CIBC
2011 Winners Announced!
In this sixth year of Eva’s Initiatives Award for Innovation, three winners are being recognized for their outstanding work with homeless youth. Eva’s Initiatives received 24 applications from organizations working with homeless youth across Canada. A six member panel, knowledgeable about services for homeless youth, reviewed all applications and selected three winners from among the many applicants with impressive and innovative projects underway in communities across the county.
The three winners for 2011, recognized for their focus on supports for at-risk and homeless youth, are:
- Phoenix Youth Programs for Phoenix Prevention Program & Community Development Initiative in Mulgrave Park (Halifax, NS)
- Resource Assistance for Youth (RaY) for RaY Emergency Shelter and Transition (REST) (Winnipeg, MB)
- Bathurst Youth Centre for Bathurst Youth House (Bathurst, NB)
The Eva’s Initiatives Award for Innovation is generously sponsored by CIBC. Each winning organization receives a prize of $5,000, presented at an awards ceremony in their community.
2011 Winners
Resource Assistance for Youth for RaY Emergency Shelter and Transition (REST) Winnipeg, MB
Resource Assistance for Youth (RaY) is a drop-in/resource centre supporting homeless and street-entrenched youth. RaY offers a continuum of services and programs including basic needs services, street outreach, addictions and mental health outreach, advocacy, housing support, pre-employment program and life skills training.
The goal of RaY Emergency Shelter and Transition (REST) is to provide homeless and at-risk youth with alternatives to the emergency shelter system while supporting their transition to safe and affordable long-term housing. This includes building bridges between street-involved youth and both public and private sector landlords.
In support of REST, the Government of Manitoba has committed 2-4 units within a Manitoba Housing complex to provide youth with transitional housing. This housing offers an alternative to existing emergency shelters for youth who are escaping abusive situations, have “aged out” of the child welfare system, are waiting for treatment, and/or who require short-term supported accommodation before they commit to a long-term living arrangement.
Through RaY’s pre-employment program, youth have been maintaining the yards and outer facades of a number of neighbourhood rooming houses as part of RaY’s cleaning crew. These connections have led to RaY’s youth being given first opportunities to access these accommodations. By working directly with rooming house owners as part of the REST initiative, RaY will be helping landlords maintain their properties while being able to provide support the youth who occupy the units. The expectation is that the youth housed through REST will follow through on a work plan that includes eventually moving into independent long-term housing.
REST is innovative in its direct involvement with rooming house owners. By harnessing resources that are available in the community (affordable rooming house accommodation) RaY is well positioned to make emergency support systems work better for at-risk youth, without the burden of the organization owning or developing the housing itself.
For more information www.rayinc.ca
Phoenix Youth Programs for the Phoenix Prevention Program & the Mulgrave Park Community Development Initiative Halifax, NS
Phoenix is a non-profit, community based organization connecting with at-risk and homeless youth, ages 12 to 24. Phoenix programs focus on prevention, crisis assistance, emergency shelter, long-term supportive and structured living, independent living, personal skill development, education, health services, and after-care services.
The goal of the prevention program is to work collaboratively with the community to develop meaningful opportunities for youth challenged by poverty, racism, and high crime rates in the area where they live. The prevention work seeks to increase youths’ sense of confidence, self efficacy, competence, caring, and contribution while strengthening the individuals’ connections with peers, family, school, and community.
The Mulgrave Park Initiative seeks to address school and community concerns that many youth from the area were falling through the cracks and engaging in high risk behaviours and crime. After-school hours and summer months were identified as particularly problematic times when youth were bored with little to do. Further, there was concern about the youths’ negative self-image and about the breakdown of relationships with family, school, and the community. The response was a multi-pronged approach that includes a summer program for teens; a teen after-school program with art, cultural and recreational opportunities; community service opportunities; tutoring and mentorship; and a lunch program at the junior high school.
This initiative is innovative in a number of ways:
- The expressed interests and needs of the community are the drivers of the program: there is no ‘pre-packaged’ solution proposed to the community.
- The initiative has created opportunities for youth to have input and ownership in program development and be engaged in things that are meaningful to them.
- It brings a prevention focus to an organization whose mission is to address homelessness, underlining the importance of trying to decrease risk factors and increase protective factors for youth.
- The approach is holistic in that every program or activity is assessed for
- How it creatively feeds into youths’ sense of confidence, competence, and contribution
- How it contributes to youths’ sense of connection to family, school, and community
- How it supports the voice of youth, their families, and Mulgrave Park residents in the face of inequities facing this community
- Participants and their families connecting with the Mulgrave Park initiative can be linked into counselling services offered through Phoenix if the need arises, thereby improving this community’s access to services.
For more information: www.phoenixyouth.ca
Bathurst Youth Centre for the initiative Bathurst Youth House, Bathurst, NB
Located within a city of 13,000 with the population in the surrounding area at about 80,000, the Bathurst Youth Centre offers young people a safe place to meet and experience a sense of belonging. In recent years, staff at the centre have become increasingly aware of the need to provide assistance to homeless and at-risk youth who, without adequate housing and support, have few opportunities to reach their potential.
While Bathurst has an emergency homeless shelter where homeless youth can stay for a short-term, the Bathurst Youth House addresses the community’s need for longer term transitional housing and supports for youth 16 to 21 in the Chaleur region. At present, the closest transitional housing for youth is almost 100 km away from the community.
Currently in development, the Bathurst Youth House is expected to open in 2011, with 3 bedrooms and capacity to house 6 youths. All youth will be expected to be in school or working in the community and will be supported through skills development opportunities, including the skills required to share in household tasks and maintain independent housing.
The project has the support of the Province of New Brunswick to locate the transitional housing adjacent to the emergency shelter facility in a building owned by the province. The building is a duplex, with the transitional housing planned to occupy one half of the building and the shelter in the other. Staff offices will be shared between the two facilities with the staffing model designed to make use of the staff already on site for the shelter services. This ensures 24/7 staffing and ongoing linkages with employment counsellors, social workers, and outreach workers who can provide some case management. Fundraising is currently underway for resources to renovate the space, with additional support being sought from senior levels of government.
For more information, contact Bathurst Youth Centre at 506-549-3215.
Our Sponsor
The Eva’s Initiatives Award for Innovation is generously sponsored by CIBC. Each winning organization receives a prize of $5,000, presented at an awards ceremony in their community.
Background
Review Panel
Past Winners
Background
Eva’s Initiatives and CIBC have teamed up to offer three annual awards for organizations working with homeless and at risk youth.
New this year: Awards may go to projects that are fully implemented and operational or still in the developmental stage.
Winners will be community organizations demonstrating innovation in one or more of the following ways:
- Delivering services that help homeless and at-risk youth achieve greater self-sufficiency
- Demonstrating ways to help prevent or end youth homelessness
- Including green or environmental strategies in their programs
- Engaging youth in ways that foster leadership development
- Entering into research collaborations and demonstration projects
Why offer an Award for Innovation?
The goal of the awards is to recognize other organizations that are doing innovative work with youth who are homeless or at-risk of homelessness.
Review Panel
Eva’s Initiatives is grateful for the assistance received from the six members of the review panel. This cross-Canada panel diligently reviewed and evaluated all applications, and were responsible for selecting the three winners. The members of the review panel for the 2011 awards were:
| Céline Bellot | Associate Professor/ Professeur adjointe école de service social Université de Montréal |
| Rachel Gray | Director of National Initiatives for Eva’s Initiatives |
| Darrell Lechman | Saskatoon Youth Community Arts Programming |
| Bruce Pearce | Community Development, St. John’s Community Advisory Committee on Homelessness |
| Jenny Vengris | City of Hamilton |
| Robert Wilmot | Manager, Broadway Youth Resource Centre |
Past Winners
2010 Winners:
- The Street Youth Planning Collaborative (Hamilton, ON)
- Boys and Girls Clubs of Calgary for The Infinity Project (Calgary, AB)
- Covenant House Vancouver & The Inner City Youth Mental Health Project (Vancouver, BC)
2009 Winners:
- Groupe communautaire l’itinéraire for the initiative Le magDVD le 3e Œil (Montréal, QC)
- The Laing House Association for the program Youth Speak : Breaking Down Stigma One Classroom at a Time (Halifax, NS)
- Parkland Youth Homes Society for Street Ties Youth Outreach (Red Deer, AB)
2008 Winners:
- SIDA/AIDS Moncton for the Youth Asset Program (Moncton, NB)
- YWCA of Greater Toronto for Peel Youth Village Residential Democratic Living Program (Mississauga, ON)
- Coming Home Society for Young Wolves Lodge (Vancouver, BC)
2007 Winners:
- Okanagan Boys and Girls Clubs: Kelowna Downtown Youth Centre
- Saskatoon Community Youth Arts Programming Inc.: Urban Canvas Project
- Les Maisons Transitionnelles 03 for their housing and support program for young parents
2006 Winners:
- Broadway Youth Resource Centre
- Mères et Monde (Québec City)
- SKETCH Working Arts for Street-involved and Homeless Youth
