Street Youth
Briefing Note Part 2 | Selina Henry
0852490Shara StoneJUST3120: Community Building PracticesDue Date: 1 /02/15 |

Street Youth
Briefing Note Part 2 | Selina Henry
0852490Shara StoneJUST3120: Community Building PracticesDue Date: 1 /02/15 |

Options
Option 1: Kennedy House Youth Shelter Services * Directed to the website when asked for the mission of Kennedy House Youth Shelter; “To enable youth to grow as individuals to contribute as members of the community. This is achieved in our residential and community based programs by providing customized support and building trusting relationships” (Kennedy House Youth Services, 2009). * Main target is homeless youth between the ages of 16-25 one day less a day; they can come in daily from their 16th birthday and stay up until their 25th birthday (Rosenthal, 2015). * This service is self-directed according to Rosenthal (2015) residents have the option to choose whether they come to the shelter unless there is a ban. This service uses a harm reduction approach; staff consider client-staff relationship a key factor when working with youth. * According to James Rosenthal community is seen as an active partnership with immediate community members (Rosenthal, 2015). Kennedy House works towards addressing programs in the community with a zero tolerance for youth who break the policies of the agency. * When speaking with Rosenthal he explained that Kennedy House has a strong relationship with other existing community agency friends such as ACE, public health, and Toronto Community Housing. * The few disadvantages of this program according to Rosenthal (2015) is housing where we see the long waiting list, transportation for youth who are homeless because they can’t afford fair to get from point A to point B. * The major challenges of this organization is affordable housing, program funding, transportation and the consistency of contact with clients because they attend the program for a certain amount of days but don’t show back up due to many reasons. * It was a good experience obtaining information from this agency because I was able to learn about the different challenges that this agency faces and resources available to help street youth.
Option 2: Turning Point Youth Shelter * The mission of Turning Point Youth Shelter is “Leaders motivating youth to make positive changes”. * According to Creamer (2015) approaches used to provide service to street youth are harm reduction, clinicians use dialogical behavioural therapy when working with youth, housing workers who help them to find affordable housing. * Members at Turning Point are responsive to the needs of their clients and families work with members in the community. According to Jill (2015) there are many different programming; smaller level shelters operate within the community. * Staff at Turning Point are respectful to the youth that they work with as well as their partner agencies that they work. * The shelter is self-referral and deals with clients on a first come first serve basis. According to Creamer (2015) the youth within the shelter program have been marginalized; they just need to identify as being homeless to receive service. * One of the major gaps within this service according to Creamer (2015) is the lack of affordable housing to youth; most youth that come into the program disclose that they have anywhere to go and are living on the streets. * The challenges faced are getting youth connected to the services needed, according to Creamer (2015) funding for better services is one of the biggest challenges. * Other challenges that this organization faces is when dealing with youth who battle with mental health because it’s harder to access service in the community and offered in the shelter (Creamer, 2015). * Having the services a youth needs but not being able to connect the youth to the services is a challenge because of limited space, unwillingness of the youth to participate etc. * I would want to be a service user of this agency because of the support system that they provide to the youth when reconnecting with their families; it can sometimes be a challenge to reconnect with family.
Option 3: Eva’s Place (Note: I was only able to speak to two agencies the other agencies didn’t return my calls; I have used the website for this agency) * Mission is to work directly with youth to develop a personalized action plan that will empower them to achieve their short and long-term goals (Eva’s, n.d.) * The action plans are used as a tool to help empower the youth to want to make change within their lives and come out of homelessness. * According to Eva’s (n.d.) some of the approaches used to provide services to street youth are: family and individual counselling, life and coping skills, harm reduction programs such as art therapy, stress management and healthy sexuality. * Eva’s Place meets the needs of the street youths by providing them with family reconnection for those that would like to rekindle their relationship with their families. * Possible challenges for Eva’s Place are affording housing for the youth, ability to accommodate a certain amount of youth due to limited space and funding for programs. * I called this agency on more than one occasion but received no response even after I left a voice message. This made me feel disconnected from the agency because it made me wonder if they can easily ignore my calls how many other street youth have they ignored needed services. This made me question whether id even want to use their services.
These agencies address marginalization and racialization by accepting any street youth so long as they are within the age bracket that the agency provides service to and as long as the youth identify as being homeless they are admitted into the shelter. They provide services to the needs of the youth. For example, if a youth identifies as an LGBTQ the agencies would look towards providing them with a service that fits that need. No matter the race or situation these youth face the agencies are opened and willing to work with them in getting the services needed.
Reference
Eva’s Place. (n.d.). Retrieved November 28, 2015, from http://www.evas.ca/where-we-are/evas-place/

Kennedy House Youth Services Inc. (2009). Retrieved November 27, 2015, from http://www.kennedyhouse.org/topmenu/home.aspx

James Rosenthal. (2015). Personal Communication. November 17th, 2015

Jill Creamer. (2015). Personal Communication. November 23rd, 2015