25 Years of Collaboration: Addressing Youth Homelessness in Hamilton

Celebrate 25 years of collaboration and the launch of a new report charting what’s next to prevent and end youth homelessness in Hamilton.
About this Event

Overview

Join the Street Youth Planning Collaborative as we celebrate 25 years of collaboration and launch the new Addressing the Needs report.

25 Years of Collaboration & Addressing the Needs Report Launch brings together young people, community partners, service providers and leaders to reflect on Hamilton’s response to youth homelessness, hear what young people are telling us today, and consider what needs to happen next to prevent and end youth homelessness in Hamilton.

About the Event

For 25 years, the Street Youth Planning Collaborative (SYPC) has brought together young people with lived and living experience, frontline service providers and community leaders to identify needs, address gaps and strengthen Hamilton’s response to youth homelessness.

This event marks 25 years of that collaboration and the launch of the new Addressing the Needs report, a 20-year follow-up to the original 2005 Addressing the Needs of Street Involved and Homeless Youth in Hamilton.

Developed through a year-long community engagement process, the new report is grounded in the voices and experiences of nearly 100 young people with lived and living experience of homelessness, housing instability and service systems, alongside input from more than 30 frontline staff and senior leaders from youth-serving organizations across Hamilton.

At the event, young people and community partners will share key findings from the report, reflect on the progress made over the past two decades, and highlight the challenges and gaps that continue to affect young people today.

The conversation will also look forward. The report calls for a coordinated, cross-sector strategy to prevent and end youth homelessness in Hamilton, with youth leadership, collaboration, sustainable funding, shared accountability and better use of data at its core.

This event is an opportunity to hear what young people and the community told us, recognize what collaboration has accomplished, and begin the conversation about what we do next.