Posts By: Sondra Lehmann

The Houston Alumni & Youth (HAY) Center, a program of Harris County Protective Services (HCPS) that provides services to foster youth transitioning to adulthood, is unique among TNOYS members. That’s because it is a public-private partnership that relies on both county and private funding. According to Joel Levine, executive director of HCPS, that is key… Read more »

Here at TNOYS, we’re excited to see momentum growing around the effort to better understand and address homelessness among young people. For many people, the laws that apply to unaccompanied, homeless or runaway youth can seem vague and complicated, making it sometimes difficult to find solutions to help them access basic services. Last month, TNOYS’… Read more »

  Working to secure a successful future for young people can be inspiring, rewarding, fun – and also challenging. In a state as vast as Texas, it’s not always easy for youth services professionals to feel connected to colleagues in other communities, or to the legislators who are making important policy decisions that impact their… Read more »

Yesterday, TNOYS released a process evaluation report sharing findings and recommendations from our work on Youth Count Texas!, the first-ever statewide count of youth experiencing homelessness in our state. One of the key findings of the report is that young people facing housing instability have different needs and behaviors than their adult counterparts, requiring unique… Read more »

Texas Network of Youth Services sees youth as resources, not as problems to be fixed, and we’re not alone. Increasingly, service providers are beginning to realize that youth and their families often know best what they need and how to make services work for them. One of the pillars of our work at TNOYS is… Read more »

  It’s been an exciting time for young people across the state who returned to school this week, kicking off a new year of learning and opportunity. But for those among them who are currently experiencing homelessness, going back to school is just one of the situations where a lack of housing can sometimes present challenges…. Read more »

  What better way to bring people together than with the power of music? That’s how we ended this year’s conference, reinforcing our “Stronger Together” theme and sending everyone home energized and excited.   Patrick “Pac Man” Perez injected a dose of energy into the closing keynote session by leading the crowd through different generations’ signature… Read more »

  Our conference theme – “Stronger Together” — was in full force today, as we were joined by more than 100 young adults and their family members for the start of the youth and family track. This is the first time we’ve included youth in the conference and it was a huge success, reinforcing just… Read more »

  Phew! Day 1 of TNOYS’ 33rd annual conference was jam-packed with exciting, educational and motivational speakers and workshops that truly embodied this year’s conference theme, “Stronger Together.”   The day started off with the inspiring – and entertaining – opening keynote speaker Tara Brown (also known as The Connection Coach). She challenged the audience… Read more »

  Anyone who’s been to the TNOYS annual conference knows it’s full of energizing, eye-opening presentations and lots of great opportunities to connect with colleagues from across the state. Who can forget the dancing (and singing) along with closing keynote Nina Rodriguez last year? But for our 33rd year of the event, coming up August… Read more »