Collaborating With

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Collaborating With For Street Involved and
Homeless Youth in Hamilton

• Coming of Age Report Launch Presentation
• Presented by Erika Morton
• Feb 24th, 2014

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The Story of the Street Youth Planning
Collaborative
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There are at least 700 street-involved and
homeless youth in Hamilton

• Addressing the needs of street-involved and
  homeless youth, who are also
• Pregnant and parenting
• Aboriginal
• LGBTQ
• Newcomer
• From a range of geographic communities

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The SYPC Story

• How we are doing Community Development work,
  Systems Integration and Systems Level Planning
  work in Hamilton
• Which is to say that we are building the
  resilience and enhancing the capacity of the
  community to address the unique and complex needs
  of youth

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Community Conversations Relationship Building

• Directors from street-involved youth agencies
  have a long history of ad-hoc communication
• Over ten years ago, a group of service providers
  began meeting formally in order to address
  community gaps
• Separated the directors and front line staff to
  enhance communication

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Gathering Evidence Information

• The directors table partnered with the SPRC in
  2004 to develop a community plan that would
  address the needs of street-involved and homeless
  youth
• In October 2005, the Addressing the Needs
  document was released
• The subsequent recommendation implementation
  phase helped us understand how the three
  stakeholder groups would work together

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Getting Organized Taking Action

• Mission Statement The SYPC strives to advocate
  for, support and facilitate an enhanced, seamless
  system of services for street-involved and
  homeless youth.

Directors Committee
Front Line Advisory Committee
Youth Leaders Committee
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Leadership in Community Collaboration for Youth
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Key to our Engagement Collaboration

• Addressing the Needs of Street-Involved and
  Homeless Youth in Hamilton (October 2005) and
  Evaluation (August 2009)
• Strategic Planning Sessions
• Monthly Planning Meetings
• Dedicated Community Development Support

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Successes

• The collaboration model-3 stakeholder groups
• Commitment to systems planning systems level
  perspective
• Documentation of community conversations and use
  of research in work
• Community development support
• Increase of the profile and community awareness
  around street-involved youth issues
• Enhance communication between service
  providers-address barriers
• Share resources, projects, programs
• Joint planning and program development

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Successes

• Youth Housing Support Project
• Youth Outreach Workers of Hamilton project
• Angelas Place and Wesley Youth Housing
  transitional housing projects
• Living Rocks Weekend Open Access Support
• The Addressing the Needs report and subsequent
  Interim Project Check-In
• Increased capacity and training for front-line
  staff
• Increased mental health services, including
  clinical services

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Challenges

• Time
• Balancing inclusiveness and getting work done
• Working with diverse agencies
• A funding climate that expects collaboration but
  does not foster it
• Meaningfully valuing the perspective of front
  line staff and youth

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Funding Partner

• Thank you to the Government of Canada for their
  generous support

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Questions?

• For more information about the SYPC or YHSP
  please contact me at
• emorton_at_sprc.hamilton.on.ca
• 905-522-1148 ext 303
• Follow us on Twitter at _at_SYPCHamOnt

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THANK YOU!