Covenant House Toronto and Vancouver are in the process of aligning their services with the Foyer ‘Hub and Spoke’ model. While they are yet to be “best practice” examples, they are definitely promising practices, based on the extensive number of youth they have supported, the successes they have reported and their evaluations to date.

As mentioned previously, both agencies follow Covenant House International’s Continuum of Care model. The Hub component of the Foyer includes the emergency shelter/crisis program, drop-in, meal programs and other onsite services, as well as the transitional housing Rights of Passage program, which offers on-site, congregate living with supports.

The Spokes component refers to off-site community, scattered-site apartments. Youth in these locations live much more independently but in some cases are still supported by Covenant House. There are transitional housing units available in Toronto and Vancouver, as well as support to facilitate independent living.

This toolkit will explore the Rights of Passage program and will also touch on the off-site transitional and independent housing that is offered at each location. The off-site housing is a newer component for each Covenant House and is fairly small at each location. Yet, the model that they are implementing and the support that is provided post-transition, especially at Covenant House Toronto, are key to helping develop solutions to housing for youth experiencing homelessness.