From Mountains to Mole Hills: How REST Centres Strives to Close the Opportunity Gap between Homeless Black Youth and Success
Happy summer to the REST Centres community!
On July 15th, 2023, the world came together to celebrate World Youth Skills Day, a significant global event established by the United Nations with the aim of advocating for the acquisition of essential skills by young individuals for their personal development and growth. This momentous occasion was observed across the globe, emphasizing the importance of empowering youth through skill-building initiatives (Global Dimension). Recalling the celebration of the World Youth Skills Day, it is crucial to recognize the strategic significance of equipping homeless and at-risk racialized and BIPOC youth with the necessary skills for employment, dignified labor, and entrepreneurship. This recognition also extends to the importance of creating equitable income opportunities that can support them in obtaining dignified shelter for stable living, emphasizing the need for comprehensive support.
REST places its trust in the spirit of resilience and unwavering perseverance displayed by our youth as they overcome challenges and strive for personal growth. However, we acknowledge that the current structures and support available are not fully responsive to their needs and, in some cases, may even contribute to the complexities they face. In the Peel region, Black youth confront numerous obstacles in their path towards success. They bear the burdens of family dysfunction, systemic racism, and barriers hindering generational wealth. Moreover, early-life involvement in the child welfare system and the struggles of immigration further impede their access to stable housing and employment.
In recent research, it was found that microaggression is part and parcel of the daily experience of Black Youth in the Peel, with limited action to curtail misinformation and associated stereotypes, which compounds their pursuit of education and other social services, including housing (Family Services of Peel - Peel Institute of Research and Training, 2023). Layered with these are mental health challenges and inadequate access to culturally sensitive services for especially racialized and BIPOC Youth in the Peel Region. It is crucial to acknowledge their plight and work collectively to address the homelessness crisis affecting Black youth in the Peel region.
The stresses of homelessness on a young mind today are overwhelming. Our youth are entrenched in a perpetual state of survival, in which their minds are locked on the immediate future, given the current wave of socio-economic challenges. For instance, over 30 percent of youth aged 15–24 moved out of Ontario because of rising housing costs. (The Impact of Housing Affordability on Youth’s Major Life Decisions, 2023). The current lamentations of our youth are: Where is my next meal coming from? Where am I sleeping tonight? Where am I going tomorrow because I can’t stay here? Youth experiencing chronic homelessness, be it couch-surfing or living in a shelter, often drop out of school in order to work, stay on the move, and keep themselves alive, making it harder to pursue future goals without even so much as a high school diploma at times. This is what the Founder and CEO of REST has termed "Survival Over Ambition derived from Akan (SOA)".
meaning “carry”. At REST carrying the burden of BIPOC youth to provide them with rest is anchored in our holistic programing which are culturally sensitive and targeted to meet their unique needs. We call on all to help carry and lift the homelessness burden off the shoulders of our youth if we prescribe for generational impact and legacy of our toils.
But we’re here to help lift the burden of our youth, not to wait for them to fall before we catch them. Thus, REST offers new opportunities, restores hopes, provides essential support, and cheers our youth on as they climb themselves up to altitudes above the socio-economic and systemic challenges for which skill development is critical.
Being the only Black-led, Black-serving, Black-focused organization (B3) in Peel, we are dedicated to curbing the underrepresentation of Black youth in positions of power and prosperity, and this process starts by leveling the playing field. To support our youths’ transitions to independence, we host a variety of programs and workshops designed to teach life skills, enhance their employability, develop their leadership skills, and build healthier mindsets.
We offer tenant education to help them gain and maintain stable housing. We offer financial literacy to learn about budgeting and saving for future goals. Our Digital Literacy for Life (DL4L) program has also returned for a second time to develop the technological skills of youth to a workplace level. We have also launched our RISE Above basketball program, which promotes the importance of having an active lifestyle while integrating mentorship from Black community leaders to inspire youth to focus on their wellness, strive for success, and find growth through community involvement. In Fall 2023, REST is launching My Story, My Power: Strength in Storytelling, the organization’s first-ever storytelling program, designed to mobilize youth with lived experience of homelessness and housing insecurity to tell their stories from a place of empowerment rather than victimhood. The program will not only create a wealth of stories that depict various experiences of youth homelessness but also empower youth to see that they are more than their trauma and that they have built power through what they have overcome.
We host social integration nights for youth to make friends and build emotional health; home economics workshops for cooking, bargain-hunting, and cleaning; and apprenticeship education workshops for youth to learn more about the opportunities that surround them. Most importantly, we engage an active REST Centres youth council, which works to inform and influence the implementation and execution of all REST Centres programming.
Our diverse programs are integral to the development of youth success as, in the age of a sky-high rental market, inflation, an unstable job market, and the onset of artificial intelligence, disadvantaged youth are up against some of the steepest heights they have ever seen. It is important that youth leverage the supports and opportunities currently available to them as they will no longer have access to them once they grow older, so we put everything we have into inspiring our youth to take charge, take action, and climb.
References:
Family Services of Peel - Peel Institute of Research and Training. (2023). The Impact of Racial Microaggressions on Black Youth in the Region of Peel: A Literature Review. Family Services of Peel - Peel Institute of Research and Training (Funded by: Canadian Heritage’s Digital Citizen Contribution Program). Retrieved from https://fspeel.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Final-FSP-ABR-Literature-Review-1.pdf
The impact of housing affordability on youth’s major life decisions. (2023, May 24). Desjardins.com. https://www.desjardins.com/en/news/impact-housing-affordability-youth.html
World Youth Skills Day | Global Dimension. (2023, July 15). Global Dimension. https://globaldimension.org.uk/calendar/world-youth-skills-day/2023-07-15/