Upstream Canada

Upstream Canada is a program that seeks to prevent youth homelessness and school disengagement through early intervention. The project actually originates from Geelong, Australia.. This Australian predecessor, called The Community of Schools and Services (COSS) Model, is a groundbreaking early intervention program, which works with schools and community partners to identify youth at high-risk of becoming homeless.

Young people at risk of homelessness often hide the challenges they face in their personal lives for a range of reasons, such as fear of social stigma. This can help to explain why, when youth become homeless, it is typically after problems have reached a crisis point and issues have become more complex and difficult to address. Setting up such youth for success, therefore, requires early identification of risk and intervention and increasing access to effective supports through an equity lens.

Upstream Canada is a response to this challenge and to the staggering reality that at least 35,000 youths in Canada experience homelessness each year. Much of our response to youth homelessness is reactive—that is, we wait until young people are homeless and street involved before we offer help. This initiative is a preventive approach to the problem that works to offer supports to youths ages 12–18 who are identified as at risk of homelessness and school disengagement through a universal screening tool called the Student Needs Assessment (SNA).

This universal approach sets Upstream Canada apart from other interventions as it identifies students who do not display external signs of risk and experience barriers to accessing help. The confidential assessment is the critical initial step in a validation process that connects young people to coordinated supports before crisis hits.

Upstream Canada focuses on schools as key partners in early intervention. Schools can have an important role in supporting students at-risk, before the situation worsens and becomes more difficult to address. Equally, community organizations can serve as critical collaborators in this endeavour. Leveraging the strong professional capacities and resources in both arenas can facilitate more effective interventions that ultimately lead to better outcomes for young people.

A three-step process is used for identifying and supporting young people at risk:

1. Students complete a standardized assessment;
2. Based on the results, students who are flagged for potential risk have the opportunity to participate in validation interviews with case managers;
3. Once needs are determined, a collaboratively developed care plan is established and students are connected to supports.

This process ensures that students whose risk may go unnoticed and might not reach out for help for various reasons have confidential opportunities to access the supports they need. However, recognizing that homeless youth are disproportionately Indigenous, racialized and LGBTQ2S, it is important to adapt this framework alongside stakeholders to ensure it is culturally and contextually appropriate for all students being supported. Stakeholders might include community leaders, knowledge keepers, people with lived experience, thought leaders, experts, frontline practitioners, and advocates.

Why Is Youth Homelessness an Education Issue?

When youths are homeless, their educational experiences and opportunities—and therefore life trajectories—are deeply impacted. In a pan-Canadian study on 1,103 youths with lived experience of homelessness, 83% of respondents reported being victims of bullying, either “sometimes” or “often.” The survey also revealed that dropout rates are high among homeless youth across Canada, at 53.2%, compared with the national average of 9%. Given the extreme challenges faced by youths without a stable home, the prevalence of early school leaving among these youths should not be surprising.

Many young people’s first experience of homelessness occurs before age 16—a period in their lives when they were in school. In Canada, schools are the only public institution where young people are legally required to attend in until age 16. This suggests that schools are a critical locus for intervention, ensuring that young people are connected to the supports they may need. This is a perspective that has also been shared by young people with lived experience of homelessness, who believe school would have been the ideal place for a trusted adult to intervene to prevent their homelessness.

Leveraging existing partnerships and collaborative efforts in communities, Upstream Canada provides an effective mechanism for schools to connect students to the supports they need to prevent them from experiencing homelessness and facilitate more equitable access to opportunities and outcomes in education and employment. It is vital for all stakeholders to understand Upstream Canada as part of a larger system that works to achieve this end. This collaborative approach is meant to alleviate rather than add to the social care burdens of educators.