Key to reducing youth homelessness? Ask them what they need, researcher says

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2 weeks ago
key-to-reducing-youth-homelessness?-ask-them-what-they-need,-researcher-saysKey to reducing youth homelessness? Ask them what they need, researcher says

New Brunswick

Melanie Doucet says youth living in foster care are at higher risk of experiencing homelessness and the key to solving it lies in centering their voices.

Treat young people as experts on their own situation, says Melanie Doucet, who was in foster care as a teen

Nipun Tiwari · CBC News

· Posted: Oct 27, 2024 5:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 9 hours ago

Woman smiling at camera.

Melanie Doucet, a McGill University adjunct professor, says youth who age out of care are more likely to be homeless. (Melanie Doucet/Twitter)

Melanie Doucet remembers being in the foster care system in New Brunswick the 1990s, in need of social support, only to find little help once she turned 19 and aged out of the system.

She understands the need to listen to youth in care who face similar struggles, and often end up homeless.

Doucet is an adjunct professor at Montreal based McGill University’s School of Social Work.

Presenting the results of her study, Finding Our Way Home, at a recent forum on youth homelessness in Saint John, she said young people who “age out” of foster care or group homes, with no social support readily available to help them, need to be invited into the conversation.

“Whether you’re working with them at the front-line level or you’re a decision-maker, a politician, listen to what youth are saying that they need,” Doucet said.

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