Our future: Our youth

"Youth are our future; the continued strength of our country depends in large part on how we raise the next generation. It is our country’s responsibility to ensure that they receive the supports they need to develop to their full potential." Raisingtheroof.org

Some statistics from Raisingtheroof.org on homelessness in youth that relates to my proposed youth initiative:

Legal issues: Close to 30% of youth respondents reported legal issues as a barrier to achieving their goals. The difficult circumstances of street life often lead homeless youth to get involved in high-risk activities such as sexual exploitation, drug dealing and ‘squeegeeing’ as a way to access income.Also, youth often get tickets for panhandling, failing to pay fares on public transit, loitering and other misdemeanours. Criminalizing youth rather than treating these issues from a social perspective only adds to the already difficult challenges that street-involved youth face. Www.raisingtheroof.org

The role of addictions: more than 50% of the youth reported drug and alcohol abuse and described addiction as a major factor in coping with homelessness as well as in triggering relapses to street life. many youth self-medicate as a tool for survival in situations where, for example, they might need to stay awake all night to avoid being exploited. Drugs and alcohol are often used as a substitute for expensive mental health medications. And these youth often don’t have sufficient identification to get the medication they need or they have not yet been formally diagnosed. Www.raisingtheroof.org


According to the National Youth in Care Network, there are over 75,000 children and youth in care in Canada on any given day. This number represents a 67% increase over the 1995 estimate of 45,000.
An additional 24,000 youth reside in detention centres and youth justice facilities. Countless more are in mental health institutions. And thousands of youth have fallen through the cracks in the system and are living on the streets and in shelters.9 This latter group likely includes youth who, for one reason or another, were not brought into the care of child welfare authorities, ran away from their foster homes, refused to be involved in the care system or were found ineligible for services.
There is a need to reduce barriers to service access and to make improvements to the systems currently in place to prevent these youth from ending up homeless. Www.raisingtheroof.org