Youth Homelessness
You can help end youth homelessness.
Youth Homelessness
You can help end youth homelessness.
No young person chooses to be homeless
Youth experiencing homelessness might have had a difficult home life or been a victim of abuse. They could be facing issues with drugs, alcohol or mental health that might make it tough to transition to living on their own.
Many factors can drive youth to homelessness
Whether it’s couch surfing or relying on shelters, these options are short-term, unstable and unpredictable. They make the living situations for homeless youth precarious—and quite often dangerous.
In Canada:
Violence accounts for at least 60% of the reasons young people are forced to leave home.
Youth who have been involved in the child welfare system account to almost 40% of those youth who experience homelessness.
Almost 30% of youth who are homeless identify as LGBTQ+.
United Way helps homeless youth move off the streets and into safe, stable housing
Youth homelessness doesn’t need to happen, and it shouldn’t. United Way East Ontario, like so many throughout Prescott-Russell, Ottawa, Lanark County and Renfrew County, shares a common goal to end it.
That’s why we invest in culturally, age appropriate programs that provide housing and wrap-around services, support evidence-based solutions such as the ‘Housing First’ model, and work with partners like the Alliance to End Homelessness and A Way Home Ottawa to advocate for and strengthen the system that supports our most at-risk youth.
Our Impact
No longer homeless, Lawai has a bright future
“I had people looking out for me, and actually caring about what goes on in my life.”
End youth homelessness, before it becomes life-long
United Way works to get at the root of the issue and create long-term solutions that end youth homelessness for good. This not only shuts the door to chronic adult homelessness—it saves lives.
Thanks to our donors, United Way invests funds where they are needed most and will have the greatest impact. Together with your support, we can provide our region’s vulnerable youth with opportunities to build a brighter future.
