TNOYS Listens to and Learns from 300+ Youth, Young Adults, and Providers to Guide 2025 Texas Legislative Session Advocacy

The 89th Texas Legislative Session kicks off in January, and TNOYS has been hard at work building a policy agenda that reflects the real needs and challenges that Texas youth, young adults (YYA), and the providers who serve them face every day. Throughout 2024, our team powered multiple initiatives to listen to and learn from communities on the ground, ultimately engaging over 300 YYA and professionals. Their valuable insights are informing our cross-systems, youth-focused policy agenda, which TNOYS plans to release in late November.

A key initiative this year was the TNOYS Town Hall event series, developed thanks to support from Episcopal Health Foundation. TNOYS traveled to and hosted Town Halls in Waco, Lufkin, Houston, Beaumont, Austin, and Fort Worth, drawing high attendance in each community with a total of 215 engaged participants. In keeping with TNOYS’ values, the event series was wholly guided by authentic youth-adult partnership and centered YYA at every step of the process. TNOYS Young Adult Leadership Council (YALC) members co-facilitated each event and influenced the events’ structure. What’s more, youth and young adults with lived experience participated in the Town Halls alongside providers to ensure young people who have lived the issues are true partners in policy solutions.

Participants at each event arrived engaged and ready to share their observations from the field and on the frontlines, as well as their ideas for solutions that can advance positive systems change. TNOYS came away with a range of valuable insights from across the seven youth-serving systems: health and behavioral health, child welfare, housing and homelessness services, justice, education, workforce, and victim/ survivor services. Highlights include:

• The need for more age-appropriate housing options, supports, and services for youth and young adults who are experiencing vulnerable to homelessness, including:
  • Shelter and housing options for youth under 18 experiencing homelessness without a parent, including the ability for youth to consent to shelter and housing. Participants also spoke on the need for greater funding and capacity for Supervised Independent Living for young people aging out of foster care;
  • Funding and increased capacity for Transitional Living Programs for YYA, including those aging out of foster care;
  • The need for more affordable housing for families and young adults; 
  • More housing and shelter options specifically for pregnant and parenting YYA; and
  • Flexible funding to prevent and address YYA homelessness and to best meet the needs of YYA experiencing homelessness.
• The need for more quality health and behavioral health services for YYA that are accessible to them; 
• The need for and importance of community-based services that support youth and their families and prevent systems involvement or keep youth from going deeper into systems.

Throughout the sessions, the five social determinants of health —including YYA health behavioral health access— emerged as key themes. Participants broadly acknowledge that limited resources and supports often result in YYA not having their basic needs met, which can in turn lead to outcomes like homelessness, systems reengagement, and health challenges. To summarize these findings, TNOYS developed a series of “Health Briefs” to summarize local findings from listening and learning in each community:

Join Us for Advocacy and Action During the 89th Texas Legislative Session

Looking ahead, TNOYS has big plans to expand on our progress and cross-systems policy wins from the 88th Texas Legislative Session. TNOYS’ advocacy work would not be possible without the dedication of our members, community stakeholders, and YYA partners, and there will be many opportunities to get involved this session! 

• Stay tuned for TNOYS’ 2025 policy agenda, launching this November, 
• Save the date for TNOYS Day of Action for Youth (DAY), taking place Tuesday, April 8 at the Texas Capitol. Join TNOYS and over 200 youth and young adults to learn about and advocate for TNOYS’ cross-systems, youth-focused policy priorities, meet with legislative offices, and much more. Registration for TNOYS DAY opens soon. 

Finally, TNOYS members have many opportunities for partnership, input, and advocacy throughout each session and in the interim through TNOYS committees, one-on-one consultation, and much more. If you or your organization are not yet a TNOYS member, we encourage you to join today.