COH-AWH-What_Would_it_Take

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MOVING FORWARD National data has shown that youth who are homeless are 193 times more likely to have been involved with child welfare than the general public (Nichols et al., 2017). Youth that face systemic and structural disadvantages (e.g., poverty, racism, homophobia) are more likely to experience both child welfare involvement and homelessness (Gypen et al., 2017), indicating that many ministries and systems have a role to play in improving young people’s experiences before, during, and after care. Indigenous youth are particularly overrepresented in the child welfare system in Canada (Blackstock et al., 2004; Statistics Canada, 2011), indicating a particular need to address the intersections between colonialism and child welfare. Despite regional and provincial/territorial differences in policy and service provision, we know that youth in – and leaving – state care in Canada disproportionately experience negative outcomes in many life domains, including health, housing, education, and employment (Barker et al., 2014). This study further demonstrates the need to break the link between child welfare and youth homelessness. A crucial finding of this study is the frequency with which young people felt that child welfare workers failed to protect them from abuse and neglect, or contributed to their experiences of isolation and marginalization. In order to effectively prevent youth homelessness, we need to better understand the forces that are shaping child welfare workers’ responses to abuse. These dynamics may be driven by inadequate funding, unmanageable caseloads, poor training and supervision, or policies over which they have little control. While this study suggests that some frontline child welfare workers would benefit from training in anti-oppression and solutions- and equity-oriented practice, it is also essential that workers can actually offer youth resources that would really make a difference: free family counselling and mediation, safe youth housing, livable social assistance rates for families, an After Care Guarantee, or foster homes within a young person’s community and culture. If we want to use the child welfare system as a tool for youth homelessness prevention, we need to ensure we are simultaneously making changes in these other systems as well. WHAT WOULD IT TAKE? 80
2.3 HEALTHCARE & ADDICTIONS For young people across the country, challenges related to health, mental health, and addictions are both a precursor to, and consequence of, homelessness. Many youth discussed how difficult it was to live with family members experiencing mental health and addictions issues. Others described living in constant fear of eviction because social assistance didn’t adequately cover their caregivers’ healthcare needs. In the context of these challenges, it is not surprising that many youth described their own mental health or addiction issues as linked to childhood experiences of adversity, trauma, and violence, including intergenerational trauma within Indigenous families. Sadly, youth’s families often did not have the supports or funds necessary to help them deal with these difficulties. When discussing the responsiveness of the healthcare system to these issues, youth raised four major issues: availability, accessibility, affordability, and stigma. “My trauma led me down a wrong path, and I didn’t know that I had ... places where I could go to access help for that. And my family didn’t know how to support me with my mental health. So they ended up giving up on me because they didn’t know... how. And they didn’t have... anyone show them or teach them how to take care of someone with those circumstances.” KAMLOOPS YOUTH Once on the streets, the impact of these system failures became particularly acute for young people, contributing to difficulties obtaining housing or remaining in school. The availability of health, mental health, and addictions supports was an issue raised by many young people, particularly youth from smaller communities. In some cases these supports weren’t available in their community, or they didn’t know about them. Youth particularly struggled to access mental health supports once homeless, with one young person in St. John’s explaining that they had been on the waitlist to see a psychiatrist for three years. Other youth couldn’t access supports because of age restrictions or because caregivers refused to grant them permission. The cost of mental health services was prohibitive for many, as were the cost of prescriptions (for example, one Yellowknife youth explained that obtaining Plan Bs was very difficult). The appropriateness of available healthcare was also an issue, with several youth commenting that supports or services were often not targeted to young people, including young women, and thus did not feel safe or welcoming. WHAT WOULD IT TAKE? 81
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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
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5. Align ministerial, departmental,
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INTEGRATED GOVERNMENT SUPPORTS 1. W
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INTRODUCTION Youth homelessness in
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Systems change is difficult work. T
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Finally, youth homelessness prevent
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CONSULTATION PROCESS National consu
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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 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: “My parents were good enough at l
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
Page 117 and 118: ADDRESSING VIOLENCE IN THE COMMUNIT
Page 119 and 120: YOUTH’S MESSAGES TO ALL LEVELS OF
Page 121 and 122: We need to dramatically shift our a
Page 123 and 124: RECOMMENDATIONS 1 GOVERNMENT OF CAN
Page 125 and 126: 5. Align ministerial, departmental,
Page 127 and 128: 2. Embed youth homelessness prevent
Page 129 and 130: 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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