Young people experiencing homelessness navigate a web of support services. They share the same information with different service providers, repeating the same stories again and again.
However, the data they share often remains with each individual service. Governments, researchers, and community organizations struggle to share or connect this information. When that happens, coordinated care is limited, and prevention falls short.
PolicyWise for Children & Families has been working to address this challenge. For five years, the team has been working with partners to explore how data collaboration can support youth homelessness prevention across Canada. That work includes two connected projects:
- The completed and co-created Data Infrastructure Roadmap for Preventing Youth Homelessness
- The active Building Youth Homelessness Data Collaboration
Together, these initiatives explore how collaborative data use can strengthen policy, support research, and improve coordinated services for young people.
Team members Matthew Russell, Caillie Pritchard, and Kiran Gurm recently shared their work as part of the Canadian Observatory on Homelessness’ Prevention Matters online panel series. This webinar focuses on how youth homelessness prevention could improve if data were more effectively shared across systems.
Two projects, two communities, one clear direction
The webinar starts by outlining how the team’s work builds on the Data Infrastructure Roadmap project. That project identified key priorities and recommendations for building data infrastructure to prevent youth homelessness in Canada. The team then describe two pilot projects that put those recommendations into practice.
The first project focuses on our work in British Columbia. Led by Matthew Russell, it used linked data from the Data Innovation Program and five BC ministries that serve children, youth, and their families. The goal was to understand how early use of those services relates to homelessness in adulthood. The findings show how cross-ministry collaboration can strengthen policy and decision making.
The second project is a pilot based in Calgary led by Kiran Gurm and Caillie Pritchard. They are exploring ways to improve coordinated service access for youth experiencing or at risk of homelessness. In the webinar, they described the relationships community partners built, the design of pilot activities, and what early implementation looked like. They also shared early insights that can inform similar efforts in other organizations.
Together, the two projects highlight a common direction, organizations that share their data can improve prevention efforts for youth experiencing homelessness.
At the end of the webinar, the presenters shared practical recommendations for starting and sustaining data collaboration, along with reflections on current progress in Canada and areas that require further development.
The work happening right now in Canada
About 40% of Canadians who have experienced homelessness say their first experience happened before the age of 16. This suggests that prevention is both necessary and possible. Data plays a key role in this effort. When the right information is shared appropriately, youth at risk of homelessness can be identified earlier, services can be better coordinated, and young people can be connected to support before their situation becomes a crisis.
The BC and Calgary projects demonstrate how this can work in practice. They are building and testing practical models that other communities across Canada can learn from. The webinar shares these insights with policy makers, researchers, funders, and service providers working to strengthen prevention efforts.
Ready to build data infrastructure in your community? Start here.
The webinar is one part of a growing body of work to support youth homelessness prevention in Canada.
Our Building Youth Homelessness Data Collaboration project provides resources for developing collaborative data-sharing approaches in the social sector, as well as the final report from our work in British Columbia. Our Data Infrastructure Roadmap for Preventing Youth Homelessness project shares the full roadmap, summary reports, and action briefs tailored to specific groups, including community service providers, researchers, funders, and youth.
Additionally, the Homeless Hub has shared their perspective on the project team’s work and the webinar in their article, “Building Data Infrastructure Needed to Prevent Youth Homelessness.”
Whether you are just starting to explore how to share data or expanding existing efforts, these resources are designed to support informed and coordinated action.
Project partners
PolicyWise for Children & Families is proud to be collaborating with the Trellis Society, The Alex, and Dr. Carla Hilario, PhD from the University of British Columbia – Okanagan on this project.
Project funding
This project was funded in part by the Government of Canada and the Government of British Columbia.
