Overview
Youth work’s role in tackling homelessness is a joint policy briefing produced by Rock Trust in partnership with YouthLink Scotland. It highlights the critical role that youth work plays in preventing homelessness and supporting young people before they reach crisis point.
The briefing draws on evidence from practice, research and lived experience to show how youth workers are uniquely placed to identify early risk, build trusted relationships and support young people to navigate complex transitions. It makes the case for recognising youth work as a core part of Scotland’s homelessness prevention response.
For organisations, policymakers and commissioners, the briefing offers practical insight into how investment in youth work can reduce homelessness and improve long-term outcomes for young people.
What the briefing covers
The policy briefing focuses on how youth work contributes to homelessness prevention by:
- Identifying risk early, particularly in relation to family breakdown, poverty and disengagement from education.
- Building trusted, long-term relationships that enable young people to seek help before crisis.
- Supporting key transitions, including from school, care and temporary accommodation.
- Working alongside other services, providing continuity where systems are fragmented.
- Amplifying young people’s voices, ensuring policy and practice reflect real experiences.
It sets out why relationship-based, youth-specific approaches are essential to tackling the root causes of youth homelessness, not just its symptoms.
Why this matters for youth homelessness
Youth homelessness rarely happens suddenly. It is often the result of unmet need, unresolved conflict and systems that respond too late.
Youth workers are often among the first trusted adults to notice when a young person is struggling. By intervening early, youth work can:
- Prevent relationship breakdown from escalating into homelessness.
- Reduce reliance on emergency accommodation and crisis services.
- Improve engagement with education, training and support.
- Help young people build resilience, confidence and stability.
This briefing reinforces the importance of prevention-led approaches that are grounded in relationships and shaped around young people’s lives.
Rock Trust’s perspective
Rock Trust and YouthLink Scotland share a commitment to ensuring young people receive the right support at the right time.
Rock Trust brings frontline experience of supporting young people at risk of or experiencing homelessness, while YouthLink Scotland provides national leadership for the youth work sector. Together, we developed this briefing to strengthen understanding of how youth work contributes to homelessness prevention and why it must be recognised, valued and funded as part of Scotland’s wider response.
The briefing aligns with our shared belief that preventing youth homelessness requires early intervention, youth-specific support and coordinated systems that work around young people, not thresholds or crisis points.