COH-AWH-What_Would_it_Take

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Youth identified five systems that are in a position to prevent youth homelessness: education, child welfare, healthcare and addictions services, the youth homelessness sector, and the criminal justice system. Youth experienced similar problems in many of these systems. Shared problems included: • Difficulty accessing services in one system often made it hard to access services in another system. As a result, system failures were often mutually reinforcing in young people’s lives. • The qualifying criteria for supports, services, or benefits were often too high or age specific, leaving many youth unable to access help. • Youth were often obliged to meet particular requirements or expectations to receive services (e.g., checking in with a youth shelter twice each day in order access a bed that night). Youth described these requirements as complex, frequent, hard to understand, and hard to navigate. • Awareness, availability, and appropriateness of services were issues in all systems, sometimes leaving youth with nowhere to turn for help. • Youth often lacked the practical tools and resources required to access supports (e.g., identification, transit fare), and youth under 16 were often unable to access help without parental permission. • Experiences of inequity and discrimination were common in all systems, particularly based on race, class, disability, sexuality and mental health status. • Youth consistently experienced challenges with staff and workers in multiple systems, including: neglect, lack of training, lack of care, discrimination, stigmatizing behaviour, and failures to respond to abuse and neglect appropriately or adequately. • Services and systems were often poorly coordinated, making it difficult for youth to transition from one system or service to another. • The complex, repetitive barriers that youth faced in multiple systems left them feeling hopeless, powerless, and alone. The good news is that because these challenges are shared, we can go farther, faster, if we work together to learn from these collective difficulties. Likewise, because these systems are so linked, change in any system (e.g., increased funding for addiction services) may provide positive outcomes in other systems (e.g., reductions in youth entering the child welfare system). This means that to be successful, youth homelessness interventions must engage multiple departments and ministries across all levels of government. Municipal, provincial, territorial, and federal governments should foster integrated dialogue across departments and ministries to ensure the systemic barriers created by large systems can be broken down. WHAT WOULD IT TAKE? 66
2.1 EDUCATION For young people who lack stable housing or experience poverty, abuse, or neglect at home, remaining in school is very difficult. Without proper clothing, school supplies, transportation, or food, being able to pay attention and learn becomes challenging. Many young people reported that these challenges were made worse by school staff who were largely unprepared or underqualified to support them, limited school-based mental health supports, and curriculum that did not help them learn how to live independently and safely. In some cases, youth felt “At the end of the day, the bottom line is that the education system has not been changed in 50-some years … You don’t learn what you need to learn. It is a place to keep you during the day. We need an education re-education. We need revamps, we need options.” CALGARY YOUTH that school policies and staff actually increased their marginalization and risk of homelessness. Several youth reported instances where their teachers disclosed their mental health challenges to peers, did not help them escape abusive homes, stigmatized them for their drug use, or punished them for sleeping in class when they had nowhere safe to sleep at night. In focus groups across the country, youth agreed: schools are doing very little to prevent youth homelessness. While youth identified failures within schools, they also felt that this institution had the most potential to engage in youth homelessness prevention. Youth identified opportunities for change in five areas: 1. Curriculum Change The need for curriculum change was a frequent topic in focus groups. Many youth felt that the current school curriculum does not prepare youth for independent living, assuming that all young people receive education on life skills at home. Young people also felt they lacked education on healthy relationships, how to identify abuse, mental health issues, or emotional skills, with some youth expressing this might have prevented their own homelessness. More broadly, several youth felt that the education system does not adequately prepare youth for the job market today. WHAT WOULD IT TAKE? 67
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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
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• Lack of education for youth on
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“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 and 62: “A lot of systems are still set u
Page 63 and 64: ADDRESSING ADVERSE CHILDHOOD EXPERI
Page 65: WHAT WOULD IT TAKE? 2. SYSTEMS PREV
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
Page 113 and 114: ADDRESSING SOCIAL EXCLUSION & ISOLA
Page 115 and 116: “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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COH-AWH-What_Would_it_Take

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