In this issue...
  • Register now - Edmonton Homelessness Research Symposium on February 17
  • Alberta researchers focus on housing and homelessness
  • City of Edmonton launches affordable housing awareness campaign
  • The experience of homelessness in Red Deer
  • A Way Home: new national coalition works together to end youth homelessness
  • An update on Raising the Roof
  • Resources of interest
Edmon t on Homelessness Research Symposium: Mobilizing Data and Research for Action on Homelessness
 
February 17, 2016
Via live webcast or in person at Edmonton Clinic Health Academy, University of Alberta

The Research Symposium is open to a broad base of practitioners, service providers, community stakeholders, policy-makers, and researchers. Participants can attend the morning, afternoon or full day in person or through webcast from a laptop, computer, smartphone or tablet.

Morning Session (8:30 to noon): 
Using Data to Shape Efforts to End Homelessness

Agencies will present data they collect and how these datasets can be accessed to conduct research that helps to end homelessness.

This session will be of use to:
  • Researchers looking for new and extensive data sets
  • Researchers interested in homelessness issues
  • Civil servants whose departments serve homeless populations, especially those looking to collaborate with other departments and agencies
  • Homeless-serving agencies looking to share or combine data
Afternoon Session (1 - 4:30 pm): Using Community-Engaged Research to Drive S ystem Change

Moderated panel discussion will explore approaches to assure community-engaged research drives system changes to ending homelessness. Panelists will include researchers, frontline workers, and individuals with lived or living experience of homelessness.

This session will be of use to:
  • Frontline workers from community agencies who serve individuals experiencing or at-risk of homelessness
  • Researchers interested in homelessness issues
  • Policy and decision makers
Registration closes February 10, 2016. Click here for event details and registration. 

This event is hosted by Homeward Trust and sponsored by
The Alberta Centre for Child Family and Community Research.
Alberta researchers focus on
housing and homelessness

As part of the Housing and Homelessness Research Strategy for Alberta , The ACCFCR supports the exchange of research projects "in progress". Many stakeholders emphasize the value of sharing information about research at earlier stages so that projects can build upon each other's learnings and the value of research can be maximized.
 
There are a number of different projects currently "in-progress" right now in Alberta. The next edition of Keeping in Touch will have more projects for you to be aware of, so stay tuned!  If you'd like us to feature a research project that you are working on, please contact us at [email protected].

Project Title:  Youth Bans: Policy, Implementation, and the Perspectives of Youth and Stakeholders
Investigator: Old Strathcona Community Mapping and Planning Committee
Contact: Amanda Almond, [email protected]
Funded by: Edmonton Homeward Trust

Project Summary: This community-based participatory research project stems from a need identified by local service providers to investigate the banning of youth who are homeless or without secure and adequate housing.  An environmental scan will review relevant local banning policies and their implementation. Interviews with forty youth who are homeless or without secure and adequate housing, and with six stakeholders such as service providers, will capture perspectives on the causes and impact of bans, as well as recommendations for future practice and policy.  This proposed research fills a gap in knowledge on local banning policies and their impact on homeless youth.

Project Title: Understanding Inter-generational Dependency: Examining the Intersecting Issues of Homeless Families with Complex Needs
Investigator: Dr. Katrina Milaney,  [email protected]
Funded by: Alberta Centre for Child, Family and Community Research

Project Summary: The research question for this study is: How do women understand the complexities related to their experiences of family homelessness and violence and the influence of services and policy on their life trajectories? This study will take up multiple methods in order to examine the incidence and prevalence of intergenerational issues and systems use but also, to identify changes to service delivery and public policy to propose an effective approach. The findings will provide enough information to propose a gender appropriate model of integrated service delivery and policy alternatives to support mothers and children who are homeless in order to break long-term or repeated cycles of dependence and vulnerability.

Project Title: Developing a Model of Supportive Housing for Teen Families
Investigators: Rebecca Gokiert, Bethan Kingsley, Melissa Tremblay, Jane Springett, Karen Mottershead and Reg Appleyard
Contact: Bethan Kingsley,  [email protected]
Funded by: Edmonton Homeward Trust, Brentwood Housing Society, Mitacs-Accelerate Graduate Research Internship Program. 

Project Summary: CUP, Terra Centre, and Brentwood Housing Society have come together to develop a model of supportive housing for teen families using an evaluative approach. In collaboration, Terra and Brentwood provide safe, secure and affordable housing and wraparound supports to teen parents and their children. Through evaluation, the partnership will learn about and improve the current model, while understanding the impacts of these supports on the children and parents.

Project Title: Domestic Violence & Renting in Alberta: Exploring Landlords' Roles in Supporting Tenants At-Risk of or Experiencing Domestic Violence
Investigator: Centre for Public Legal Education Alberta
Contact: Lois Gander, [email protected]
Funded by: the Government of Canada's Homelessness Partnering Strategy through Edmonton Homeward Trust

Project Summary: CPLEA will explore ways landlords can more effectively help tenants at-risk of or experiencing domestic violence. This research will be used by CPLEA staff in future projects to design resources that will help landlords play their roles effectively. We would like to thank the Alberta Residential Landlord Association; the Alberta Council of Women's Shelters; the Edmonton Community Legal Centre; and the Stop Abuse in Families Society for their support and assistance with t his project. This study follows up on a study undertaken by CPLEA in 2014, CPLEA, The Hidden Homeless: Residential Tenancies Issues of Victims of Domestic Violence available at cplea.ca. CPLEA also maintains a website, WillowNet.ca, featuring plain language legal information on abuse and the law in Alberta. 

City of Edmonton launches affordable housing awareness campaign

Mayor Iveson announced the launch of a new information and awareness campaign on affordable housing at a media event this afternoon at City Hall. He was joined by supporters of the campaign, including representatives from the Urban Development Institute Edmonton, the Canadian Home Builders Association, Edmonton's Interfaith Housing Initiative, and the Edmonton Federation of Community Leagues. 

A new website at  AffordableHousingEdmonton.ca explains what affordable housing is and why it's needed in Edmonton. The website includes a short video and printable materials that dispel common myths about affordable housing and explain why it is beneficial to spread affordable housing developments throughout all areas of the city.

These materials are part of a larger information and awareness campaign designed to inform community discussions on affordable housing in Edmonton.

"Ensuring that all Edmontonians have a place to live is near the top of the list when we think about what's required to create a great city," said Mayor Don Iveson. "Affordable housing doesn't just refer to emergency shelters and housing the chronically homeless. It's also about ensuring seniors, newcomers and young families can find housing too. It's part of a broader conversation about how we create healthy and vibrant communities."

Edmonton's Affordable Housing Strategy was brought forward to City Council in late January 2016.
The experience of homelessness in Red Deer: 
An ethnographic perspective 

This study was undertaken in the summer of 2015 as a way of better understanding homelessness in Red Deer. The project used an ethnographic approach, meaning the researcher met with people experiencing homelessness to observe and tell their stories of everyday life from their point of view. 

Many people are being housed successfully in Red Deer, but there is still work to be done. This research can help make improvements to the housing and supports system, particularly for those people who have been experiencing homelessness for long periods of time. 

A Way Home: new national coalition works together to end youth homelessness

A Way Home was  officially launched on October 29 in Ottawa. This  new national coalition is dedicated to supporting communities and governments to prevent, reduce and end youth homelessness in Canada. The Coalition grew out of years of demonstrated success in collaboration among the national organizations in the sector.

A Way Home is dedicated to inspiring and facilitating change through promoting effective strategies that shift the focus from an emergency response, to promoting prevention (stopping young people from becoming homeless in the first place) and helping those who do become homeless move into housing with supports as rapidly as possible, in a safe and planned way.
 
Click here to learn more about A Way Home or watch the webinar focusing on this new coalition.
An update on Raising the Roof

Although Canada is one of the richest countries in the world, child and family homelessness is a serious and growing issue. More than 37% of Canadian households are having difficulty maintaining housing and more and more families are relying on emergency shelters. Between 2005 and 2009, the estimated number of children using those shelters grew by 50%.

Despite its severity, there is no national, coordinated response to address this issue. Raising the Roof believes that by educating Canadians, learning from and sharing innovative community-based work and developing a practical planning framework, we can develop  solutions to child and family homelessness in Canada.

Raising the Roof's Goals
  1. Learn about current programs and services - across Canada and internationally - that are already working to address family homelessness
  2. Create a comprehensive framework that looks at solutions to family homelessness at three levels: primary prevention, systems-based responses, and individual/familial factors
  3. Develop practical tools and resources that can be used by community organizations and government to encourage promising practices and generate recommendations.
  4. Simply put, we want to enlist and support communities and governments in order to provide solutions for addressing and preventing child and family homelessness in Canada.
Resources of interest

Ron Kneebone, Meaghan Bell, Nicole Jackson, and Ali Jadidzadeh's report on " Who are the homeless? Numbers, trends, and characteristics of those without homes in Calgary ?"

An Edmonton homelessness video by the Metis Urban Housing Corporation 

A research report on homeless youth (age 19-24) in Victoria; The Youth Pathways report engaged directly with youth experiencing homelessness to determine the pathways in and out of homelessness in the region. The report outlines both the pathways in to homelessness and the pathways out. Some of the pathways out of homelessness are a direct result of suggestions made by the youth participants.
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