Are you ready for Youth Count 2026? We are.
We know we haven't shared a lot in the last few months. That's because we've been working diligently in the background preparing for this year's Youth Count. There are some big changes coming to youth count this year and it's kept us very busy.
In this newsletter (our first of 2026), we wanted to use it as a space to share the announcement about what is coming to the Los Angeles Youth Count. For those of you who don't know, YP2F has coordinated the Los Angeles Youth Count since 2022 and has been involved in the youth count for several years prior to that.
Quick background on the Los Angeles Youth Count
Every year, as part of the Greater Los Angeles Homeless Count, youth homelessness is assessed through a survey-based enumeration from geographically sampled census tracts that are intended to represent the larger Continuum of Care. Previous methods that relied primarily on youth homelessness service providers to canvas census tracts have become harder to implement due to capacity strain and competing priorities within the youth homelessness system.
Given concerns about the feasibility of previous approaches, we are using Youth Count 2026 as a year to implement a respondent-driven sampling (RDS) approach.
Counting Youth with Respondent Driven Sampling
Respondent Driven Sampling (RDS) is a network-based sampling method that uses social connections to reach hard-to-reach populations like people experiencing homelessness. Instead of trying to count everyone via geographic canvassing it uses the social networks within the community to get a representative sample. We believe that a shift to this method will reduce the burden on youth providers.
For this year's count we will build on the published methodology for the King County count and will engage Zack Almquist of the University of Washington as a lead consultant for this work. For detailed background on the King County work, see. Innovating a community-driven enumeration and needs assessment of people experiencing homelessness: A network sampling approach for the hud-mandated point-in-time count
In addition, the Youth Count Survey tool will be enhanced with additional questions on social network size and details to meet the RDS requirements and capture additional information that is directly relevant to youth providers’ work. To mitigate concerns regarding the overall length of the survey instrument and concerns about survey burden for both participants and provider staff/volunteers administering the survey, unessential questions will be recommended for removal. This information will not be lost entirely as data from removed items will continue to be captured in the Adult Demographic Survey, and in some cases, administrative data can be utilized. This transition will support informing youth-serving systems.
We officially kick off Youth Count 2026 tomorrow!
Follow along here and her social media for any updates!
- We know that’s a lot of information... Bookmark youthcount.org and check out the new methods section!
- The website also has a frequently asked questions page! This page will be updated as questions arise.
- We have also put everything into a handout that can be circulated and downloaded directly from the website.
If you want to learn more, please reach out to us
More updates from YP2F will be coming soon 🤸♀️