Stacey Akahoshi

LIS 560
Training Module Part A
October 23, 2016

Information Seminars for Homeless Youth

For this project, I have selected Information Seminars for Homeless Youth. Homeless
Youth for this project will be defined as ages 13-18 who are in a transitional living situation,
do not have nightly shelter, and can be a runaway or in a foster care situation about to age
out. This project will accept all definitions of homelessness whether temporary or a more
severe situation. I chose to focus on teens, because it is one of the most growing populations
dealing with homelessness. It is important for this user group to meet caring adults and know
how to find information on their own. In the following sections, I will describe the user
groups information needs and their information seeking behavior. I will also address
information literacy skills required to address the user groups information needs.

Homeless Teens
On one night in January 2014, 194302 homeless children and youth representing about
one-third of all homeless. Of those, 45,205 children (ages 0-18) and youth (18-24) were
unaccompanied. Youth between the ages of 12 to 17 are more at risk of homelessness than
adult are. The challenges homeless teens experience differ greatly from homeless veterans,
families and adults. The teens are at a developmental stage where they want independence,
are often separated from their families if their family is homeless and sometimes come from
situations of abuse or neglect from caregivers. These situations cause this user group to be
mainly on their own, without a support system. This lack of support or past abuses cause

many homeless young people to suffer mentally and physically from long term effects of
childhood trauma (Hendry and Woelfer, 1). These effects can inhibit young peoples
abilities to form trusting and stable relationships with caring adults who can provide
guidance and help with basic needs (Slesnick et al., 2). Youth homelessness often goes
unreported and is difficult to keep track of. So many of these statistics can be lower than the
actual numbers. Homeless youth face difficulties attending school because of legal
guardianship requirements, residency requirements, improper records, and lack of
transportation (National Coalition of Homelessness). This shows how many issues homeless
teens may face. This population would definitely benefit from a life skills seminar. Also
addressing their needs in a free and open place could help this population out of its situations.

Information Needs
Most homeless teens rely on themselves to find information and do not trust others to
help them. So their information needs to be readily available, whether online or on paper, can
pose a problem. Online information is a way most teens search, but access to devices may
cause a homeless teen to miss some important information. They need information on their
basic needs such as where to get food and a place to stay. Most of these resources are
temporary; they depend on funding and often operate at specific times. Many places of
shelter only allow homeless teens to stay while certain conditions are met, require
documentation like an ID they might not have or have time limits on the time of stay. Most
resources that cater to teens are often difficult to get to while having no transportation
because this is such a specific user group. Users in this group are often at different stages of
their lives, some want to change their situation and some just want to have shelter and food

for a few days. This program will cater to those looking to change their situations.
Ultimately, the information needs of this population vary due to the varying situations faced.

Information Seeking Behaviors

Information seeking in this user group will vary upon the situation. Most will constantly
be searching for basic needs, but some will search for long-term options or ways to better
their situations. In either situation, the users will face many problems when it comes to
searching for information. The way they must search is similar to Marcia J Bates berry
picking information model. They start with and information need such as finding food and
shelter and will pick up little bits of information as they search. This information is
comparable to picking huckleberries where you pick a few berries from one bush and move
on to the next. Teens will find, they can have food and shelter in one place but need to move
to a different one to have access to technology or learning how to get a job. Many places can
help them on certain days but are not open others. This causes this user group to seek their
information in the berry picking way, learning more as they go. In one research paper looking
to reorganize information, the researchers found the hodge- podge of fliers, usually
positioned at the entrances of the agencies, seemed to symbolize homelessness, the
complexity of the support system, and the daunting difficulty of leaving the street (Woelfer
and Hendry 2009 pg 2309). This distribution of handouts that vary in information and needs
shows how difficult it can be to navigate the needs of each person.
Another problem many face is access to technology. These teens do not have a place
privately view social media and rarely have consistent access to electrical outlets. In Woelfer
and Hendrys examination of homeless young people and their interactions with technology,

they found, powering digital devices often drives homeless young people to trespass on
private property to connect to electrical outlets on the exteriors of buildings (Woelfer and
Hendry 2011, pg 3).This creates a way of visibly seeing homelessness. Most people normally
have consistent access to electrical outlets without having to trespass. This act can be another
symbol of their situation. This situation causes technology access to be infrequent or only in
public places. This means information seeking cannot be conducted online as most teens
prefer. The circumstance creates their technology to be vulnerable and creates the situation
where for homeless young people, technology comes and goes (Woelfer and Hendry 2011
pg 4).
Libraries are one place they can access technology and outlets, but cannot have
guaranteed privacy. This again creates access issues, from examples from Woelfer and
Hendrys examination of homeless youth and technology, some users were banned for not
following certain rules, some had to travel far distances to access a library and others felt
they were being watched. In the digital age, this creates a gap in access and in how this user
group accesses information to fit their needs. This causes all information seeking to be in
person, yet it is not always an easy situation to ask for help in. Seeking basic needs is easier
to find on pamphlets than ways to better the persons situation.

Information Literacy
This user group has a wide variety of needs and a gap of access to overcome. Based on
this apparent gap, the main way to find a solution to their situations they berry pick their way

to one. Below are the needs of this user group and the knowledge they must have to fulfill the
need.

Need: Basic survival needs like food and shelter

Skill: synthesize information and create a schedule to ensure every day is covered
Need: Job Skills and education
Skill: The ability to network and organize information to find a place they can gain these
skills and gain access to technology, books and transportation

Need: Transportation
Skill: Assess where it is necessary to go and what distances.
Need: Safety
Skill: The ability to assess situations and assess whom to trust in each situation
Need: Deciding which need is most important
Skill: The ability to follow rules and the knowledge of each temporary centers rules and to
sort through the immense amount of information found at each place.

Survey Link: https://catalyst.uw.edu/webq/survey/staceya/316486

Bibliography
Bates, M. J. (n.d.). Berrypicking. In Theories of Information Behavior (pp. 58-62). 2005.
Homeless and Runaway Youth - ncsl.org. (2016, April 14). Retrieved October 20, 2016, from
http://www.ncsl.org/research/human-services/homeless-and-runaway-youth.aspx
Slesnick, N., Glassman, M., Garen, R., Toviessi, P., Bantchevska, D., & Dashora, P. (2008, June
25). How to open and sustain a drop-in center for homeless youth. Retrieved October 20,
2016, from Pushpanjali
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT. (2014, October).
Retrieved October 20, 2016, from
http://www.appropriations.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/hearings/042915 Ho Testimony THUD.pdf
Woelfer, J. P., & Hendry, D. G. (2009). Stabilizing homeless young people with information and
place. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 60(11),
2300-2312. doi:10.1002/asi.21146
Woelfer, J. P., & Hendry, D. G. (2011). Homeless young people and technology. Universal
Interactions, 18(6), 70-73. doi:10.1145/2029976.2029994