what we do

OUR SHARED PRINCIPLES

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1. Recognize the distinct needs of young people and emerging adults

Systems of support and how they are delivered must be strengths-based and aligned with the unique ways children, youth, and emerging adults function, think, and interact. 

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2. Reduce barriers

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All organizations have a responsibility to identify barriers to access (including administrative barriers such as wait times and hours, policy barriers such as age limits, as well as cultural and geographic barriers) and work to eliminate them. Programs should be flexible, needs-based, and culturally appropriate for the young people they serve. 

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3. Focus on prevention

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Interventions with children and youth should be prioritized, made as early as possible, and include the provision of support for their families, with the goal of avoiding future challenges and strengthening connections with their existing community of support. Efforts should be made to identify those who are at risk of educational disengagement, family breakdown, connection to child welfare and related systems, involvement in the criminal justice system, and use of crisis response systems.

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4. Family-centered interventions

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Support systems should encourage the participation of young people's families (however young people define them), help strengthen those families and explicitly focus on supporting young parents and their children from the beginning of pregnancy.

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5. Youth choice and self-determination

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Systems supporting youth should be co-designed by youth to offer the maximum amount of choices - including in housing options, support interventions, and opportunities to engage in training, education, employment, and leadership, all without judgement. Service providers should work to ensure that seeking support is in itself an affirming, supportive, low-risk act.

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6. Support for Indigenous youth

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A commitment to reconciliation means a commitment to Indigenous youth. Indigenous young people face a challenging landscape of intergenerational trauma and discrimination. Systems supporting youth must recognize this and support the strengthening of connections to culture, to the land, and to the community for Indigenous youth, while recognizing the diversity of Indigenous cultures and experiences. This work must be led by indigenous organizations and communities, whose ways of working and knowing provide important lessons for all, and particularly for service providers.

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7. Support for LGBT2SQIA+ youth

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Lesbian, Gay, Bi-Sexual, Transgener, Two-Spirited, Intersex, and Asexual (LGBT2SQIA+) youth face much higher risks of family breakdown, homelessness, and violence, and require targeted supports. These supports must recognize how different kinds of marginalization intersect. They must also include education for service providers and communities and engage peers, schools, and families in the struggle against discrimination against this population. 

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8. Harm reduction

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Services for youth and emerging adults should be designed to meet them where they are at, regardless of behaviour or the choices they are able to make at any given time (e.g. addictions, mental health challenges, criminal-justice involvement, attendance, etc.). Instead, they must be provided with the resources and tools they need to attain maximum safety in their current circumstance as well as being offered additional support aimed at long-term stability and growth. Service providers must focus on the training and support needed to make their staff champions of this approach in this community, and on providing diverse service options that still offer youth choice. 

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9. Integrated services (integrated models of care) and coordinated access

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Closer integration, prioritization, and information-sharing between programs, organizations, and systems should be an explicit goal of all  youth service providers, and should extend to a broad network of organizations that includes all levels of government, community organizations, and the private sector. This includes low-barrier and province-wide coordinated access to a wide range of support services, as well as physical co-location of youth supports.

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10. Targeted supports for the most vulnerable youth

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The most vulnerable youth (those facing multiple, overlapping barriers related to addictions, mental health, family breakdown, and involvement with the justice system) often have the most limited access to resources and can be very difficult to engage. Targeting engagement and supports towards these youth, particularly supports focused on prevention, helps avoid lifelong impacts and system involvements and should be a priority for youth-serving organizations. When services are not accessible, service providers must work to provide alternative options.

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11. Trauma-informed practice

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Supports and organizational practices should be designed to recognize that many young people seeking support have experienced one or more types of trauma, and to acknowledge the distinct impacts of intergenerational trauma. Practice should be informed by principles of safety, choice, collaboration, trustworthiness, and empowerment . Service providers should always be seeking education on the impacts of trauma and how to respond to them so as to provide trusting and nonjudgmental spaces for youth.

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12. Support for youth and emerging adults with disabilities

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Youth and emerging adults with disabilities have equal rights to support and to opportunities to thrive. Service providers must identify ways to make programs more inclusive and to provide targeted supports where needed.

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13. Recognizing intersectionality

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While providing targeted support is important, it is also important to recognize that many young people and emerging adults live at the intersection of multiple identities, strengths, and risks and should not need to self-identify within one particular group to receive support.

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14. Celebrating successes and strengths

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Service providers should make every effort to identify and celebrate the many ways in which each young person has strengths, achieves successes (however small), and how they can be a support to their peers.