COH-AWH-What_Would_it_Take

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1.6 ADVERSE CHILDHOOD EXPERIENCES Research has shown that young people experiencing homelessness often face significant adversity prior to becoming homeless, such as childhood abuse and neglect. These traumas are often referred to as “adverse childhood experiences”(ACEs), and have been shown to be a key social determinant of health. Ten key types of ACEs have been identified in research literatures as impacting children’s development and physical, social, mental, emotional, and behavioural health and well-being (including physical abuse, sexual abuse, household substance abuse, and household mental illness). In consultations with youth across the country, it was evident that many young people experienced more than one of these forms of adversity in their childhood and adolescence. In many cases youth described these experiences as occurring over many years, and as repeated throughout their lives. As discussed below, this adversity sometimes continued in public systems (e.g., physical abuse in foster care, violent victimization in the emergency shelter system). Importantly, youth identified that professionals in various systems (e.g., teachers, social workers, “I wasn’t aware of how bad it was at home, and there was also that guilt that like, oh, it was my problem, I can’t leave home, I can’t become homeless. So, I’d be like, ‘No, no, no, it’s fine, I can work it out.’ But I think you can bypass that sort of instinctual sort of, ‘Oh, it’s not that bad’ if you’re able to tell the kid, ‘Well, listen, let’s put you on the waiting list for three months or so, and in three months, we’ll revisit it. If you’re still not in a good place, I can take you off it or we can go ahead with it.’ Because I think for a lot of kids, there’s a manipulation of abuse there, where we would be … like, bad, if they were say, ‘Oh, it IS bad at home.’” EDMONTON YOUTH frontline staff at emergency shelters) sometimes made the effects of these ACE’s worse by ignoring or discounting their experiences, blaming or stigmatizing them, or excluding them from supports or benefits that would have helped them deal with these challenges. In some cases this adversity was occurring not just within the home or a public system, it was occurring within a youth’s community as well (e.g., gang violence, police profiling of poor youth). Youth discussed the severe effects of these experiences on their mental health and well-being, and the difficult choices they were forced to make when trying to escape violence, neglect, and family conflict. Youth’s options for dealing with adversity were often severely constrained by other structural factors that increased their risk of homelessness, such as lack of housing and poverty. WHAT WOULD IT TAKE? 62
ADDRESSING ADVERSE CHILDHOOD EXPERIENCES: Youth’s Proposed Solutions Policy & System Change • Improve the monitoring of foster homes and group homes to better identify abuse and neglect • Ensure all police adequately and appropriately respond to all reports of abuse and neglect, and do not leave children and youth exposed to violence • Enable youth to access safe emergency housing and services without abusive caregivers being alerted to where they are Investments • Build more safe houses for youth experiencing abuse Professional Conduct & Training • Improve training and education for social workers, teachers, doctors, and medical staff on how to appropriately identify and respond to young people experiencing abuse or neglect Interventions • Provide free counselling, life skills education, family mediation, and casework supports to caregivers struggling with parenting, including foster families • Provide caregivers with workers who can support them to improve their parenting • Educate caregivers on alternatives to kicking youth out of their home • Increase the availability of drug management programs and mental health services for caregivers • Provide school-based education to all youth on how to identify abuse and neglect within their home • Provide immediate, free counselling to all youth who have experienced abuse and neglect WHAT WOULD IT TAKE? 63
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WHAT WOULD IT TAKE? Youth Across Ca
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This research was made possible thr
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Are we making sig
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YOUTH’S PERSPECTIVES ON PREVENTIO
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Youth’s Proposed Solutions • In
Page 11 and 12: • Lack of education for youth on
Page 13 and 14: “My trauma led me down a wrong pa
Page 15 and 16: 5. Align ministerial, departmental,
Page 17 and 18: INTEGRATED GOVERNMENT SUPPORTS 1. W
Page 19 and 20: INTRODUCTION Youth homelessness in
Page 21 and 22: Systems change is difficult work. T
Page 23 and 24: Finally, youth homelessness prevent
Page 25 and 26: CONSULTATION PROCESS National consu
Page 27 and 28: Prior to beginning the study, resea
Page 29 and 30: 62 % Self-identified as currently e
Page 31 and 32: WHAT IS YOUTH HOMELESSNESS PREVENTI
Page 33 and 34: YOUTH’S PERSPECTIVES ON PREVENTIO
Page 35 and 36: WHAT WOULD IT TAKE? 1. STRUCTURAL P
Page 37 and 38: “I think that affordable housing
Page 39 and 40: LOW SOCIAL ASSISTANCE RATES Many yo
Page 41 and 42: LOW WAGES & TIGHT JOB MARKETS In th
Page 43 and 44: MOVING FORWARD To ensure better out
Page 45 and 46: 1.2 LACK OF HOUSING While youth vie
Page 47 and 48: Public Housing Challenges The lack
Page 49 and 50: MOVING FORWARD The solutions propos
Page 51 and 52: “Well, for me, like, because of r
Page 53 and 54: MOVING FORWARD Indigenous youth vie
Page 55 and 56: “I have friends that are in foste
Page 57 and 58: MOVING FORWARD While youth describe
Page 59 and 60: 1.5 HARMFUL SOCIETAL BELIEFS & VALU
Page 61: “A lot of systems are still set u
Page 65 and 66: WHAT WOULD IT TAKE? 2. SYSTEMS PREV
Page 67 and 68: 2.1 EDUCATION For young people who
Page 69 and 70: 2. Professional Training For the mo
Page 71 and 72: Investments • Provide significant
Page 73 and 74: “Educating teachers, principals,
Page 75 and 76: Experiences in Foster Care Many you
Page 77 and 78: Difficult Transitions from Care Tra
Page 79 and 80: “My parents were good enough at l
Page 81 and 82: 2.3 HEALTHCARE & ADDICTIONS For you
Page 83 and 84: An additional issue raised by many
Page 85 and 86: MOVING FORWARD Without a Home: The
Page 87 and 88: 2.4 YOUTH HOMELESSNESS SECTOR In fo
Page 89 and 90: “Requirements to access help some
Page 91 and 92: “Yeah, when I first moved in [to
Page 93 and 94: PREVENTING YOUTH HOMELESSNESS IN TH
Page 95 and 96: While the recommendations below can
Page 97 and 98: 2.5 CRIMINAL JUSTICE A common conce
Page 99 and 100: PREVENTING YOUTH HOMELESSNESS IN TH
Page 101 and 102: MOVING FORWARD Canadian research sh
Page 103 and 104: WHAT WOULD IT TAKE? 3. PREVENTING I
Page 105 and 106: ADDRESSING FAMILY CONFLICT, ABUSE,
Page 107 and 108: “This is real. We did not choose
Page 109 and 110: Lack of services and supports also
Page 111 and 112: MOVING FORWARD Youth across the cou
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ADDRESSING SOCIAL EXCLUSION & ISOLA
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“I’m just trying to say that, i
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ADDRESSING VIOLENCE IN THE COMMUNIT
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YOUTH’S MESSAGES TO ALL LEVELS OF
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We need to dramatically shift our a
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RECOMMENDATIONS 1 GOVERNMENT OF CAN
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5. Align ministerial, departmental,
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2. Embed youth homelessness prevent
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INTEGRATED GOVERNMENT SUPPORTS 1. W
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3. Require that all school boards a
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5. Offer comprehensive, youth-focus
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8. Systematically investigate and e
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Provincial/Territorial Ministries R
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6. Seek to provide highly integrate
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3. Foster meaningful youth engageme
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Gaetz, S., O’Grady, B., Kidd, S.,
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Statistics Canada. (2011). National
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