Alex Wagaman, associate professor, working at federal level to end youth homelessness
Alex Wagaman, Ph.D., an associate professor in the School of Social Work, began a one-year contract in May as a special advisor with the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness. To complement the council’s federal strategic plan, All In, which launched in December 2022, Wagaman will be leading the creation of a population-specific plan for youth homelessness.
A key component is the involvement of youth who have the lived and learned experience of homelessness. In the short term, they will serve in an advisory role. In the long term, they will have opportunities to develop skills to become future federal policymakers.
“We would love to see pipelines for young adults with lived experience to eventually be in staff positions to run what we build out,” Wagaman says. “That’s ultimately the goal: They should be the ones leading the work.”
Wagaman has been recruiting youth from around the nation for the advisory team and taking inventory of current support and programming at the federal level and from nongovernmental partners. This work is leading up to a national meeting in September in Washington, where key players will develop the plan, facilitated by the youth team.
She will be busy, with her roles at VCU, in the community and now with the federal government keeping her on the move with deadlines approaching.
“I’m in this really nice position where I have one foot still in academia and in practice. I’m still running a housing program. I’m working with direct service staff. I’m working with young people locally. I’m still doing research. My other foot is in the federal government world,” Wagaman says. “I was thinking I probably need more than two feet, to extend the metaphor.”
» See the full story at VCU News.
Categories Community, Faculty and staff, Research