Many people often comment with exasperation as to why many at-risk and homeless youth don’t access services that might help them. A recent article in the Vancouver Sun lays out the reasoning quite clearly in summarizing the results of the At Home/Chez Soi study sponsored by the federal government.
Emily Grant finds her way off the street thanks to the "At Home/Chez Soi" Study sponsored by the federal government.
Only once a youth is housed properly, safely, securely, do they feel able and motivated to seek assistance for other issues going on in their life. Long-term stable transitional housing has been shown over and over again to be a guaranteed path for people to stay off the streets and to build a life. Support local politicians who support long-term stable housing for youth.
On Friday, November 30th and December 1, 2012, The Allegra Singers of Victoria will be performing a Winter Concert in support of the Threshold Housing Society.
The Allegra Singers is a wonderful choir established in 1996. They perform a wide variety of music – from classical to jazz, gospel to musical theater, world music to pop, folk and rock. Their mission is to enjoy the songs they sing, improve their talents, to entertain and to touch the hearts of the audience and to have fun in the process.
Over the years, they have supported a number of local charities and non-profits providing service to the community including the Cridge Centre for the Family, Angel Flight of Vancouver Island, the Ovarian Cancer Society, and Project Literacy Victoria.
Please come and enjoy the energizing voices of the Allegra Singers. What a great way to respond to the problem of youth homelessness in the region!
Threshold’s SHY Program is currently funded entirely on grants from the corporate sector. Without these grants, the program will close and a number of youth will lose their stable housing units.
How can you help?
Threshold has been entered into the Aviva Community Fund Competition, under the special category of “At-Risk Youth.” The grand prize is $150,000.
To vote go to: http://www.avivacommunityfund.org/about/voting. You will have to register (click on yellow button “Register Now”) with your email address and a password. Anyone can vote across Canada as long as they are registered.
“We believe in our hearts and in our minds that in order to do well in business, we must do ‘good’ in the communities where we live, work and serve… and we are passionately committed to our community giving philosophy.” Darren Entwistle, CEO TELUS
The Safe Housing for Youth program (SHY) was initiated by the Threshold Housing Society in May 2012. With the help of local grants from Coast Capital Savings, Victoria Real Estate Board, and Provincial Employees Community Services Fund, the Society was able to hire a SHY coordinator (Tara Skobel). Her first task was to help negotiate program agreements with adult subsidizing-housing providers to provide 1-2 units dedicated to housing youth (16-24 years of age) at an affordable rate. By September the program was housing 5 youth with the hope of housing 3 more by December. To learn more, watch the following Vital People clip created by Veronica Cooper of CHEK-TV under the auspices of the Victoria Foundation. The original clip was aired October 28 on CHEK-TV. For more information see our website.(Also, see side bar to view clip).
There is a misunderstanding among many community members that the majority of youth in need of transitional housing are youth living in the rough, in the parks, outside or on the street. Over the last couple of years, the youth population that has grown and in need of affordable transitional housing is actually composed of youth still in school or holding low-paying jobs. They often shun government assistance for fear of being stigmatized or they are ineligible for assistance. This group couch surf, live in crowded basements, someone’s RV or with inappropriate partners. This vulnerable population is growing. Our metro region does not have the capacity to house them.
To understand more about this growing population, please watch and listen to this video called “Invisible: Diaries of New York’s Homeless Youth,” produced by the Reciprocity Foundation in New York city. This short, mini-documentary, is a wonderful window in youth who are not criminally or drug entrenched but have a difficult time getting their lives in order without stable, affordable housing. This video can also be accessed by clicking here: Documentary
On October 19th-20th, the doors of Victoria’s historic Odd Fellows Hall (1315 Douglas Street) will be open to the greater community for a unique and dynamic event. See details here. This 2-day offering of presentations, workshops, panel discussions and mixed media will focus on strengthening local community, addressing youth homelessness, and understanding the connection between the two. To make the summit accessible to everyone, all sessions are by donation with proceeds going to help youth in Victoria who are homeless or at risk of homelessness.
Summit sessions will be facilitated by a diverse group of people and expertise, including local youth who are or have experienced homelessness, community leaders, citizens inspired by community, leading researchers, and organizations working locally in youth homelessness.
This will be a different kind of homelessness summit; one that addresses the housed as well as the homeless in engaging the issue The organizers acknowledge that the general public are just as much a part of the issue and solution as the homeless community. Rather than focus on homelessness as simply a problem that needs to be fixed, the Summit will explore the issue as a community reflection to be better understood. One that can help show us the way to a more inclusive, compassionate, efficient and vibrant community all round.
Mahatma Ghandi once said: “A nation’s greatness is measured by how it treats its weakest members.”
It may come as a surprise to many that there are legions of homeless youth in the country. They are voiceless, invisible and desperate. On October 12, 2012, a commentary appeared in the Times Colonist by Mark Muldoon, the Executive Director of the Threshold Housing Society, calling out for a special day to bring the country to its senses.
Last year, Ontario MP Carolyn Bennett introduced Motion 546 requesting Nov. 17 to be declared National Youth Homelessness Awareness Day. It may come as a shock to many people that such a day needs to be declared, but the level of youth homelessness has reached “epidemic” proportions. That was the term used by Sir Richard Branson of the Virgin Group when he was enlisted to help raise national awareness about the crisis.
The statistics are startling. Conservatively, there are estimated to be 65,000 homeless youth in Canada between the ages of 16 and 24. This is about one-third of the estimated homeless population in the country; some non-governmental organizations estimate the numbers are much higher. In the past 25 years, there has been a 450 per cent increase in the number of youth shelter beds in Toronto. There are between 1,500 and 2,000 homeless youth in Toronto on any given night. In the 2011 Metro Vancouver Homeless Count, the youth homeless population increased 29 per cent from 2008. In any community, about 40 per cent of the youth who are homeless belong to the lesbian-gay-bisexual-transgender community. First Nation youths are also disproportionally over-represented. The suicide rate for street-involved youth is about 10.3 times he national average for Canadian youth. Research shows that 87 per cent of Canadians are unaware of just how many homeless youth exist in our midst.
There is a rather crass cynicism in the general public that at-risk youth of being homeless are on the street, or living precariously, because it is either a type of “rite of passage,” an adventure, or they are simply going through a rebellious stage of their adolescence. For the most part, such thinking is a myth. Many near-homeless or homeless youth today were thrust out of their homes forced by neglect or abuse or graduated from the foster-care system when they reached nineteen.
There are a lot of dangers a youth faces once ejected from his or her familiar surroundings. The most pervasive one is the anxiety of not have a safe place to sleep and the gnawing dread of never finding one. But the most insidious danger is that of sexual exploitation, or the draw of the sex trade to simply survive. In this week’s Monday Magazine (September 20, 2012), Simon Nattrass’ column (posted below) forcefully exposes this dark reality in our midst. His words are eloquent and his message blunt. His last paragraph hits close to the heart of the matter. Allowing any youth to be sexually exploited murders a vital spark in their inner being, that is, their living flame of self-worth that feeds their dreams and hopes.
After a long stint of living in shelters, Marie was finally doing well. She had all the right supports: housing, drug and trauma counselling, and even volunteering in the community. But when personal trauma became overwhelming and her addictions resurfaced, she couldn’t hold on to her supported housing and, once again, her only option was the street. Weeks later, she was on a corner in Rock Bay, surviving in the best way she knew how.
There is a rather crass cynicism in the general public that at-risk youth of being homeless are on the street, or living precariously, because it is either a type of “rite of passage,” an adventure, or they are simply going through a rebellious stage of their adolescence. For the most part, such thinking is a myth. Many near-homeless or homeless youth today were thrust out of their homes forced by neglect or abuse or graduated from the foster-care system when they reached nineteen.
There are a lot of dangers a youth faces once ejected from his or her familiar surroundings. The most pervasive one is the anxiety of not have a safe place to sleep and the gnawing dread of never finding one. But the most insidious danger is that of sexual exploitation, or the draw of the sex trade to simply survive. In this week’s Monday Magazine (September 20, 2012), Simon Nattrass’ column (posted below) forcefully exposes this dark reality in our midst. His words are eloquent and his message blunt. His last paragraph hits close to the heart of the matter. Allowing any youth to be sexually exploited murders a vital spark in their inner being, that is, their living flame of self-worth that feeds their dreams and hopes.
After a long stint of living in shelters, Marie was finally doing well. She had all the right supports: housing, drug and trauma counselling, and even volunteering in the community. But when personal trauma became overwhelming and her addictions resurfaced, she couldn’t hold on to her supported housing and, once again, her only option was the street. Weeks later, she was on a corner in Rock Bay, surviving in the best way she knew how.
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