2022 Call for Proposals: Seven New Funding Streams to Fill the Evidence Gaps in Youth Homelessness Prevention

Our 2022 Open Call for Proposals is now closed. 

Access our Frequently Asked Questions here (Français ici). 

Making the Shift is seeking proposals from researchers and community organizations (who can hold tri-council funding) for one-time grants. We are looking for research projects that contribute to our evidence base of policy and service enhancements that prevent youth homelessness in Canada. Youth Homelessness prevention is defined in The Roadmap for the Prevention of Youth Homelessness.

Deadline for applications is February 28th, 2022 at 5:00PM EST.

Descriptif en français – Appel de propositions ouvert

Applications must respond to one of the following funding streams: 

Stream A: Youth Focused Harm Reduction

Stream B: Legal and Justice Issues

Stream C: Cost-Benefit Analysis

Stream D: Evictions Prevention

Stream E: Data & Technology: Understanding the Role of Linked Administrative Data in Preventing Youth Homelessness

Stream F: Pathways into Homelessness

Stream G: Open Prevention Topic

WHO CAN APPLY 

  1. Individuals or institutions can apply.
  2. Applicants must be affiliated with a Canadian post-secondary academic institution. Principal Investigators must be tenure stream faculty or adjunct faculty members.
  3. Not-for-profit organizations can apply for funding, provided they meet Tri-Council requirements and submit the supporting documentation, including affiliation with an academic institution.
  4. Indigenous not-for-profit organizations wanting to administer the grant funds should apply for institutional eligibility.

FUNDING AMOUNT AND DURATION

We are funding between $50,000 – $250,000 per project. 

Successful projects will receive their funds approximately mid-August 2022. Projects should anticipate starting on September 1st 2022. Project activities must be completed by December 31st 2024.

HOW TO APPLY — Applications are now closed. 

We encourage both English and French applications. 

STEP 1: Download the Applicant Guide to determine if your proposal is eligible, and to learn more about how to submit your proposal. 

STEP 2: Prepare your application and complete the Making the Shift Budget Template.

STEP 3: Register and submit your application through the Making the Shift Submission Portal.

PRÉSENTATION DE LA PROPOSITION

ÉTAPE 1 : Télécharger le Guide du candidate pour déterminer l’admissibilité de votre proposition et apprendre davantage sur le processus de soumission.

ÉTAPE 2 : Préparer la demande et remplir le Gabarit budget de Changer de direction.

ÉTAPE 3 : Créer un compte et soumettre la demande grâce au Portail de soumission Changer de direction.

Do you have questions? Contact the Making the Shift funding team at mtsfunding@yorku.ca

Learn more about our current funded MtS projects here. 

Read our Frequently Asked Questions here (Français ici). 

MTS OPEN CALL 2022 FUNDING STREAMS 

STREAM A: Youth Focused Harm Reduction

Harm Reduction is an essential intervention to support youth. Harm Reduction encompasses a range of health and social services to support strong positive impact on the individuals and their community. 

Projects should provide at least one of the following:

  1. Literature review 
  2. Engagement with leaders in harm reduction as well as youth with lived experiences, 
  3. Development of practical resources to support implementation of youth-focused harm reduction and specific components of harm reduction (motivational interviewing, etc,), as well as considerations of an approach to harm reduction within the context of Housing First for Youth.

STREAM B: Legal and Justice Issues

Legal and justice matters include not only involvement with the criminal justice system, but addressing issues such as debt, eviction, emancipation, access to children apprehended by Child Protection, problems with landlords or employers, etc.

Projects should provide at least one of the following:

  1. Literature review
  2. A scan of supportive interventions
  3. Document that outlines key legal and justice issues
  4. Resources to support for lawyers, and workers supporting youth to understand the issues and provide guidelines regarding how to support youth at risk of, or who are experiencing homelessness.

STREAM C: Cost-Benefit Analysis

This stream targets projects that will analyse the data from the 2018 Without a Home research study (which captures information on health care utilization and involvement with the justice system amongst other things) as well as other data sources in order to: 

  1. Estimate the annual cost of keeping a young person in a state of homelessness, and
  2. An analysis of the lifelong implications and costs of youth experiencing chronic homelessness (that is, for more than 6 months) in terms of use of public systems and benefits, labour force participation, etc. 

STREAM D: Evictions Prevention

While evictions prevention programs are widespread, there is not a lot of research on how it works, nor its effectiveness. We seek to fund a project that provides at least one of the following:

  1. Literature review,
  2. Identifies key components and processes of evictions prevention,
  3. Provides case studies of effective evictions prevention interventions for youth and young families

As well as develops resources that help guide communities to operationalize the work.

STREAM E: Data & Technology: Understanding the Role of Linked Administrative Data in Preventing Youth Homelessness

In many European countries, linked administrative data is used to support responses to youth homelessness. Successful applicants will engage with countries such as Ireland, the Netherlands and Denmark to explore how linked administrative data is used in practical and operational terms to address homelessness, and in particular the prevention of homelessness.

STREAM F: Pathways into Homelessness

While research continues to uncover the causes of youth homelessness, less is known about the pathways into homelessness. Pathways refer to the process of becoming homeless; the specific events that undermine housing stability and /or create ruptures that lead to homelessness. It refers to the episodes and periods of homelessness, when homelessness happens, and what happens during these episodes. Understanding the pathways into homeless can help us identify points of intervention that will prevent or reduce the exposure to homelessness. Pathway mapping refers to a human-centred methodology to chart and capture a young person’s journey into and potentially their exit from homelessness. Projects in this stream will map the pathways of a diverse group of youth, and explore from the perspective of young people what the potential points of intervention, and the kinds of interventions that would have been most helpful.

STREAM G: Open Prevention Topic

This stream encourages projects that investigate prevention topics beyond the targeted calls in streams A through F. The project must support the MtS Research Agenda and be youth-homelessness prevention focused.