What is “shelter”?

As humans, we tend to use language to describe hard things in a way that is both easy and digestible.

Shelter has been the easiest word to describe the complex support that individuals experiencing houselessness need. It is easy for us to think that the answer to not having shelter is to provide shelter.  It is also easy to use shelter as the umbrella term to connect services across a large sector and make it easier to fund, explain, or support.

But the truth is that “shelter” is not easy. The general understanding is that shelters function as a transition from “early intervention work” into “community integration work/housing”; a holding place until more specific or permanent services or support can be found; and also synonymous with “emergency” or “last resort” support.

People who actually access shelter and those supports have been shouting for years that they want change within the shelter system—especially young people!

In 2017, YESS and other youth-serving agencies started to collaborate to understand the barriers that exist for youth who are in the “shelter cycle” and find themselves moving from agency to agency. In our research, it was very clear that youth do not feel safe or accommodated or productive in “shelters.” At YESS, with our mission to focus on root causes rather than symptoms, this was important information for how to stabilize youth and support their goals in a way that is sustainable.

We listened and progressed our programming from overnight shelter to a 24/7 sleep shelter and eventually into our Youth Support Centre model we are working within now.

 

What are the limitations of “shelter” when working with youth?

Working with youth means having only a short time period to affect positive change in their lives. It means working alongside emotional changes, developmental growth, and also traumatic experiences and responses. It is complex work trying to understand young people who do not yet understand themselves.

“Shelter” models do not really help or support this complexity. Youth need to learn so much in this short time and that learning has to start with understanding how their body is responding to trauma (When is it safe for them to sleep? When is it safe to eat?) and then try to shift their body’s needs to a “normal” rhythm that allows them to thrive within the larger community. Youth cannot keep a job or attend school if they are too afraid to sleep at night. Youth cannot focus on communicating and problem solving if they are afraid and unable to stabilize their thoughts or feelings. Youth cannot move through an addiction if the addiction is somehow making them feel safe or better than their baseline state. YESS understands these daily complexities and we moved away from the shelter model to address them.

 

What is the Youth Support Centre?

When youth are in their most vulnerable crisis state, they are scared and hurt and angry and desperate for help and safety. Our Youth Support Center provides a safe space for youth in any level of crisis to come and breathe and stabilize themselves.

We focus on helping them feel welcomed and safe before we launch into the more complex work of determining if they are needing crisis de-escalation work, stabilization development, or regulation work for life skills development.

We also help them navigate where it is safest for them to do this work: back home with support, in a placement that meets their needs, in a treatment facility that will help them, or in supportive housing options.

Our staff are experts at working with youth who are entrenched in their trauma responses and experiencing larger crisis moments, and the staff have the skills and processes to be able to wrap around the youth holistically (meeting their physical, mental, spiritual/cultural, and emotional needs).

When youth access YESS, our staff:

  • give them back their dignity and autonomy and control when it was taken from them
  • show them the possibilities of what they can achieve and where they can move their lives towards
  • support them in healing the relationships that may have been damaged from the crisis and trauma responses
  • help them believe that their lives matter

Moving away from the shelter model also allows YESS to be better partners with our fellow youth-serving agencies. It allows us the opportunity to:

  • better communicate on behalf of youth
  • provide warmer hand-offs between agencies
  • work together to ensure the youth are supported together
  • helping the agencies do their best work and not have to focus on/anticipate/fear the historical behaviours or actions of a youth

Youth are more than their behaviour and they need time and space and dignity to heal from experiences that are hard to heal from.

Shelter is always needed—people need a place out of the weather and they need resources that are low-barrier to access and they need a safe space to sleep. Our young people need so much more than this and they shouldn’t have to work harder to access those complex supports. It’s time to evolve our supports, in the same way that youth evolve their needs and their possibilities.

 

Frequently Asked Questions

What happens when a youth first comes to YESS?

When a youth first comes to YESS, we have a 3-step intake process:

  • Consent – immediate

The purpose of this step, which is conducted immediately upon arrival of the youth at YESS, is to understand why the youth has come in and ensure that the youth understands their rights and responsibilities if they are to participate in the program. Formal consent is needed to access services and program expectations are defined. Preliminary demographic information is gathered and an initial set of questions is asked to determine what immediate actions may need to be taken to address immediate needs (this could include food, clothing, harm reduction supplies, medication, medical or mental health support). If the youth requires a place to sleep, a stabilization bed is provided (subject to availability).

  • Context – first 24 hours

This occurs within 24 hours of the youth arriving at the Youth Support Centre. Further questions are asked about the youth’s ability to meet their basic needs and whether there are specific risk factors that may need to be addressed (e.g., self-harm, substance use, harm to others, unsafe sex). Depending on the answers to the questions, additional actions are identified. Further inquiries are made related to the youth’s strengths, needs, abilities, preferences, and perception of risk (SNAPP).

  • Baseline – first 2-7 days

The purpose of this step, conducted within 2-7 days of arrival, is to better understand what the youth has (e.g., debit card, bus pass, birth certificate, bank account, provincial ID), and what the youth knows how to do (e.g., access public transit, access food in the community, use and access the internet, access family medical services). Depending on the answers to these questions, specific goals are set that identify what the youth should do next. Referrals are made to assist the youth with the next step of their journey. Staff will follow up with the youth to see if commitments are being kept.

 

What programs are offered at YESS?

  • 24/7 crisis intervention and stabilization
    • Youth ages 15-21
    • 24/7 intake and crisis stabilization
    • 16 emergency beds
    • 8 transitional beds
    • Holistic assessment and entry into connected communities of care
  • Daytime resources and services
    • Youth ages 15-24
    • Monday-Friday access
    • Onsite medical clinic
    • Onsite mental health clinic (YESS Wellness Integration Team and CASA Mental Health)
    • Housing connections
    • Cultural and identity supports
    • Programming, arts, and recreation
    • Life and wellbeing skills development

 

Are you the guardian of the youth? Do you take over as parents?

No, we are not legal guardians for the youth.

To be a legal guardian is a role firmly under the Government of Alberta Children’s Services branch and it is determined through court processes. There are several types of guardianship: temporary guardianship, permanent guardianship, enhanced support, and financial support. These are often determined in relation to the work and capacity of the parents and is a complex process.

 

So if you’re not guardians or parents, how do youth stay at YESS? Who gives them permission to stay?

At YESS, we serve youth ages 15-21 in our 24/7 crisis stabilization access, and youth ages 15-24 in our daytime access to resources. When a youth is 15, by law, we must have parental or guardian consent for them to access our programs and services. This means that when a 15-year-old youth comes to our services, we have to call their parents or guardian in order for them to stay. When a youth turns 16, they are able to consent to services on their own. This does not mean they can legally sign all contracts (driver’s licenses, leases, or financial contracts), however they can consent to being in a space, receiving services, and accessing the beds and programming.

 

Do you talk to parents or involve them? Why can’t you just send them home?

We involve parents as much as possible with the youth and work holistically to build up healthy relationships in the young person’s life. We take the youth’s lead on who they are consenting for us to share detailed information with and do our best to support transparent communication with parents where needed. Much of our work is helping to reassure parents that the youth are safe and supported, while simultaneously working with the youth to open channels of communication on their own with parents.

We can’t send youth home unless it is safe and appropriate for them to be there. It can depend on what court orders are in place, the safety of all people involved in the home and for the youth as well. When we do have the opportunity to problem solve with parents and youth and support their return home, we continue to follow up and ensure that safety is maintained and pathways when it is not are open and available!

 

I love my kid, my home is safe—why are they choosing to stay at YESS?

There are lots of complex reasons why a youth may leave home, none of which are based on a lack of love or connection with their family members. Returning home requires not just for the youth to work on themselves but also for family members to work on themselves as well.

When a family member leaves the home environment, it is never going to stay the same. Work has to be done by both parents and siblings and other family members to help evolve themselves and their environment, alongside the work needed to be done with the youth (as an individual). As family dynamics change and evolve and heal, then youth and families can reconnect. Sometimes this work happens quickly and sometimes this takes more time.

 

Can I have a tour to see what the Youth Support Centre looks like?

Our spaces are not open to the public for tours. We understand that seeing the physical space where we work with youth can help give you a picture of what happens at YESS, but our building is a 24/7 active program space for youth experiencing crisis. First and foremost, we must create a space that is safe for youth through boundaries, predictability, and respect for confidentiality. At this time, hosting tours is at odds with our mission and day-to-day work.