This recent Penn grad mapped the city’s youth homelessness services

At our Blueprint: Homelessness event last week, one of the ideas attendees came up with for making it easier to navigate the city’s many homelessness services was to create a geographical map of service providers.

As it turns out, a form of that map does exist — digitally. Graceann Palmarella graduated this past spring with her master’s degree in public health from University of Pennsylvania, and for her capstone project, she created a website detailing resources specifically available to youth experiencing homelessness.

Y.E.A.H. Info Philadelphia (that’s Youth. Experiencing. Active. Homelessness.) has information about where youth can access essentials such as healthcare, clothes and food, as well as where they can safely find services if they’re experiencing violence, are LGBTQ or need a place to stay.

Palmarella, who now works for Penn’s Center for Public Health Initiatives, said she was inspired to create the site when conducting fieldwork with the Homeless Health Initiative at CHOP, which serves local mothers and children experiencing homelessness.

“My goal with the site is to provide greater access and utilization of services,” she said.

The site is “still very much a work in progress,” and Palmarella is looking for feedback. Eventually, she said, she’d like to add job listings, events and other features to the site.