Today, the Canadian Observatory on Homelessness is launching a brand new, dedicated Youth Homelessness Space on the Community Workspace on Homelessness.
Launched in October, 2015 the Community Workspace on Homelessness is a free, online platform for members of the community, service providers and others working in the homelessness sector to collaborate, share information and exchange resources.
Presented in collaboration with the Government of Canada’s Homelessness Partnering Strategy (HPS), A Way Home, and the National Learning Community on Youth Homelessness, the Youth Homelessness Space is a dedicated forum to discuss successes, challenges and opportunities in our nation-wide effort to end youth homelessness.
The timing is opportune. Over the last year we have seen unprecedented coordination and collaboration around youth homelessness. In October 2015, members from across the country proudly launched A Way Home, Canada’s National Coalition to End Youth Homelessness.
Earlier in the year, Alberta released the first provincial plan to end youth homelessness. Soon after, Newfoundland and Labrador developed a framework towards developing their own provincial plan. Notably, Ontario adopted youth homelessness as one of its key priorities. These provincial commitments follow strong local commitments to end youth homelessness from communities such as Kamloops and Kingston.
At the same time, the commitment to collaboration around research and data collection has been equally impressive. The Canadian Observatory on Homelessness (COH), in partnership with A Way Home, the National Learning Community on Youth Homelessness and supported by the Home Depot Canada Foundation, conducted a large-scale National Youth Homelessness Survey with over 1100 youth. The results for which will be available in fall 2016.
Further, communities participating in the HPS Coordinated Count have made a concerted effort to ensure youth representation in the local Point-in-Time Counts and just last week, the COH launched a dedicated Youth Count Toolkit, supported by the Laidlaw Foundation.
In short, the momentum around ending youth homelessness is growing. The Youth Homelessness Space on the Community Workspace on Homelessness will support further collaboration, the development of best practice and above all, help us to answer the question: “what’s next?”
The Community Workspace on Homelessness is free and easy to register. Sign on today to join the conversation.
PS. Don’t forget to tune into our Ask Me Anything (AMAs) on March 22nd from 1-2PM ET. Dr. Stephen Gaetz, Director of the Canadian Observatory on Homelessness and Sheldon Pollet, Executive Director of Choices for Youth, will be available on the Workspace to answer your questions about youth homelessness. To download transcripts from our previous AMAs, click here.