy Biggert has consistently demonstrated her commitment to the well-being of youth who are separated from families. She is perceptive about meeting the needs for national awareness of the problem and the national and local services that help to keep these youth as safe as possible and to try to reunite them with their families.”
#
The National Network for Youth has been serving the youth of America for more than 30 years by championing the needs of runaway, homeless and other disconnected youth. It does this through advocacy, innovation and services provided by its more than 200 national and local member organizations in every state, creating neighborhoods of support for the next generation.
National Runaway Switchboard provides a 24-hour-a-day, 7-day-a-week, toll-free phone contact for young people in crisis who have left home. It offers directions and connections to area services for the youth to help ensure their safety and a program to reunite them with family or return them to a program near home that can provide assistance. |