Dr. Ashurst has been the national co-chair for the Youth 

Experiencing Homelessness National Subcommittee since 

Fall 2018. This is one of the 12 subcommittees of the  "Access, 

Equity and Belonging Committee" (AEBC), a national priority 

through USDA, National 4-H, and Extension Committee on 

Policy.

Dr. Ashurst and Dr. Melissa Scheer at the University of Missouri 

co-chair the multi-state subcommittee, which included 

Extension personnel from 8 states that are conducting 

programming for youth who are experiencing or at high risk for 

experiencing homelessness. The subcommittee holds monthly 

virtual meetings to plan out multi-state efforts, share ideas, 

and provide support to one another. During the reporting year, 

the multi-state subcommittee had a fact sheet published (https://access-equity-belonging.extension.org/about/youth-experiencing-homelessness/). 

The fact sheet is publicly available and is for Extension staff to better able to reach out to and engage high poverty and unstably housed youth. 

They combined with the Youth Experiencing Poverty subcommittee 

as of April 2021 to co-develop resources and trainings. The 

joint subcommittee now represents a 13-state group. They 

presented as a larger group at 2 conferences during the reporting

period about their programming and how to effectively reach 

out to homeless and unstably housed youth through Extension

programming. The joint committees are also developing plans

for training for the Extension System on recruiting and programming 

for youth living in poverty.