Did ya miss part 1? READ IT HERE
In the last post we focused on the ways that we at Directions Youth Services and Family Services of Greater Vancouver are taking actions to support homeless youth by giving them safe places to sleep and food to eat.
Remember the Youth Advisory Committee? It’s our way of formalizing youth involvement in our planning and decision making. In this post, we’ll be focusing more on our youth-informed approach and the impact it has on our programming.
Move Out Kits
“We want to empower them.”
Move Out Kits are one specific support we offer to Safehouse youth – one that they receive when they leave.
When youth leave Safehouse and move into an apartment, we provide them with a Move Out Kit. These kits contain basics like cutlery, dishes, and bedding. They’re our way of ensuring that youth get to step into their next chapter with dignity.
Youth get to move into a place that immediately feels like home.
Clinical Counselling
One of the main concepts that has come from us listening to youth is that they need as many supports as possible under one roof. One of the supports we’ve been able to offer across our sites is clinical counselling.
Our Clinical Counsellor meets youth at any of our sites and around the community. Having a counsellor available gives youth the chance to build skills like:
- resilience
- setting boundaries
- emotional regulation
- and more
while having a free, safe, compassionate place to work through and discuss obstacles and difficulties they’re facing.
Street Youth Job Action
Many youth who are unhoused lack job opportunities – and they aren’t always offered the same kinds of chances as their peers. One solution we have for this is Street Youth Job Action (SYJA). This program has been around since the 90s and, while it has evolved, youth empowerment has always been its core tenant.
Youth are paid same day for the work they do, giving them the money flow to buy necessities.
The program is a chance to build up work and employment skills, get recommendations, try leadership roles, and more.
2SLGBTQIA+ Programming
At least 25% of the youth who come to Directions are part of the 2SLGBTQIA+ community. We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: the youth who are the most likely to experience homelessness are ones who are already marginalized.
We’re proud that 2SLGBTQIA+ youth have always been welcome in our programs.
But we don’t think welcome is quite enough – which is why we have 2SLGBTQIA+ youth centered programming. We host activities like:
- movie and game nights
- rainbow pancake parties
- drag shows and tutorials
- pronoun button making
- and much more
all to give youth a safe place to CELEBRATE who they are and build healthy, supportive, inclusive community.
The Future of 2SLGBTQIA+ Programming
We want to ⇐ E X P A N D ⇒ what we offer the 2SLGBTQIA+ youth who come through our doors.
We envision:
- more events, like drag shows and other queer performances
- a 2SLGBTQIA+ library full of books with own-voices and representation
- gender-affirming clothing
- haircuts
- beauty supplies
- and more, responding to the kinds of things youth tell us they want
If this is something you’re interested in helping us achieve, please reach out to [email protected] and we’d love to be in touch about making some magic happen.
The Art Program
Art creates space for sitting with feelings, telling your story, owning your story, exploring ideas, and finding community. Like SYJA, our Art Program has taken many forms throughout Directions’ history and we’re so proud of what it has given youth participants.
The Slice
One of the upcoming projects our Art Program participants will take part in over the next few months is reviving The Slice. Thanks to funding from City of Vancouver, youth will be making a new, limited edition of The Slice.
A slice of what?
The Slice was “a zine by, for, and about street youth” that ran off and on from 1992 through about 2007. It was full of drawings, stories, poems, interviews, and resources and the whole thing was created by youth: the perfect example of a youth-led initiative. We’re ecstatic for it to have a revival and thank The City of Vancouver for supporting this project!
Old editions of The Slice are a rich archive of insight into the lives of our clients from the 90s and early 2000s. These old issues make it abundantly clear that many of the systemic problems and experiences we see youth facing today aren’t new.
A Slice of: The Cost of Living
Reading through old copies of The Slice, the cost of food and housing showed up in a lot of the drawings, poems, and works of prose. Combine them and we’re really talking about the cost of living. We found example after example of youth referring to food being too expensive then… and… we all know how rough prices are right now.
People need to eat and being hungry is a problem that’s central to many homeless youths’ experiences.
Like we said in our last post: our food programming is the heart of what we do at Directions. It’s a way of responding to youth’s most immediate needs, one they’re identifying.
A Slice of: Discrimination
When we describe the youth we serve as marginalized it’s because we’re trying to concisely capture the fact that most of these youth have been facing one or more forms of discrimination their whole lives.
Directions youth are often racialized and experience the systemic impacts of racism – 50% of the youth we support are Indigenous.
Many of the youth coming to us have been met with hostility or rejection at home because of their sexuality or gender identity – at least 25% are part of the 2SLGBTQIA+ community.
Being discriminated against is a theme we found throughout old editions of The Slice.
While public awareness and attitudes have changed over the years, there’s no denying that the youth most likely to be unhoused are racialized, disabled, 2SLGBTQIA+, or otherwise marginalized. And then they face discrimination, social rejection, and stigma when they’re seen as homeless.
We design our programs to be inclusive, equitable, and just. And beyond our services, we advocate for policies that protect marginalized youth, respond to emerging needs identified by the YAC, and look upstream to end cycles of violence.
Read more of Directions: Past, Present, Future Part 3