Young people experiencing homelessness often share their stories with service providers when they seek support, and both groups have concerns about how this information is gathered and shared. We listened to their experiences and ideas to find ways to improve data collection, so it can better support youth facing homelessness.
Study Background and Design
Information collected by community service providers supporting youth experiencing homelessness serves as a tool to guide services and potentially reduce future homelessness. It can help coordinate services based on youth needs and strategizes future service delivery. However, the collection of this information also impacts the youth involved, affecting how the information can be used, changing its meaning, and sometimes leading to unintended consequences for those involved.
As part of our work designing a roadmap for data infrastructure to prevent youth homelessness across Canada, we engaged with youth experiencing homelessness and community service providers to understand their experiences when accessing homelessness services. We conducted five in-person focus group discussions with 30 youth participants aged 18 to 30 from Alberta, Ontario, and Quebec, all of whom have experienced homelessness or housing precarity. Additionally, we carried out eight interviews with 15 service providers from eight organizations in British Columbia, Alberta, and Ontario.
What We Learned
1. Building Trusting Relationships
Strong relationships between young people and service providers are essential for effective information collection and sharing. Young people often arrive at services with overwhelming emotions, so the primary goal needs to be to provide support to youth and build a trusting relationship.
2. Safety in Information Collection
Both young people and service providers shared concerns around safety in the information collection process. To mitigate the risk of retraumatization, begin by asking less intrusive questions up front and gradually delve deeper as trust is established. Training for service providers on how to ask questions safely would also be beneficial.
3. Youth-Centred Consent
Issues of power and autonomy further complicate information collection and sharing. The consent process must be more youth-centred. It should be genuinely informed, providing accessible details on how their information will be used and who it will be shared with. Youth should have the autonomy to choose what information they disclose and to whom, ensuring that consent is not a prerequisite for receiving services.
4. Balancing Needs
Information collection must balance the needs of youth with those of organizations and funders, which often rely on this data for planning and reporting on impact.
5. Respecting Identity
Youth asked for a say in how information is collected about them, including respecting their preferred names and gender identities. Youth also expressed interest in supporting the development of more youth-centred questions and indicators that meet them where they are at. Indigenous community members have called for information collection and sharing practices that reflect Indigenous values, such as reciprocity, a strength-based approach, and storytelling.
6. Streamlining Information Use
To support youth throughout their journeys, information collection should be streamlined. Reusing previously collected information can prevent retraumatization associated with repeatedly recounting their stories. Additionally, processes should be established to allow sharing information with other necessary support figures, with youth input and consent.
7. Data Retention
It is essential to implement a time limit for data retention, ensuring that information is deleted once it no longer serves the youth, limiting potential future harm.
We present suggested actions for service providers and youth-supporting organizations based on the findings.
For frontline workers collecting data from youth
1. Put safety first during information collection
- Build trust before asking in-depth questions
- Focus on the person rather than their conditions and avoid labeling (e.g., “youth experiencing homelessness” instead of “homeless youth”)
- Avoid retraumatizing youth through questioning
2. Realize “informed” consent
- Encourage youth to ask questions about consent
- Explain the rights youth have and what they are consenting to in an accessible way
- Make sure consent is given without pressure, including still gaining access to services without consent for information use
3. Apply a youth-centred approach
- Allow youth to choose how they identify in questions and respect their identities (e.g., name, gender)
- See youth holistically and identify their strengths
- Respect youth choices and autonomy in decision-making
4. Use information to support youth journeys
- Create a shorter intake for those who have previously accessed services
For youth-supporting organizations
1. Put safety first during information collection
- Provide training to make the questions service providers ask safer for youth
2. Realize “informed” consent
- Provide youth opportunities to change their consent later
- Allow youth to choose how much and what information they agree to share
- Create pathways where youth can say “no” to providing information while still gaining access to services
3. Apply a youth-centred approach
- Create a space for youth (e.g., a youth council) to have their say in current practices
- Co-develop youth-centred indicators and information collection procedures with youth
4. Use information to support youth journeys
- Cultivate culture that values effective and ethical information use
- Streamline information collection
- Create processes around how long information from youth can be used
- Collaborate with other organizations and sectors for information sharing to meet youths’ complex needs. Require youth consent for this sharing
Conclusion
Our research supports future decision-making for service providers and funders of services supporting young people experiencing homelessness around information collection and sharing. We found a need for trauma-informed data practices that center on cultural safety, youth autonomy for decision-making, and youth rights in information collection and use. Underlying all practices, transparency and trust is critical between youth and service providers, enabling safe, ethical use of information.