Teen Connection will take a look at statewide efforts to aid youth who experience homelessness and provide a support network for children and young adults affected by homelessness.

On the live, call-in program, former homeless individuals will describe how they became homeless and where they turned to for help. Advocates for the homeless will inform viewers of community and government resources available to the homeless. Viewers will get an inside look at the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction’s Education for Homeless Children and Youth Program, which designates a homeless liaison in each school district to ensure homeless youth are enrolled in public school educational programs and services.

A report released last month by the National Center on Family Homelessness found 32,304 homeless children in Wisconsin in 2012-2013. The predominant causes of child homelessness in the U.S. are the high poverty rate and a lack of affordable housing. The National Center on Family Homelessness report, which also found that 1 in 30 children in the U.S. experienced homelessness in 2013, noted that while progress has been made in reducing homelessness among veterans and chronically homeless individuals, no special attention has been directed toward homeless children.

Featured guests on the program include: McKinney-Vento homeless liaisons Andrea Pasqualucci (Ashwaubenon School District) and Elizabeth Webb (Green Bay Area School District); Freedom House Ministries president Robyn Davis; former Freedom House Ministries resident Antionette Wright; University of Southern California Master of Social Work candidate Elizabeth Steffel; Brown County Human Services juvenile justice supervisor Scott Shackelford; and homeless advocate Karina O’Malley.