Many of us working on the ground are often so absorbed in our day-to-day activities that we do not have the luxury of zooming out and viewing our work from a distance or through an entirely different lens. Thanks to the efforts of The Homeless Hub, Covenant House Toronto and our colleagues at Covenant House Vancouver recently had the privilege of having an expert outsider's viewpoint on our longer-term transitional housing program, Rights of Passage (ROP). The program operates slightly differently in each city, but with the same objective: to enable formerly homeless young people between the ages of 16 and 24 to move towards greater independence through supported transitional housing.
The end result of this research study is a 115-page Toolkit for use by other homeless youth-serving organizations at homelesshub.ca/youthhousingtoolkit. For us, the Toolkit is of further value in that it illuminates what is working well in the program as well as areas for improvement. As a learning organization, evaluation and improvement continually moves us towards providing the best services possible.
So what have we learned about what it takes to help homeless youth succeed? It takes more than just meeting their basic needs. Our youth require support in all aspects of their lives — from plotting an educational or employment path, to grocery shopping to building trust with future landlords. What ROP has done so successfully is look at the unique needs of each individual youth to create customized plans that are flexible and client-driven.
Here are the top 10 features of Covenant House Toronto’s ROP program.
1. Stable housing, both on-site and in the community
Even if affordable housing was easier to find in Toronto, most of our youth need considerable support to be ready to move forward. At Covenant House Toronto, our on-site ROP program offers up to 28 residents their own rooms in a semi-shared facility. They can stay up to a year, and possibly 18 months, as they build on their life skills and plans alongside our team of youth workers, case managers and counsellors.
We also have access to two rent-reduced community apartments through a partnership with Hollyburn Properties, and two more units made possible by local developer The Daniels Corporation. Our community apartments are an innovative model of how youth-serving agencies can involve businesses and property owners in finding the solution to youth homelessness.
2. Learning and practicing life skills
With a roof over their heads, the next thing young people need to obtain are the life skills that are usually learned within a family environment, such as how to cook for themselves, shop for food or balance a budget. Our ROP program requires that youth attend skills classes about such basic and rudimentary tasks as how to do laundry. This learning and practice builds in them essential skills for when they ultimately live on their own.
3. Consistent staff contact on-site
All young people experience steps forwards and backwards. When ROP residents struggle, they have the ear of a staff member at any time, night or day. Our staff support their program goals by mentoring, counselling and building relationships based on trust and respect. This has proven highly effective in ensuring that problems are addressed and dealt with early.
4. Youth in Transition (YIT) workers
Transitioning to independent living while also regulating mental health or addiction issues or just coping with the prospect of being on one's own, requires continued support. That is why we created the Youth in Transition (YIT) program to provide community-based supports to youth. Our workers meet them wherever they are – in coffee shops, at home or at work, providing guidance on anything from how to find a food bank to where to go to find a game of pick-up basketball. The point is they remain connected to us even once they have left the program so we can help prevent them from falling back into old behaviours or worse, back into homelessness.
5. Ongoing support through the ‘Hub and Spoke’ model
In our model, the “hub” is Covenant House Toronto’s central programs, from our on-site school, employment centre, job training program to our health care clinic, recreation and food bank. The “spokes” are our transitional housing programs, on-site and in the community, and our continued support to former residents living independently. This continuity and connectedness has proven to be an important condition of long-term success.
6. Case Management
Upon entry to ROP, a young person is assigned a dedicated case manager who asks him or her what they want to achieve through the program. The resident designs their own plan for education or employment or the management of other issues in their life. The only criteria is that goals are achievable and reachable. This develops a sense of possibility and confidence. The case manager is assigned to that resident as a consistent presence in their life, even if they leave the program and come back.
7. Mentorship
Another source of long-term support we offer is through mentorship. Volunteers from the community provide positive adult role modeling and forge mentor/mentee relationships with ROP residents, which often continue long after the young person has left Covenant House.
8. Money Management
We operate on a trust fund model where ROP residents pay a monthly fee based on their particular income situation and goals, and that money is returned to them when they leave the program to be used, for example, to obtain an apartment in the community. It is an excellent way to provide youth with a realistic sense of budgeting. As well our financial literacy advice that we include in our life skills training teaches youth about maintaining a realistic perspective on what it costs to be self-supporting.
9. Structure and appropriate age/stage progressive responsibilities and independence
Many young people come to us never having had the benefit of a curfew or other age-specific responsibilities and privileges. We provide them with the necessary boundaries that they might experience in a family where they are expected to follow rules, complete their chores, and earn privileges. This serves to create an awareness of their responsibilities to themselves and to others.
10. Aftercare and follow up
After completing the ROP program, it is very easy for a young person to feel alone and slip back into old familiar behaviour patterns. We follow up with graduates to ensure that they remain successful. We create natural opportunities, like a Sunday night community dinner, for them to come back to the house. We check in periodically for up to a year after they have left us and our YIT workers meet with youth to help them get settled for as long as a year.