When thinking about the connection between school and youth support, it is most often seen through the lens of drop-out rates, behavioural concerns, and “alternative” school paths. When youth are experiencing homelessness or are experiencing trauma within the home, they are less likely to be stable within the classroom and their behaviours are often mistaken for requiring punitive consequences rather than seen through the lens of needing help. Youth who experience uncertainty will have trouble adjusting to routine and structure and have a hard time focusing on what is being asked of them. Youth who are living rough will change schools several times in their adolescence and remain disconnected from a healthy learning trajectory and the path to full education becomes harder to reconnect with.
The lens that YESS uses focuses not on the statistics of drop-out rates, but instead focuses on how teachers and school staff are often emotional first responders. Our most frequently asked question by community members, new board members, and families is “How do youth find YESS? How do they end up at your door?” The answer is: school! Teachers and counsellors would drive kids to our front door or ask our staff how they can help and what they can do to support. Teachers and schools often need to become community hubs for youth who are experiencing trauma in their home life or are in crisis and unable to stabilize within their day programs. Housing instability and crisis stabilization support requires both prevention work within the classrooms and supportive stabilization and regulation work within the community of resources available. Youth know how important school is for their development and their future and often feel helpless and ashamed that they cannot seem to stay on track. People, especially young kids, who are suffering or surviving will always be reaching out and asking for help—whether it’s through direct communication or through their behaviours and actions. Teachers and agencies like YESS have to work together to help identify where support is needed and create access to the right supports to help the youth regulate themselves and stay on a healthy development path. Communication between school resource officers, counsellors, teachers, parents, and youth supports is so important because bringing awareness and meeting needs helps young people believe they are worthy of education, worthy of being seen, worthy of a positive future.