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Results: 61 - 75 of 342
Clovis Grant
View Clovis Grant Profile
Clovis Grant
2021-04-26 12:03
Thank you.
Through you, Mr. Chair, thank you for the opportunity to speak to the committee this afternoon on behalf of 360°kids.
As one of the leading youth agencies in York region, 360°kids has a 32-year history of providing services to homeless youth, including victims and survivors of human trafficking. We serve approximately 4,000 youth each year, ages 16 to 26, providing them with education, housing and employment and health and well-being supports. Our mission is to transition youth from crisis to stability.
On the impact of COVID-19 on 360°kids, let me first share some comments from the young people themselves. The first comment is, “Being told to stay inside and not leave reminds me of when I was being trafficked and...this causes me a lot of anxiety.” Second comment is “For those of us who have no place to go home to, it’s hard to do the things we are told to do such as staying home, wash your hands. How can you do that when you don’t have access to water. You can’t even take a shower.”
What are the lessons we've learned through the pandemic? There are five things. First of all, great things can happen when we work together. Second, prevention is indeed the best medicine. Third, the marginalized become even more marginalized during a pandemic. Four, youth need very specific solutions. Last, the needs of staff must also be prioritized.
One of the successes of the pandemic that we've seen is organizations coming together. Providers from various sectors in York region, including government funders and private corporations, came together to share resources and their own responses to the pandemic and to collaborate on initiatives. We were able to identify gaps very quickly and respond in real time to address needs for food, technology, housing access, etc. I can really see these built relationships continuing into the future.
Our work at 360°kids on prevention, leading the youth housing stabilization strategy, developed even more significance during the pandemic. This is a group of about 30 cross-sectoral partners and young people working together to better align services and resources to prevent youth homelessness in York region. Why? We know that homeless youth become homeless adults, and the longer you are homeless, the worse your outcome.
We definitely saw how the marginalized became even more marginalized during the pandemic. In our programs, we saw a fivefold increase in the number of youth accessing mental health supports, with past trauma, loss of income and confinement due to lockdowns all contributing to high levels of anxiety.
We need more accessible mental health supports, especially for this population and for those who are Black and racialized. The youth told us that racism was a significant factor in their homelessness. To address these impacts we had to provide various spaces for the young people to share their voices, we expanded partnerships with specific cultural agencies, and at the same time, we reviewed and are updating our own agency equity strategy.
The need for more youth-specific solutions was seen when we closed our drop-ins early in the pandemic. One of my earlier quotes spoke of the challenge some youth who are precariously housed face. We saw that youth living in the rough, these are youth who are living in abandoned buildings, abandoned cars, abandoned spaces in general, many of them went more into hiding due to the closure of many of the spaces they once went to.
To better support the youth, rather than waiting for them to come to us, we went to them. We redeployed staff to do more outreach. We even hired two young people to be outreach workers who were former youth, and we also pushed for a youth-specific isolation facility to make it more accessible for youth to get access to housing.
While we were able to house about 25 youth throughout the pandemic, we know that the need for more affordable housing is so critical. We certainly applaud the government for funding the emergency and short-term needs, but without longer-term housing and wraparound supports to keep people housed, those marginalized young people become even more marginalized.
I close with a reminder about the impact of the pandemic on our staff. Confusing public health messages, concerns about the vaccine, low wages and even the stress of their own family situations, this all took a toll on staff mental health, which worsened with each lockdown. We responded as an agency with additional mental health days off with pay for staff, and with flexibility around their sick time and their child care needs.
The government-funded additional hourly pay, given to frontline workers for a brief period last year, certainly went a long way in recognizing the importance of this sector that is chronically underpaid. We hope to see this kind of support continue.
Unfortunately, for many agencies like ours that are not adequately funded for our programs, it puts pressure on our fundraising. We have seen a significant hit to our fundraising due to event cancellations over the past year.
In summary, it really has been a very difficult year for the young people we serve at 360°kids and the staff who are supporting them on a daily basis. While emergency responses are great, and we saw some great opportunities throughout the pandemic, what is more important are preventative measures and wraparound supports to get people housed and to keep them housed.
Thank you for the opportunity to speak with you.
View Mike Kelloway Profile
Lib. (NS)
Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Hello to my colleagues, and a warm welcome to our witnesses, a Cape Breton—Canso welcome.
My questions are going to be directed to Mr. Grant.
First and foremost, Mr. Grant, I consider you and your organization an expert on youth and youth programming.
For many years in the first part of my career, I worked with a gentleman by the name of Gordie Gosse, and Gordie was a great man. He passed in 2019. He worked in Whitney Pier as the youth programmer in Whitney Pier and later went on to become an NDP cabinet minister in the provincial government. I learned so much from him in terms of the importance of programming and the importance of community engagement.
This year, Mr. Grant, Canadians have made great sacrifices and, in particular, youth and children have given up, as you say, going to school with its going online, spending time with friends and really getting the most out of their adolescence and childhood. Public health measures in every province are implemented by public health officers, and they're important, but we do need more and varied supports, as you mentioned.
In particular, you hit upon something I think is really important, and that's the mental health amongst youth. They are already, I think you would agree, at a higher risk even without a global pandemic being thrown into the mix.
I'm wondering if you could tell me and tell the committee how important it is for children and youth in these times to have access to platforms like Wellness Together Canada, launched by our government, or the Kids Help Phone.
Clovis Grant
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Clovis Grant
2021-04-26 12:34
As we know, in being homeless, there's a high level of anxiety and a high degree of stress and addictions that come with that, and this is pre-pandemic, so adding the notion of a pandemic exacerbates an already challenging situation.
The need for the services you mentioned, the Kids Help Phone, etc., is critical during both times, and we've seen just with 310-COPE here in York region and the Canadian Mental Health Association, all of those organizations—
Clovis Grant
View Clovis Grant Profile
Clovis Grant
2021-04-26 12:36
Okay.
As we know, pre-COVID, pre-pandemic, the need for mental health services for a homeless population was high to begin with. We know from research it is one of the challenges, whether it's a cause or an effect of being homeless. The Kids Help Phone services, the Canadian Mental Health Association services, 310-COPE and all those things were important pre-COVID, and then you add a pandemic, with a whole bunch of uncertainty for these young people. They've already experienced uncertainties in their lives and this just further exacerbates that.
One of the things it's important to note is that a lot of money does go into mental health and we've seen governments increase that funding, but we find many of those services are not accessible for a homeless population, for different reasons.
Sometimes with a youth population the definition of “youth” is different. For provincial services, it can be ages 16 to 24. For federal services, it's 14 to 29, and for some health services, it's to 18. Even from just an age demographic, it's hard to access some of those services. Then you have the unavailability of psychiatric care and psychiatrists who are able to diagnose, and follow-up support.
What we find is that homeless young people are even more marginalized in accessing the services and funding that goes into mental health, which is why the need for very specific services for this population is so important.
View Mike Kelloway Profile
Lib. (NS)
It's interesting you highlighted how the challenges are integrated, and so must be the solutions.
I was doing some research on your organization and I see you offer a large suite of programming. I'm just curious. Which of your programs has been the most popular as we navigate through this pandemic, and why do you think it is the case?
Clovis Grant
View Clovis Grant Profile
Clovis Grant
2021-04-26 12:39
I'm not sure “popular” is the right word, but certainly—
View Mike Kelloway Profile
Lib. (NS)
“More utilized” would probably be better.
Clovis Grant
View Clovis Grant Profile
Clovis Grant
2021-04-26 12:39
Yes. For sure, it's our mental health supports. As I mentioned, we saw a fivefold increase in the number of youth accessing mental health services. Pre-COVID, we were serving over 1,200 youth in our drop-in programs, but that number decreased. Therefore, you could maybe show a correlation between the lack of access to services adding to an increase in the need for a number of mental health services.
However, to answer your question, it is the need for mental health services that increased.
View Julie Dzerowicz Profile
Lib. (ON)
It's no problem. I don't want to push you on that, so thank you.
My next question is for Mr. Kershaw.
Thank you so much for your presentation. I agree with whoever suggested that we should have you back, just because I think we might have many questions for you.
Our budget 2021 has put in a significant amount of money to support our youth. We want to make sure that, due to COVID, they don't become the lost generation. I wonder whether you can talk a bit about how the investments proposed in our budget 2021 can stop young Canadians from becoming a lost generation.
Paul Kershaw
View Paul Kershaw Profile
Paul Kershaw
2021-04-22 18:15
First, I think you deserve a great deal of credit for putting in place the child care funding that is actually, for the first time in my professional career, really meaningful at the federal level. Fifty years after the recommendation from the Royal Commission on the Status of Women to have a real national child care system, I think that is going to be game changing.
I do think, though, that previous budgets have been stronger on the housing issue. In the material I've shared already today, we really do need the government to say....
In the past, Canadians might have wanted two things from housing: an affordable place to call home and a good return on investment. However, we can't have both of these things any longer, because when something is a good return on investment, it leaves behind local earnings.
At this stage, if we want the national housing strategy to truly succeed, we need the government to come out and actually say it's going to hone its public policies going forward to try to ensure home prices don't continue to rise. That's a top goal.
View Bernard Généreux Profile
CPC (QC)
Thank you very much, Madam Chair.
I'd like to give a warm welcome to Mr. Jules. We met in 2010 on your reserve when we visited. I think it was the finance committee. You surprise me. I'd like to know your secret. You seem to be younger and younger instead of older. Anyway, it's good to see you.
I was really stunned when I went to your reserve to see everything there that you have done, and everything you're still doing for your friends and people. It's quite amazing.
You said before that you think we should do more for first nations. I agree with you. Economically, we need you. Actually, we need your young people.
Talk to us about your young generation. Even if they might still be working with the telegraph—I think they're more ahead than that—we could still improve everything they need to be a part of the economy of today.
C.T. (Manny) Jules
View C.T. (Manny) Jules Profile
C.T. (Manny) Jules
2021-04-15 13:16
I believe that our youth are going to be an incredibly important part of the rebuilding after COVID-19 here in Canada. They're the future. Whenever I look into their eyes, that's what I see. I see their potential. I see their willingness to think outside the box. That's what needs to be nurtured from a very young age. That starts with the child in the womb, right through to kindergarten and through to grade 12. They have to have good role models.
Schooling is critically important, not just learning who we are, but also learning the maths and sciences so that we can prepare first nations for a trip to Mars one day. It's these kinds of innovations that our future will be able to offer to this country and to us. I believe wholeheartedly in our future generations through our youth.
We need the institutional support, the fiscal wherewithal to be able to make the changes within our communities, without dependence on the federal and provincial governments, because that has hampered our development.
W. Matthew Chater
View W. Matthew Chater Profile
W. Matthew Chater
2021-04-13 16:09
Thank you for the opportunity to be here. To echo my colleague, I would like to express significant thanks to all members for all you do daily on behalf of Canadians, during this pandemic as well as beyond.
Big Brothers Big Sisters has operated in Canada for over 100 years. We facilitate intentional mentoring relationships with over 41,000 youth in 1,100 communities with the support of over 21,000 volunteers.
Children and youth in our programs face toxic stress due to living with adversities caused by systemic challenges like poverty, mental illness, neglect, addiction and a range of other sources. According to our research, 63% of young people in Big Brothers Big Sisters programs experience three or more of these adversities while at the same time having only one, or often zero, developmental relationships. The pandemic has only amplified these stressors, making them more complex and deeply rooted.
Big Brothers Big Sisters mentoring is needed now more than ever. For example, calls to Kids Help Phone were up by 55% and through text by 61%, and 76% of the youth reaching out to them said they had no one else they felt it was safe to turn to.
Many of these callers are referred to Big Brothers Big Sisters, as we are ideally suited to help. We just completed research with York University and the University of Victoria that found that mental health issues like depression and anxiety during the pandemic are significantly lower among youth enrolled in Big Brothers Big Sisters programs, and that rates of depression and anxiety drop the more youth are engaged with their mentor. The challenge is that we already had 15,000 youth on our wait list before the pandemic, and now that list is growing daily.
This increased demand comes at the same time that revenue has plummeted, dropping by $13 million in 2020, and we are projecting a further 30% drop in 2021, for a total shortfall of $25 million across the federation.
While the government has provided additional funding to the Kids Help Phone, which we fully support, funding a crisis line without also assisting community services organizations to which those youth are referred is like funding the 911 emergency call service without providing the medical systems in order to respond.
We are extremely grateful for the programs the federal government has introduced, like the wage subsidy and the emergency community support fund. Without those our losses would be even greater, but there is now nowhere else to turn and much more that needs to be done.
We are not alone in this dilemma of increased demand for our services coinciding with the most severe financial crisis in our history. That is why Big Brothers Big Sisters, alongside the YMCA of Canada, the YWCA of Canada, BGC Canada, United Way-Centraide Canada, the National Association of Friendship Centres and many others providing frontline support have come together to appeal for a community services COVID-19 relief fund.
You have heard from my colleagues at previous meetings, and Josh has spoken to it today, but I will also lend my voice to plead with this committee to ask the finance minister to establish that funding in the April 19 budget. This is about whether your communities continue to have organizations like ours that provide the services governments do not. Youth mentoring through Big Brothers Big Sisters will be critical to Canada's economic, social and public health recovery.
To provide a local context, I'll turn it over to my colleague, Margie Grant-Walsh, executive director of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Pictou County, Nova Scotia.
Margie Grant-Walsh
View Margie Grant-Walsh Profile
Margie Grant-Walsh
2021-04-13 16:13
Thank you, Matthew.
Think back to when you were nine. Who was important in your life? What would it be like without that person?
Our children and youth have been facing isolation, mental health challenges, food insecurity, affordable housing concerns and struggles with educational learning.
I can speak from my experience in northern Nova Scotia. Rural communities have been most affected. We have no public transportation, challenges switching to virtual mentoring, connectivity issues, and in the recent report card on child and family poverty in Nova Scotia, we have the third-highest child poverty rate in Canada. One in four children live in poverty.
Demand for service has increased. We have seen an increase in requests for essentials like food and heat. What social service organizations can say they are in contact weekly with their families? We can.
We're not only mentoring children facing adversities, but families as well, and they trust us. Staff have been overloaded, stressed, and working extremely hard to support our families, pivoting on a moment's notice on a tight budget. Top this off with the largest mass shooting in Canadian history.
Revenues have dropped substantially. Unlike many organizations, we fundraise a substantial part of our budget. At our agency, 69% is raised by special events alone. The drop in revenue in 2020 was 29%, over $270,000. In my 34 years with Big Brothers Big Sisters, I have never seen a year like it.
We are blessed to live in Nova Scotia for our low COVID numbers, but that brings the challenges of people isolating themselves to prevent spread. The biggest challenge is the lack of contact from caring adults who are invested in their well-being. Think again to when you were nine, and how you would deal with a pandemic without your mentor.
Thank you for this opportunity.
View Julie Dzerowicz Profile
Lib. (ON)
Thank you very much.
The youth in Davenport, and in fact the many youth we heard from over the weekend at the LPC conference, very much support a guaranteed basic income. My understanding is that they feel that the world of work is changing quickly. Automation and AI are eliminating both blue-collar and white-collar jobs. There's much more of an unpredictable future around jobs. They're losing confidence that they'll ever be able to get ahead the way their parents did. They see something like a guaranteed basic income model as a way that will provide them with some stability as they try to make their way through the world.
Would you agree that this is a sentiment from our youth and that a guaranteed basic income program would provide that stability?
Results: 61 - 75 of 342 | Page: 5 of 23

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