Ending homelessness

Projects supported in 2016 are:

Good Shepherd Ministries, Toronto

  • Amount received: $759,000
  • Project: Evaluate the impact of an intervention that seeks to help adults experiencing homelessness and problem gambling by reducing the financial impact of their gambling, and helping them find and sustain housing and related supports. This work will impact the lives of 320 people who are homeless in Toronto and help end homelessness in Ontario. (Also included under employment and income security.)

Raising the Roof/Chez Toit, Toronto

  • Amount received: $100,000
  • Project: The organization will evaluate the impact of replicating a proven school-based homelessness prevention model in Ontario in partnership with local community agencies and schools. This work will directly impact the lives of 150 youth who are at risk of homelessness, by keeping them at home, in school, and linked to the community. (Also included under Breaking the Cycle of Poverty for Children and Youth.)

Shepherds of Good Hope, Ottawa

  • Amount received: $523,900
  • Project: The organization will evaluate the impact of creating an innovative gender and trauma focused intensive case management program and peer support service to get chronically and episodically homeless women housed. This work will impact the lives of 300 women who are homeless (with a quarter identifying as First Nations, Métis, Inuit or urban Indigenous people) in Ottawa. (Also included under employment and income security.)

John Howard Society, Toronto

  • Amount received: $812,600
  • Project: The organization will evaluate the impact of its collaborative hub model approach to community reintegration services for former provincial inmates. Enhanced access to housing supports, peer counselling, and other resources are currently provided to break the jail-to-street-to-jail cycle. This work will impact the lives of 200 homeless men in Toronto – many of whom have disabilities associated with addiction/substance use.

Ontario Federation of Indigenous Friendship Centres, Project will target 8 sites in Northern Ontario.

  • Amount received: $606,000
  • Project: The organization will create a culturally relevant service evaluation tool for urban Indigenous support services. This work will impact the lives of 200 people who identify as First Nations, Métis, Inuit, and urban Indigenous people who are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless in Kenora, Ontario, with one additional urban Indigenous Ontario community opting in based on need, interest and data analysis to help end homelessness in Ontario. (Also included under employment and income security.)

WoodGreen Community Services, Toronto

  • Amount received: $410,000
  • Project: The organization will evaluate its First Step to Home (FSTH) program, which supports homeless older men with complex care needs, affected by poverty and homelessness, to transition into stable independent housing by providing affordable housing, extensive case management, life skills, and supports for addictions, health and mental health. (Also included under employment and income security.)

Lawson Health Research Institute, London

  • Amount received: $557,600
  • Project: The organization will evaluate the effectiveness of reducing homelessness by preventing psychiatric discharge to no-fixed-address by implementing housing and income support; hospital-based access to Ontario Works and housing databases. This work will impact the lives of persons who are at-risk of being homeless due to psychiatric discharge in London and work toward the development of best practices that may reduce homelessness in Ontario. (Also included under employment and income security.)

Employment and income security

Projects supported in 2016 are:

Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto & Thunder Bay

  • Amount received: $976,900
  • Project: The organization will build upon initial proof of concept work (Housing Outreach Program Collaborative (HOP-C)) examining the optimal supports for youth who have recently exited homelessness. The intervention comprises mental health and peer supports alongside transitional case management. This collaborative model will be tested as a proof-of-concept in Thunder Bay with Indigenous youth, and a trial will be conducted in Toronto to optimize and determine the effectiveness of the existing model of support. (Also included under Ending Homelessness)

Brampton Caledon Community Living, Brampton

  • Amount received: $853,000
  • Project: The organization will evaluate a screening and fast track process for housing shelters to connect people with developmental disabilities/dual diagnoses (DD/DD) with appropriate community supports. This project is focused on improving the stability of housing and reducing homelessness for people with DD/DD in Peel Region to help end homelessness in Ontario. (Also included under Ending Homelessness)

Supportive Housing In Peel, Mississauga

  • Amount received: $384,100
  • Project: The organization will evaluate the impact of a Community Partnership Program and implement a Community Flex Fund that will help 100 individuals who are homeless or episodically homeless, located within Dufferin County, reducing homelessness and improving stability of housing at the same time improving economic and social well-being within the community. (Also included under Ending Homelessness)

Simcoe County District School Board, Midhurst

  • Amount received: $297,000
  • Project: The organization will implement and evaluate the impact of the Circles Program on engagement in education, employment and training, and rates of high school graduation. This work will directly impact the lives of 90 youth and single parents experiencing intergenerational poverty, in the rural, North Region of Simcoe County (Tiny Township, Tay Township, Midland and Penetanguishene), moving them toward employment and income security. (Also included under Breaking the cycle of poverty for children and youth)

Community Living Essex County, Essex

  • Amount received: $27,400
  • Project: The organization will evaluate the impact of Community Living Essex Country’s modernized employment service, Career Compass, which approaches employers and markets job-seekers with disabilities on a business, rather than social service, level. This work will impact the lives of 300 people with disabilities in Windsor/Essex by helping them move toward meaningful employment and income security within a diverse and inclusive workplace.

Schizophrenia Society of Ontario, Toronto

  • Amount received: $311,100
  • Project: The organization will evaluate the effectiveness of cognitive behavioural therapy for psychosis (CBT-p) training for front-line service providers who work with individuals with serious mental illness and who are disengaged from the community. Training in CBT-p can lend practical and immediate techniques to enable  them to assess and intervene a situation and  positively affect clients who have a mental illness, leading to measurable improvements in the management of their disease, their ability to participate in community supports, improve retention in programs and avoid escalating further into poverty. This work will impact the lives of up to 720 people with disabilities in Toronto and help them move toward employment and income security.

Sudbury & District Health Unit, Sudbury

  • Amount received: $216,800
  • Project: The organization will evaluate the impact of Getting Ahead and Circles in assisting low-income individuals and families to access the skills and resources necessary to move them toward financial self-sufficiency through relationship building across socio-economic boundaries. This work will impact the lives of more than 1200 people at risk of becoming homeless in Greater Sudbury and help them move toward employment and income security.

Centre for Effective Practice, Organization based in Toronto, but intervention targeting across Ontario

  • Amount received: $288,300
  • Project: The organization will evaluate the effectiveness of developing and implementing an electronic medical record (EMR)-based intervention in primary care clinic sites to screen and identify patients and families affected by poverty. This work will positively impact single parents and children, seniors, women and other vulnerable populations across Ontario.

Working Women Community Centre, Toronto

  • Amount received: $327,400
  • Project: The organization will evaluate the effectiveness of connecting customised supports for vulnerable women in a lower-income community to strengthen self-employment and enterprise capabilities. Project activities will impact the lives of 50 women, including young women, visible minority women and/or newcomer women in North-East Toronto and help them move toward employment and income security.

Pathways Skill Development and Placement Centre, London

  • Amount received: $476,800
  • Project: The organization will help assist at-risk, newcomer and immigrant youth by providing pre-employment and industry specific skills training and job trials with employer partners. This project will impact the lives of 55 newcomer youth in London and help them move toward employment and income security.

Durham District School Board, Whitby

  • Amount received: $548,000
  • Project: The organization will evaluate the impact of implementing a coordinated, participant-centred service and support system to improve participation in active living initiatives by families receiving Ontario Works. This work will impact the lives of 200 single parents and children, and people with disabilities living in Priority Neighbourhoods in Durham Region, and help break the cycle of poverty for children and youth.

Region of Waterloo, Kitchener

  • Amount received: $551,100
  • Project: The organization will pilot and evaluate the impacts of an affordable transit program for people living with low-income. Focusing on reducing poverty rates of vulnerable populations, this work will impact the lives of over 500 women, single parents and children, youth, newcomers, and people who are visible minorities in Waterloo Region. This project will help individuals move toward employment and income security.

Breaking the cycle of poverty for children and youth

Projects supported in 2016 are:

Good Shepherd Centre, Hamilton

  • Amount received: $535,400
  • Project: The organization will evaluate whether the enhanced Angela’s Place program, which provides a supportive transitional environment 24/7, in which young mothers can develop essential life and parenting skills, complete their secondary level education and develop the formal and informal community connections for living independently in the community with their children, is more successful in diverting young mothers and children out of poverty than the previous program at Angela’s Place. The project focuses on improving parenting skills, high school graduation rates, and reducing child poverty for young mothers and their children annually over a three year period. (Also included under employment and income security.)

Keewatin Patricia District School Board, Kenora

  • Amount received: $881,500
  • Project: The organization will evaluate the impact on high school graduation rates of youth at risk for leaving school by offering learning-therapies like Equine Assisted Learning, Expressive Arts, cultural and land-based skills. By building capacity to develop problem solving skills and address trauma through these modalities, up to 150 youth, many of whom are Indigenous, will be assisted to graduate, become employed and break the cycle of poverty. (Also included under employment and income security.)

Centre des services communautaires Vanier, Ottawa

  • Amount received: $679,900
  • Project: The organization will evaluate the impact of developing a social pediatrics hub in Vanier which will offer accessible, child/youth-focused, holistic, comprehensive and integrated health and social services to Vanier’s most vulnerable children/youth. This intervention targets 2000 children and youth living in Vanier as well as their single parents and families to help break the cycle of poverty for these vulnerable children and youth.

City of Greater Sudbury, Sudbury

  • Amount received: $529,000
  • Project: The organization will evaluate the impact of school-based and community-based extracurricular activities on academic achievement and school success. This work will impact the lives of up to 100 youth in Greater Sudbury and help them to break the cycle of poverty for children and youth. (Also included under employment and income security.)

Indigenous Stream

Projects supported in 2016 are:

Matawa First Nations Management (MFNM), Thunder Bay

  • Amount received: $1,200,800
  • Project: This Tribal Council will evaluate the impact of a co-created, culturally-appropriate entrepreneurship program for community members in the nine First Nations that comprise MFNM. In collaboration with the Canadian Executive Services Organization (CESO) and Rise Asset Development (RISE), the project aims to increase community entrepreneurship capacity through workshops, one-one-one business coaching, and increasing access to affordable and flexible capital to support business start-up/growth.

Niagara Peninsula Aboriginal Area Management Board (NPAAMB), Oshweken

  • Amount received: $688,400
  • Project: The organization will evaluate the impact of the 10-week life skills and career development Journey Program. This program will help urban Indigenous youth in each of NPAAMB’s five catchment areas (Fort Erie, St. Catharines, Brantford, Hamilton, and Kitchener-Waterloo) to develop skills to embark on career paths, using holistic and culturally relevant career planning.

M’Chigeeng First Nation, Manitoulin (Little Current)

  • Amount received: $398,300
  • Project: This community will evaluate the impact and implementation of their Community Healing and Wellness Strategy, which aims to break the cycle of poverty for children and youth by leveraging a variety of dynamic partnerships to provide education, training and economic development opportunities to Indigenous youth dependent on social assistance and youth with addictions (between the ages of 13-29).

Native Women’s Resource Centre of Toronto (NWRCT), Toronto

  • Amount received: $319,800
  • Project: The organization will evaluate the impact and implementation of the Healing Paths Project, which includes a variety of wellness programs available, in particular, to women, youth, and two-spirited and transgendered people. NWRCT will utilize innovative evaluation methodologies including Storytelling and Story-Keeper Sharing, as well as the Waaywiyeyaa Evaluation Tool developed by Johnston Research Inc.

Kenora Chiefs Advisory, Kenora

  • Amount received: $1,378,800
  • Project: The organization will evaluate the impact and implementation of a new Life Skills Program that will address the issue of homelessness and poverty by equipping community members with employment readiness skills and support services. In collaboration with Anishinaabe Abinoojii Family Services and Shooniyaa Wa-Biitong, this program will use the Employment Readiness Scale™ (ERS) to support Ontario Works and ODSP clients, youth in care, parents of youth in care and persons with disabilities to obtain the necessary soft skills, job coaching and supports to transition to employment, education or training.

North Bay Indian Friendship Centre, North Bay

  • Amount received: $543,700
  • Project: The organization will evaluate the impact and implementation of a culturally appropriate Housing First model for the urban Indigenous homeless population in North Bay. The program will help clients move from shelters, public systems or the street into safe and acceptable housing with supports that are delivered in a culturally responsive, flexible and safe manner.

Native Men’s Residence (Na Me Res), Toronto

  • Amount received: $116,000
  • Project: The organization will complete a process evaluation of the Mino Kaanjigoowin Program, which supports clients to locate and secure appropriate, stable housing and to provide clients with holistic culturally safe case management, nursing and psychiatric care that addresses their complex health needs. The evaluation will assess the service delivery approach and model of care provided by the program to approximately 120 individuals, and help to identify system-level gaps and access barriers.