24. Shaking Off the Colonial Inheritance: Homeless Indigenous Youth Resist, Reclaim and Reconnect

This chapter raises awareness about the connections between the ongoing homelessness crisis within the Indigenous youth population in Toronto, Ontario and their past and present involvement with the child welfare system. Information within the chapter comes from four separate research projects that investigated youth and homelessness and the circumstances under which they left their homes, food security, poverty and mothering under the watch of child welfare. These projects explored with homeless Indigenous youth the conditions under which they became homeless and what can be done to prevent homelessness from continuing in the future. Suggested prevention strategies include the need to 1) keep families intact and accept alternative forms of family; 2) incorporate Indigenous worldviews and social workers into the child welfare system; and 3) address the effects of colonization on Indigenous families.

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Author(s): 
Editor(s): 
Gaetz, Stephen
O’Grady, Bill
Buccieri, Kristy
Karabanow, Jeff
Marsolais, Allyson
Publication Date: 
2013
Publisher(s): 
Canadian Observatory On Homelessness