PROJECTS
Research Projects Supported
by Making the Shift
Both funded research projects and demonstration projects showcase the power of collaboration between researchers and practitioners in identifying innovative, impactful, and comprehensive solutions to youth homelessness.
Active Projects
Listed Alphabetically
Pathways Interrupted: 2SLGBTQ Youth Leading Responses to Hidden Homelessness in Ontario, Canada
Project description
This project aims to look at upstream service gaps that contribute to pathways of 2SLGBTQ+ youth experiencing hidden homelessness. This multi-site study in Toronto, York Revion, and London will conduct in-depth interviews as well as use the cellphilm method.
Impact
The project will provide insights to improve service provision for 2SLGBTQ youth. The project will produce a composite video, environmental scans, community reports, research papers and research briefs that identify barriers to services for 2SLGBTQ youth experiencing hidden homelessness for a broad range of stakeholders and audiences.
The Impacts Of COVID-19 On LGBTQ2S Youth At-Risk Of, And Experiencing, Homelessness
Project description
This study engages a group of LGBTQ2S youth at-risk of and experiencing homelessness to understand their specific challenges, coping strategies, and mental health responses during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Impact
Evidence-based recommendations will be produced for the development and improvement of programs and targeted responses aimed at preventing and addressing LGBTQ2S youth homelessness during the pandemic.
Co-Creating a Data and Knowledge Roadmap to Support Youth Homelessness Research, Operations, and Policy in Canada
Project description
This project seeks to co-create a roadmap for data and knowledge infrastructure to support youth homelessness research, operations, and policy with a diverse and experienced team of stakeholders.
Impact
The roadmap aims to improve data and research collaboration in the sector, by enabling timely access to data insights and facilitate improved operations for coordinated service delivery and research collaboration.
Building a Human Rights and Youth-Centred Approach to Eviction Law and Practice
Sarah Buhler, University of Saskatchewan
Project description
This project aims to provide insight on evictions prevention through a human rights and youth-centered approach. The project seeks to determine the justice-based needs of youth, provide information for decision–makers on the human rights implications of evictions, and assess the recommendations needed for legislative reform regarding evictions.
Impact
This study will provide key research into evictions prevention. Outputs will include reports for key stakeholders, recommendations for legislative reform, and a draft “model” eviction statute.
Evaluating Family and Natural Supports
Canadian Observatory on Homelessness
Multiple sites
Project description
This project aims to understand how chosen supports, improved self-esteem, and increasing communication can minimize a youth’s involvement with the shelter system using an outcomes evaluation. Due to the systemic and personal changes occurring from the COVID-19 pandemic, the research team has modified their research to capture how the pandemic has impacted youth and their relationships.
Impact
The findings from this project will help frontline and management staff improve the delivery, structure, and practice of the programs, in addition to meeting the needs of youth who have been impacted negatively by COVID-19.
Evaluating Youth Reconnect
Project description
This project aims to understand how chosen supports, improved self-esteem, and increasing communication can minimize a youth’s involvement with the shelter system using an outcomes evaluation. Due to the systemic and personal changes occurring from the COVID-19 pandemic, the research team has modified their research to capture how the pandemic has impacted youth and their relationships.
Impact
The findings from this project will help frontline and management staff improve the delivery, structure, and practice of the programs, in addition to meeting the needs of youth who have been impacted negatively by COVID-19.
Free 2 Be: Housing First for Youth Leaving Care
Project description
This project uses a randomized controlled trial design to test and evaluate (process and outcomes) the effectiveness of Housing First for Youth as a preventive intervention for young people (ages 17-24) who are transitioning or have already transitioned out of the child welfare system.
Impact
The project will yield policy and program relevant evidence about what service interventions achieve the best results for this particular population of young people known to be at high risk of experiencing homelessness.
Housing First for Youth Ottawa
Canadian Observatory on Homelessness
Youth Services Bureau, John Howard Society, and Canadian Mental Health Association
Project description
This project uses a Randomized Controlled Trial design to test and evaluate (process and outcomes) the effectiveness of applying the Housing First for Youth approach to support young people (ages 17-24) experiencing homelessness without complex needs to exit homelessness and promote improved social and health outcomes.
Impact
The project will yield policy and program relevant evidence about what service interventions achieve the best results for this particular population of young people experiencing homelessness.
Pursuing Justice: Bilateral Interactions Among the Criminal Justice and Housing Sectors for Preventing Youth Homelessness
Erin Dej, Wilfred Laurier University
Project description
This project aims to gather insights on the experiences of youth across Canada (BC, Prairies, Ontario, Maritimes), considering intersections between the justice system and homelessness. The project also aims to illuminate gaps in the services needed for this demographic.
Impact
This project intends to fill a literature gap by exploring the intersection between youth homelessness and youth criminal justice involvement. Findings from the study will be used to shape recommendations for provincial and federal policies.
Understanding Young Women’s Experiences of Loneliness and Isolation During Covid-19 and Beyond: Participatory Research to Envision a Way Forward
Project description
This research explores how loneliness and isolation that occurs before, during, and after the COVID-19 pandemic impacts young women-identifying people’s housing stabilization.
Impact
The project will inform planning for the recovery period following COVID-19 and planning for future public health emergencies.
Preventing Youth Homelessness: A Life Journey Approach using Linked Multi-sector Administrative Data and Community Engagement
Project description
This project aims to use existing surveys and administrative data from various sectors to examine risk and protective factors linked to youth homelessness in Manitoba.
Impact
The project aims to develop a methodology that examines the intergenerational impact of homelessness, as well as uncover insights related to youth homelessness life course trends.
Sharing Our Stories: Pathways Into and Out of Homelessness for Métis Nation Youth Living In Ontario
Sarah Edwards, University of Toronto
Project description
This project aims to address the knowledge gap around pathways of Métis youth who experience homelessness in Ontario. The project will also map interventions available to Métis youth, which aims to support program planning and service delivery.
Impact
The project will fill a vital gap in Métis-specific research in this area and support evidenced-informed programming for the benefit of the Métis community in Ontario.
Between Homelessness and Care (and Back Again): Navigating Complex Institutional Trajectories Among Young People Who Use Drugs in Greater Vancouver
Danya Fast, University of British Columbia
Project description
The study seeks to provide information on young people who use drugs and their unique experiences with services, as well as in attaining housing. This is a longitudinal qualitative study, using interviews and ethnographic methods.
Impact
The study will generate critical insights for improved residential treatment programs to support permanent exits from homelessness and influence evidence-informed policy changes.
Youth Leaving Care – From State Care into Homelessness: Prevention and Early Intervention
Barbara Fallon, University of Toronto
Elena Lifshits Carrera, Association of Native Child and Family Services Agencies of Ontario (ANCFSAO)
Project description
This project seeks to uncover pathways that lead Indigenous youth out of care and into states of homelessness. The researchers will map Indigenous youths’ experiences of services to illuminate service gaps. The project will also review the roles of identity, Indigeneity and relationships in nurturing youth who are transitioning out of care systems.
Impact
The project will develop reports and recommendations highlighting gaps in adequate care for Indigenous youth. It will produce findings that contribute to identifying prevention indicators for Indigenous Child Wellbeing.
Examining Long Term Trajectories in the Transition Away from Youth Homelessness in Four Cities Across Canada
Project description
This project is a longitudinal, mixed-methods study and seeks to investigate the trajectories of youth who exit homelessness. The project will follow young people for 3 years, and explore the impact of quality of life, COVID-19, social supports, community integration, housing stability, and other key factors, on exiting homelessness. This multisite study takes place in Vancouver, BC, Toronto, ON, Montreal, QC and Halifax, NS.
Impact
The research project aims to gather information that will inform the design of policies and interventions for successful and lasting exits from homelessness.
Exploring Frameworks and Processes for Tracking and Monitoring Service and Housing Wait Times Relevant to the Prevention and Exit from Youth Homelessness
Project description
This project aims to analyze waitlists and wait times of social services to identify sectors requiring systems change and recognize patterns of systemic inequity, helping to improve systems integration – an important element of prevention.
Impact
The project aims to improve the sectors’ understanding of wait times relevant in the prevention of youth homelessness, as well as provide comparative insights that can be used for policy, advocacy, research, and service delivery to enhance systems integration and coordination.
Preventing Discharge to No Fixed Address – Youth
Project description
Building upon several successful initiatives with adults, this project will make housing and financial resources more accessible to youth admitted to inpatient wards at London Health Sciences Centre and St. Joseph’s Health Care London – Parkwood Institute Mental Health.
Impact
The project will contribute to the understanding of youth’s risks of homelessness, their unique challenges, and how factors such as quality of life and health and social service use correlate to housing stability.
Establishing and Mitigating Youth Housing Stability in Response to COVID-19: Engaging with the BC Interior
Project description
This research reviews youth homelessness services in the lead up to and during COVID-19, as well as the subjective experiences of youth at risk of homelessness during this time.
Impact
The project will inform planning for the recovery period following COVID-19 and planning for future public health emergencies.
Youth Homelessness Data Infrastructure (YHDI)
Project description
This project aims to build the first Youth Homelessness Data Infrastructure (YHDI) in Québec, by compiling a sub-corpus partly based on the longitudinal study of the transition of a cohort of youth in care data, forming a comparative group of youth at risk of homelessness, and integrating clinical-administrative data regarding health, work and education.
Impact
The project aims to generate new knowledge to support the prevention of homelessness among vulnerable youth in Québec through linking administrative data related to health, work and education.
Opportunities for Innovation: Indigenous Youth Coping With Homelessness During the Covid-19 Pandemic in the Kenora Region
Joanna Henderson, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH)
Jennifer Dreaver, Kenora Chiefs Advisory
Project description
This research project centres Indigenous youth voices in describing unique challenges and coping in the Kenora region of Northwestern Ontario regarding homelessness amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. It specifically analyzes health and well-being impacts related to service delivery modifications and/or disruptions as a result of a pandemic.
Impact
The project will document these experiences and provide specific strategies for Indigenous youth in the Kenora region to use during the recovery period.
On the Move: A Mixed Methods Study of Indigenous and Non-Indigenous Homelessness and Migration in Northeastern Ontario
Project description
This project generates new knowledge about appropriate strategies for detecting risk, intervening early, and supporting sustainable exits from homelessness amongst Indigenous and non-Indigenous (Francophone and Anglophone) youth in urban, rural, and remote communities of Northeastern Ontario (NEO).
Impact
The project will illuminate vulnerability and protective factors for various subgroups based on gender, sexual orientation, age, and migration/mobility.
Looking South (and Slightly North-East) for School-based Prevention Ideas
Project description
This project will systematically investigate and synthesize school-based prevention efforts in Australia, Wales, and the U.S., as well as implementing and evaluating a youth created, school-based prevention-focused workshop for teachers and education students in Canada.
Impact
The project aims to provide concrete strategies to transform the Canadian educational policy landscape towards effectively integrating school-based prevention of youth homelessness.
A National Study of Tertiary Prevention Models for Youth Exiting Homelessness
Project description
This project uses a multiple case study design, systematic reviews, and a rigorous knowledge exchange strategy to articulate the service models of the most promising housing stabilization approaches and to build capacity in the sector.
Impact
The project aims to generate more effective services for youth exiting homelessness and inform system and policy leaders about evidence-driven approaches to stabilizing post-homelessness trajectories across diverse Canadian contexts.
Examining the Effectiveness of an Integrated Housing, Mental Health, and Addiction Service Model for Youth Experiencing Homelessness
Project description
This research tests the effectiveness of an integrated intervention tailored to better meet the housing, mental health, and addiction service needs of youth experiencing homelessness and concurrent disorders using an outcome and process evaluation.
Impact
The project addresses a significant knowledge gap concerning solutions to better meet the needs of youth experiencing homelessness.
Using Administrative Data to Understand and Provide Effective Responses to Youth Homelessness
Project description
This project relies on a very large administrative datasets (Statistics Canada and Calgary Police Services) to identify the size and nature of the problem of youth homelessness. Specifically, the project looks at the patterns and intensity of emergency shelter use by youth, identifying which youth are most likely to succeed in Housing First programs, and determining the differential impacts of program interventions on Indigenous youth.
Impact
The project provides a unique opportunity to accurately measure details of how government policy and institutional program design, as well as family financial conditions, play a role in shaping and ending youth homelessness.
Upstream Canada: A Collective Impact Approach to Scaling Youth Homelessness Prevention
Project description
This research seeks to understand how Upstream Canada, an innovative approach to addressing youth homelessness and school disengagement, can be sustainably scaled.
Impact
Better understanding of what conditions impede and facilitate the social innovation process will inform systems change towards more equitable opportunities and outcomes for youth at risk of homelessness.
Making the Prevention Shift in Québec: Prévention Itinérance Jeunesse
Project description
This project will synthesize what is currently known about pathways leading to youth homelessness in Québec; apprehend promising early intervention and prevention practices; mobilize local knowledge (practice, policy, theory) on the prevention of youth homelessness; and identify research, practice, and policy priorities, with the overall goal of developing a provincial prevention framework.
Impact
The project will produce a made-in-Québec prevention framework and action plan that will be carried forward by collaborators and youth.
Using Health and Community Data to Prevent Youth Homelessness
Project description
This project will use a merged health and emergency shelter dataset for Calgary to develop data science tools to better support vulnerable youth that interact with these systems.
Impact
The project seeks to visualize system interactions and support predictive tools that can be used to identify at risk individuals.
Making the Shift Youth Homelessness Shelter Diversion Study
Project description
This is a longitudinal, multi-site research project, that aims to assess key aspects of shelter diversion programs in five Canadian communities (Calgary, Niagara, Guelph, Cambridge, Peterborough). This is the first study of its kind in Canada to explore different approaches to shelter diversion, an essential prevention strategy.
Impact
The project aims to generate real-world strategies for changes to organizational policies and practices for shelters and other service providers; and develop an evidence-based service model for shelter diversion.
Improving Frontend User Experiences by Mapping the Backend Architecture: A Cross-Sectoral Data and Infrastructure Audit
Project description
This project aims to produce and mobilize descriptive and analytical knowledge, to support the youth homelessness sector in developing cross-sectoral, rights-based data interventions and infrastructure that prioritizes youth homelessness prevention.
Impact
The project aims to develop open-access data asset maps and data quality assessment reports for stakeholders to adapt for their prevention needs.
Responding to Youth Homelessness in the Midst of a Pandemic: Shifting to Collaborative, Prevention-based Services in a Large Urban Setting
Amanda Noble, University of Toronto and Covenant House
Project description
This project seeks to understand the impact of COVID-19 on youth experiencing homelessness in Toronto’s downtown shelter system, including among youth that moved to a hotel and those that remained in shelter.
Impact
Recommendations to permanently shift towards a prevention-based response will be developed.
EQUIP Housing: Enacting Culturally Safe Housing Stability for Indigenous Youth Finding Home
Project description
This project will explore the value of the EQUIP model in preventing and ending Indigenous youth homelessness. By engaging Indigenous research and participatory implementation methods, it will test an evidence-informed model of equity-oriented approaches in order to prevent homelessness and support sustained exits to housing.
Impact
This project adapts an equity-oriented model from primary health care to homelessness prevention and response in order to transform service delivery and remove barriers for Indigenous youth.
Decolonizing Transitions from Care for Indigenous Youth
Project description
This project will follow the experience of youth entering an Indigenous housing initiative that provides support with daily living, access to Elders, and other cultural supports. The research seeks to understand how an Indigenous-led program can reduce homelessness by addressing youth’s overall spiritual, emotional, and physical well-being.
Impact
The project will identify and assess housing models designed to address the needs of Indigenous youth transitioning out of care in Canada; co-create a decolonized approach to youth housing programming and youth research; and create a research network around preventing Urban Indigenous Youth Homelessness.
Identifying Pathways, Key Turning Points and Potential Points of Intervention into Youth Homelessness for Pregnant Youth and Young Mothers
Christine Stich, McGill University
Project description
This project aims to investigate pathways into and out of homelessness for pregnant youth and young mothers in Montreal. The project uses in-depth interviews and focus groups. The project will map pathways, key turning points and identify helpful interventions.
Impact
This project will contribute to prevention efforts to serve this subset of youth and their families who experience homelessness.
Transitioning Youth Out of Homelessness 2.0: A Pilot Randomized Rent Subsidy and Identity Capital Intervention for Youth Exiting Homelessness
Naomi Thulien, Unity Health Toronto – St. Michael’s Hospital
Project description
This project seeks to determine the effectiveness of a portable rent subsidy for youth who experience homelessness, as an approach to sustain exits from homelessness. Half of the participants will have access to a co-designed leadership program and a dedicated life coach. The intervention will be evaluated through focus groups and a validated survey. The study engages youth from Toronto, Hamilton, and St. Catharine’s.
Impact
The project will help front-line service organizations build successful supports for sustained exists by providing high-quality evidence for the effectiveness of this approach. The project will build vital capacity and training opportunities for youth with lived expertise and community partners.
Endaayaang, an Indigenous Adaptation of Housing First for Youth
Project description
This project synthesizes current literature on Indigenous youth homelessness services and evaluates the Endaayaang program, an Indigenous adaptation of HF4Y. It will create a culturally-based Indigenous housing model and evaluation framework.
Impact
The project contributes to understanding of Indigenous youth experiencing or at risk of homelessness in Canada and will create a culturally-based Indigenous housing model and evaluation framework.
Youth Transition from Child Welfare to Precarious Living Conditions: A Mixed Methods Longitudinal Study of Risk and Protective Factors in Nova Scotia
Project description
This study follows a large cohort of young people through the transition from Child Welfare Services in Nova Scotia to identify the psychological, institutional, social, educational, and political/policy aspects of young people’s lives that put them at risk of homelessness and those that enhance their resilience, including housing stability and engagement in school or work.
Impact
The project will uncover effective strategies that prevent youth aging out of care from becoming precariously housed or homelessness and will serve as a pilot that other provinces and territories can replicate.
Ai’aoskiikowaata (Providing Guidance to Youth): Supporting Healthy Transitions from Government Care to Independent Living
Project description
This research employs two studies to investigate youth’s experiences of transitioning out of government care in three southern Alberta locations. The first study gathers young adults’ first-hand knowledge of exiting care through a multi-media storytelling project. The second surveys Indigenous and non-Indigenous young adults on their care experiences, exposure to traditional culture, and current life outcomes.
Impact
The project can inform legislators and knowledge users about the protective factors associated with culturally-appropriate resources; prevention and support strategies for Indigenous youth; service and programming gaps; and the relationship between youths’ experiences in care and life quality as measured by housing status and the social determinants of health.
Post-Secondary Student Homelessness (PSSH) in Canada: Informing Prevention Through Qualitative Analysis
Project description
This project will explore what housing supports look like from the perspective of youth with lived experience of homelessness in post-secondary environments, using a mixed method qualitative design. The project also seeks to determine the role administrators may play in preventing PSSH.
Impact
The study aims to amplify the influence of students in the design of housing and supports, as well as provide tailored feedback for participating sites outlining solutions and recommendations to prevent PSSH.
Art as Knowledge Mobilization: Amplifying Youth Voices to Inform Harm Reduction Practice for Preventing Youth Homelessness
Ciann L. Wilson, Wilfred Laurier University
Project description
This project seeks to determine how youth serving organizations in Winnipeg, Manitoba utilize a youth-focused harm reduction framework. The project will conduct a collaborative, community-based art project through a workshop series to share the voices of youth.
Impact
This project intends to respond to an identified research gap in youth–focused harm reduction, with findings to inform policy and practice within youth focused organizations.
First Nations Interventions
Project description
This project explores how First Nations youth at risk of or with lived experience of homelessness are affected by and negotiating the Covid-19 pandemic. In particular, it will ask how schools, organizations, and communities continue to provide land-based learning and cultural programming to First Nations youth during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Impact
The project will document these experiences and provide strategies and recommendations for First Nations youth that can be used during the recovery period.
One House Many Nations: A Community First Approach to Address Homelessness Amongst First Nation Youth
Project description
Youth living on-reserve with lived experience or who are at risk of homelessness join a team that designs and builds a new home in their community. The research will characterize the nature and causes of homelessness amongst First Nation youth; assess the impacts of this Indigenous community-led approach to homelessness on the housing trajectories of First Nation youth living on-reserve; and support adaptation and mobilization of this approach in other First Nations.
Impact
This Indigenous-led, culturally-grounded, and community-first collaboration will build both community capacity and the capacity of individual First Nation youth who participate in the project.
