(MtS), a youth homelessness social innovation lab co-led by the Canadian Observatory on Homelessness at 91��ɫ, will host a virtual discussion on “Using Data and Evidence to End Homelessness: Drawing lessons from the United Kingdom” on Nov. 17 at 11 a.m.

The housing crisis in Canada is continuing and getting worse. This means that the homeless-prevention sector needs to review its current interventions and develop new ones. Even more of our vulnerable populations are struggling to access housing, especially our young people. Embracing data and evidence-based decision-making are key steps to finding solutions.

Join Stephen Gaetz, professor in 91��ɫ’s Faculty of Education and director of the  and the , and Lígia Teixaira, co-editor of the book Using Evidence to End Homelessness, for a discussion on how leaders in government, academia and communities are developing and using evidence to end homelessness.

To create Using Evidence to End Homelessness, the Centre for Homelessness Impact brought together a range of expert voices to form a definitive evidence-led approach to bring about a sustainable end to homelessness. The contributors to this volume envisage a future in which data and rigorous evidence is created efficiently, as a routine part of government operations, and is used to drive improvements to policies and services aimed at helping people access and maintain stable, affordable housing.

Leveraging data and technology is a key strategy for Making the Shift in preventing and ending youth homelessness, with the goals of using data to impact policy and practice as well as drive the creation of innovative tools and resources to support communities.

for the event, or visit for more information.

Article originally posted in the November 10, 2022 issue of

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 (MtS), a youth homelessness social innovation lab co-led by the Canadian Observatory on Homelessness at 91��ɫ, is seeking proposals from researchers and community organizations (that can hold ) for one-time grants.

For full details, including French-language application materials, visit .

Research projects should contribute to MtS’s of policy and service enhancements that prevent youth homelessness in Canada. Youth homelessness prevention is defined in .

Applications must respond to one of the following funding streams and be submitted by the deadline date of Feb. 28 at 5 p.m. EST:

• Youth-Focused Harm Reduction
• Legal and Justice Issues
• Cost-Benefit Analysis
• Evictions Prevention
• Data and Technology: Understanding the Role of Linked Administrative Data in Preventing Youth Homelessness
• Pathways into Homelessness
• Open Prevention Topic

Who can apply?

Individuals or institutions can apply. Applicants must be affiliated with a Canadian post-secondary academic institution. Principal investigators must be tenure-stream faculty or adjunct faculty members.

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. Indigenous not-for-profit organizations wanting to administer the grant funds should apply for institutional eligibility.

Funding amount and duration

MtS will fund between $50,000 and $250,000 per project. Successful projects will receive funds approximately mid-August 2022. Projects should anticipate starting on Sept. 1, 2022. Project activities must be completed by Dec. 24, 2024.

How to apply

Step 1: Download the application 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: and submit your application through the Making the Shift submission portal. 

Both English and French applications are encouraged. MtS application documents translated into French were posted on Feb. 2.

Do you have questions? Contact the Making the Shift funding team at mtsfunding@yorku.ca for questions regarding your proposal or the submission process.

Learn more about current funded MtS projects

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We are pleased to announce that the  has established the Toronto Centre of Excellence (TCE) on Youth Homelessness Prevention at 91��ɫ. More than three years in the making, we couldn’t be more honoured to represent Canada across the UNECE’s Member States.

Hosted by 91��ɫ and co-led by the ,  and our , the TCE presents an important opportunity to work internationally to contribute to the transformation of how we respond to and prevent youth homelessness.

The TCE is part of a broader network of Centres of Excellence under the coordination of the UNECE with a mandate to engage in the exchange of research knowledge, experience and best practices to support the implementation of the . Currently, there are Charter Centres in Estonia, Scotland, Albania, and Norway, with additional Charter Centres launching in Switzerland, Italy, and Spain.

Through engaged international research, the TCE provides opportunities to assess the state of youth homelessness and prevention in the UNECE’s 56 member states. It will also endeavour to get youth homelessness and homelessness prevention on government policy agendas, catalyzing change and improved well-being and housing outcomes for youth and their families. The TCE allows us to leverage the training resources we’ve been developing in Canada on prevention and sustained exits for adaptation in other jurisdictions. The TCE then becomes an international megaphone for the important work we’ve been leading through our Making the Shift Youth Homelessness Social Innovation Lab, including our Demonstration Projects on models of prevention and Housing First for Youth.

The importance of international engagement cannot be stressed enough. For both of us, the new ways of thinking about and responding to homelessness that we’ve seen in different countries have led to meaningful and paradigm-shifting understandings of what to do, when and why. Learning about the Geelong project and Youth Reconnect in Australia nearly ten years ago led us to reconsider the role of prevention. While prevention has NOT been a priority in North America (though that is changing in Canada), when modern mass homelessness emerged in Australia, their response was not to build more shelters for youth, but rather work to prevent homelessness from occurring in the first place through school-based early intervention. More recently, human rights-based homelessness legislation in Wales (2014) paved the way for a preventive approach that we refer to as “Duty to Assist”, whereby local authorities are required to take reasonable steps to prevent or end a person’s homelessness, and have recourse to a wide range of mechanisms of assistance. People who do not have their right to housing fulfilled can challenge this in court. This is what the future of homelessness prevention should look like.

Our international exchanges are also bi-directional. , a Canadian adaptation intended to design a Housing First intervention that meets the needs of developing adolescents and young adults, has gained traction in many countries in Europe, at a rate that is perhaps even faster than in Canada. Our international relations have paid big dividends, and we hope to open up opportunities for even more international engagement involving more partners from Canada and abroad.  

The sharing of knowledge internationally will be better enabled with the establishment of the Toronto Centre of Excellence. The Centre provides a container for such activities and mechanisms to catalyze our focus on prevention and youth homelessness internationally. The designation will enable us to leverage funds to expand the critically important opportunities for international engagement, co-production of research and other activities. This will enhance the quality and impact of the knowledge generated through Making the Shift in Canada and the entire UNECE region.

Over the coming months, we’ll be working to implement our first year’s work plan for the Charter Centre, including hosting a virtual conference on Housing First for Youth with UNECE Member States. We’ll also be exploring options for membership models for the Charter Centre. We want to thank 91��ɫ and the Faculty of Education for all of their support to realize the Toronto Centre of Excellence.

Article originally published on the on June 16, 2021.

Authors:
, Faculty of Education Professor and CEO & President, Canadian Observatory on Homelessness
, CEO and PresidentA Way Home Canada

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Titled "Child Welfare and Youth Homelessness Prevention in Canada," the webinar will examine pandemic responses to homelessness across the nation. In response to the pandemic, some provinces and territories have placed temporary moratoriums on transitions from care. These measures have opened up opportunities to rethink what transitions should look like for youth moving forward. Youth who have had some type of involvement with child protection services over their lifetime are at increased risk of experiencing homelessness, and advocates have long argued more needs to be done to support young people during these times of transition.

Drawing upon emerging research and perspectives from the frontlines, attendees will learn about the long-term solutions that are needed to support youth when transitioning from care, ensuring no young person is prematurely forced out of care. The question that will be addressed is: How can we build on some of the recent promising developments to collectively rethink our approach to child protection?

Join Melanie Doucet, PhD social work and MtS Scholar with Lived Experience, senior researcher and project manager at the Child Welfare League of Canada and researcher with the Centre for Research on Children and Families at McGill University; Michael Ungar, founder and director of the Resilience Research Centre and Canada Research Chair in Child, Family and Community Resilience; and David French, managing director of A Way Home Canada, in a rich discussion on how to stop the pipeline of young people from the child welfare system into homelessness through focusing on well-being instead of keeping young people in survival mode.

To register for this Zoom event, visit .

Audience members will also learn about the innovative research and knowledge mobilization work of Making the Shift at 91��ɫ U, a youth homelessness social innovation lab with a mandate to make the shift from managing the crises of youth homelessness to a focus on prevention and housing stabilization.

Making the Shift is a Network of Centres of Excellence at 91��ɫ U, under the co-leadership of the Canadian Observatory on Homelessness (91��ɫ U).

Article from the May 25, 2021 issue of .

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“Right the Future” shows how different societal challenges look today and imagines how they could look in the future, thanks to the work of students and researchers working in its different departments. Examples include an all-male engineering robotics team being replaced by a more gender-balanced team, a homeless person getting easy access to affordable shelter or ocean plastics being replaced by a thriving jellyfish. Each outcome is zeroed in on with a red rectangle, a longtime hallmark of the school’s branding.

“This is a time for 91��ɫ to be bold and clarify what we stand for,” says Susan Webb, the university’s chief communications and marketing officer.

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Welcome to the November 2020 issue of Innovatus, a special issue of YFile that is devoted to teaching and learning innovation at 91��ɫ.

This issue of Innovatus focuses on teaching, learning and the student experience in the Faculty of Education. I am so pleased by the rich variety of stories offered in this issue because they showcase the expansive depth of the Faculty's approach to the "act of education" to quote Interim Dean Sharon Murphy.

Education is universal and the Faculty's work with refugees in the Dadaab Refugee Complex in Kenya, homeless youth and in re-envisioning early childhood education are displayed among the fine stories offered in this issue. As well, Dean Murphy's letter is a testament to the Faculty's commitment to excellence, and the story highlighting the innovation shown in moving the Faculty of Education's Summer Institute online and transforming it to a year-long effort is amazing. Encore!

Thank you again for the many wonderful comments about our September and October issues. I value each of your responses. Please continue to contact me with your ideas, classroom innovations and thoughts about teaching, learning and the student experience.

As I close, the snow is starting to fly and with it, the holidays are approaching. I would like to take a moment to wish each of you good health and happiness at home, which is especially important this year.

Featured in the November 2020 issue of Innovatus

In her letter to the community, Interim Dean Sharon Murphy writes about how the Faculty of Education is constantly working to enliven new visions of education and society, visions of possibility, equity and social justice. "Our work focuses not only inward on curriculum and pedagogy, but very much looks outward towards the idea of education being situated within a complex and seemingly evermore fragile world."

One of 91��ɫ's hallowed traditions, the Faculty of Education Summer Institute (FESI), may have bowed to COVID-19 in terms of format, but it is unbowed in terms of mission and content. For 2020-2021, the institute has morphed into a series of five free webinars titled Up Close and Personal: Conversations on Anti-Oppression.

Stephen Gaetz, the 91��ɫ Research Chair in Homelessness and Research Impact and a professor in the Faculty of Education, is using his excellent research and communications skills and grant-writing ability to attack the challenges within youth homelessness, which need broad solutions and a meeting of many perspectives.

Rachel Silver, an assistant professor of education at 91��ɫ, with the help of a team of her colleagues in both Toronto and Dadaab, has created a virtual colloquium series, Reciprocal Learning in Times of Crisis, for the Faculty's Borderless Higher Education for Refugees (BHER) program. The series considers the issues arising from the confluence of education, the COVID-19 pandemic and new waves of resistance to anti-Black racism.

Lucy Angus and Cristina Delgado Vintimilla, assistant professors new to 91��ɫ and the Faculty of Education, have created a lecture series titled Disrupting Early Childhood: Inheritance, Pedagogy, Curriculum to explore new ideas about early childhood education (ECE) and create a space to bring together the innovative research conversations that are changing the field of ECE.

Innovatus is produced by the Office of the Associate Vice-President Teaching & Learning in partnership with Communications & Public Affairs.

I extend a personal invitation to you to share your experiences in teaching, learning, internationalization and the student experience through the Innovatus story form, which is available at .

Will Gage
Associate Vice-President, Teaching & Learning

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The  (MtS) has made big strides towards its mission to transform Canada’s response to youth homelessness. In their latest impact report, MtS highlights some of the projects that kicked off this year, and how the projects are contributing to the prevention of youth homelessness in Canada.

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