“Do not give up on us”: listening the voices of young people experiencing homelessness

In Scotland, 28% of all homelessness applications are from young people between 16 and 25 years old. There are multi and complex needs affecting both, the young person and their families. Policies to improve care of vulnerable and marginalized groups highlight the challenges to make services more integrated to deliver accessible, simultaneous, person-centred and equitable support. However, being young and homeless is an increased reality with those in this situation being considered ‘hard to reach’ in the view of practitioners from different sectors. This paper presents a knowledge exchange programme on youth homelessness that aimed to explore new ways to co-design collaborative and integrated services with and for young people affected by homelessness. Through a reflexive mapping approach for health and social care integration the voices of these youth were incorporated using elements of arts, music and theatre of the oppressed. Respecting and facilitating their own way of communication, this programme legitimated their knowledge and beliefs to identify what is meaningful to them in terms of the right to receive interconnected types of support at the right time of their journey. The findings set up recommendations on main principles to guide the work with young people and to improve youth homelessness service provision.