“Housing Solutions for Indigenous Youth Aging Out of Care in Winnipeg” has been announced as one of twelve projects being funded from Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation as part of the National Housing Strategy.
This is a one year project, with HTFC Planning & Design as the main proponent, recieving $122,666 from CMHC to do this solutions lab featuring partnerships with Aboriginal Youth Opportunities (AYO), HTFC Planning & Design; Ready to Shift and Scale (RSS); Nigaanii Wabiski Mikanak Ogichidaa (NWMO) so far!! We are also grateful to have suppport from the University of Manitoba, Rady Faculty of Health Sciences throughout this initiative. AYO hosted a Meet Me at the Bell Tower Gathering last week on this topic and also hosted the first of their leadership lab team gatherings to kick off the project. Future gatherings and identifying additional partners will happen throughout the duration of the project.
“I am beyond excited to be a part in project because I know first hand how inconsistent and challenging navigating the systems are before and after you even ahead out. I am vet happy the project uses Indigenous youth voices, like mine, that know from experience what’s not working, and what is.” – Kakeka ThunderSky
More about our project “Housing Solutions for Indigenous Youth Aging Out of Care in Winnipeg”:
Our Solutions Lab will address the issues of housing insecurity and homelessness that Indigenous youth in care in Winnipeg face when they age out of the child welfare system at age 18.
Our project leverages the processes and methodologies of Solutions Labs to collaboratively explore the specific needs of Indigenous youth in Winnipeg who have grown up in the care of Manitoba’s child welfare system and who are at the point where their institutional supports are removed.
Many child welfare advocates and organizations have identified this pivotal point in the experience of a youth in care, a point at which they face a high probability of entering into a cycle of poverty and housing insecurity or homelessness.
We will approach this issue from different perspectives and worldviews, including those of people who:
- are or were in the system (young people who have aged out or are aging out of care);
- are working in the system (caregivers, child welfare caseworkers or administrators, policymakers, etc.); or
- are “around” the system (as advocates or community organizers, or those who work for organizations involved with housing, including the CMHC).
In doing so, we aim to build bridges of empathy and provide advocates and policymakers with a more complete picture of the issue.
Our hope is that the solutions that are co-developed in this process will be taken up by decision makers to close the gaps and further reduce the number of young people facing homelessness year over year.
Anyone wanting to get involved in, support the development of or speak to someone about this initiative please see details below:
Zoe Mager, HTFC
Email: zmager@htfc.mb.ca
Kakeka ThunderSky, Nigaanii Wabiski Mikanak Ogichidaa
Email: 2braidz@ayomovement.com
Michael Redhead Champagne, AYO
Email: mc@ayomovement.com
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