Pardis's blog

Last week the City of Hamilton launched Coming Together to End Homelessness: Hamilton’s Systems Planning Framework with support from Dr. Alina Turner (Turner Strategies/ HelpSeeker).

Eric Weissman is Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of New Brunswick, Saint John. But he was once homeless, and has since written a very good book about intentional communities in Canada and the United States. This book is based on Eric’s PhD thesis, which in 2014 won a major national award.

By now you’ve probably heard the word on the street. The Canadian Observatory on Homelessness (COH) has launched a new website: the Homelessness Learning Hub.

Last year, the COH reached out to a range of organizations in order to re-imagine the Community Workspace on Homelessness. In response, the COH conducted surveys, interviews and focus groups with a diverse range of stakeholders to get a better understanding of what the sector needs. 

In 2017, I was part of a team of people at the Canadian Observatory on Homelessness and A Way Home Canada who wrote a policy brief titled, Child Welfare and Youth Homelessness in Canada: A proposal for action.

The National Learning Community on Youth Homelessness (or Learning Community for short) is a pan-Canadian community of practice consisting of leading youth serving organizations across the country who are making the shift away from simply managing the crisis of youth homelessness to preventing and ending it. As a Founding Member of A Way Home Canada, the Learning Community helps guide and inform the national work of A Way Home Canada to prevent and end youth homelessness through impacting practice, policy, and planning.

We get it: funding for professional development and training for frontline service providers in our sector is slim. When budgets are tight, it’s often the first thing to go out the window as we’re trying our best to give all our resources to the people we serve. And yet, professional development is what makes our organizations more sustainable. From starting new frontline staff on the right track, to engaging lifers to continually expand their learning, we understand that frontline organizations are in need of these resources.  

In this bi-weekly blog series, Abe Oudshoorn explores recent research on homelessness, and what it means for the provision of services to prevent or end homelessness. Follow the whole series!

Watch what happens when you dump a bunch of craft supplies onto a table and ask people to make something. You’ll get a few blanks stares at first. Some people will say, “I’m not artistic.” Give it a few minutes, though; people won’t be able to resist the urge to rifle through the curious collection of materials that lies in front of them. They’ll dive in, cutting shapes from scraps of construction paper, gluing sequins on pieces of felt, or sketching ideas with fluorescent pencil crayons. There is something about making things with your hands that feels satisfying.

HireUp is a social enterprise that connects job seekers who have barriers to employment to meaningful work opportunities. The initiative is based on three principles:

Domestic violence affects many people at different stages of their lives and is currently one of the most prevalent forms of violence against women in Canada. It has also been identified as one the leading causes of housing instability, including homelessness, for women and children.