Caring for homless youths: a culturally congruent guide for volunteers

This paper examines homelessness among youth with an intent to bring awareness to this subpopulation of homeless youth, a culture of its own. Youths and adolescents are homeless for many reasons and face challenges with health issues and lack of understanding in society. Homeless youth shelters and drop-in centers are readily available in some areas, but there is a lack of resources in other areas. This has resulted in the establishment of a new homeless drop-in center. This paper describes a culturally congruent training for volunteers aimed at increasing understanding the culture of homelessness among youth. The guide emphasizes the positive impact volunteers can have with the youth after leaming new culture care skills. The anticipated outcome of this cultural care guide can be transferred to many other social and healthcare disciplines. Culturally congruent care is the essence of Madeline Leininger\u27s Culture Care theory (2002), and is used as a framework for the guide