Homelessness Prevention in Youth and Families Across Six Canadian Cities

Each year in Canada, approximately 40,000 people under the age of 24 will experience homelessness. Youth experiencing homelessness are highly vulnerable to crime, violence and sexual assault. Once homeless, youth are at high risk for multiple episodes of homelessness or chronic homelessness into adulthood. Interventions must be youth-centered, low-barrier, strengths-based, and prioritize diversion and/or family and natural supports to prevent long-term homelessness and its deleterious effects. One approach to prevention is through shelter diversion. Shelter diversion aims to provide the necessary resources to help youth stabilize their housing situation, ideally with case management supports, to prevent them from entering the shelter system. Using a blended methodology including quantitative and qualitative measures grounded in human-centered design principles, this multi-site study is a three-year comparative case study to assess the effectiveness of shelter diversion programs currently being offered in six sites in Canada.

Faculty Supervisor:

Katrina Milaney;Meaghan Edwards

Student:

Partner:

Trellis

Discipline:

Sociology

Sector:

Health and Related Sciences & Technology

University:

University of Calgary

Program: