tgulliver's blog

The Canadian Observatory on Homelessness/Homeless Hub is a non-partisan organization meaning we don’t endorse any political parties or politicians (individual staff members, researchers and partners may choose to be active on their own time). However, we do all support the goal of ending homelessness in Canada. This is something that all parties and most politicians seem to support.

While many people think of “recovery” as referring to addictions, but in this context a recovery orientation focuses on overall individual well-being. It ensures that clients have access to a range of supports that enable them to nurture and maintain social, recreational, educational, occupational and vocational activities. A recovery orientation is a key part of Housing First.

In order to know whether efforts to end homelessness are successful it is important to know the baseline or starting point. Communities need to monitor and evaluate their progress – both successes and failures – so that they can report their outcomes to funders, tax payers and interested residents.

On May 12^th  Allyson Marsolais returned from her maternity leave to her role as Project Manager at the newly renamed Canadian Observatory on Homelessness (COH). We’ve had a week of transition and now I’ll be staying on in a new role as a Research Coordinator which is a very exciting opportunity. I thought I’d take a moment to reflect on what I’ve learned in the past 13 months.

Motivational Interviewing (MI) is a style of working with a client that focuses on allowing the client to direct the change rather than telling the client what they need to do. It is about having a conversation about change. MI is considered to be an evidence-based practice that has proven to be successful.

Those that teach us stay in our memories for many years. I want to share the story of a very influential teacher on my journey in working to end homelessness (and that of many others as well) – Don Heap. I’ve asked some local homeless activists to share their thoughts as well. (Note, he was known as both Dan and Don throughout the years; these will be used interchangeably in the blog).

The Mental Health Commission of Canada just released the Final Report following their At Home/Chez Soi project. This multi-year demonstration project has shown some fabulous results and answers many of the questions we’ve had about Housing First.

Last Wednesday we published a blog highlighting an infographic from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA) looking at poverty rates amongst indigenous children. The map used wasn’t a normal picture of Canada. It was missing all three territories as well as the four Atlantic provinces.

Meaningful engagement has a few different meanings for work with homeless individuals including involving them in community-based research, creating participatory evaluations or providing supports and activities that foster growth, independence and full participation in society. 

This question was raised in a class that I am the teaching assistant for at York University:

Do children who are born into families experiencing poverty or homelessness escape the cycle?

Sabina Mirza
Woodbridge, ON

Thanks Sabina for sharing your question.