Covenant House Vancouver

Community Support Services (CSS) contains our street outreach, daily drop-in and housing support workers which provides young people with a variety of services, specifically:

Street Outreach:

The goal of the Outreach team is to seek out those young people who are living on the streets, in SROs (single room occupancy hotels), or those who are "hanging out"(at risk) on the streets. The Outreach team methodically builds trusting relationships with young people, meeting them where they are: on the street. Travelling on foot, outreach workers are often the "face" of Covenant House and they take great care to connect with youth, always encouraging them to come to our Shelter or Drop-In program, or assisting them to access other programs as needed.

Of concern to the Outreach team is seeking out "first-time" contacts - young people who are new to the streets, in the hopes that these young people will come to our shelter, thereby avoid becoming entrenched in street life and its associated perils. The Outreach team also works closely with other service providers to keep track of these new youth as well as those who or are "under age" - 19 and younger and who are therefore eligible for government assistance.

The Outreach workers offer on-the-spot assistance with needs such as food, counselling and minor medical attention. When young people express a desire for additional assistance or are in a state of crisis, the Outreach Team can tap into a variety of resources both in and outside of Covenant House, including psychiatrists, social workers or other medical professionals.

Eligibility/Program Expectations:

Any young person, 16 - 24 years of age is eligible for Outreach Services.

Drop-In:

At the Drop-In, youth workers can provide any non-residential service Covenant House provides and generally fill in the gaps for young people to whom social services are not readily available (i.e. they are over or under 19, without health care or are not receiving government assistance).

During Drop-In, young people can meet with a youth worker and get help with whatever they need in the moment. For some young people it is as simple as arranging for a plane ticket home whereas for others, it is getting a birth certificate or SIN number so that a young person can apply for government assistance. More complex services include securing a mental health assessment for a youth who is displaying unhealthy behaviour or referring a young person to a detox facility.

The Drop-In program provides an array of "as-needed" services to young people aged 16 - 24 and always responds to a young person's most immediate needs first, striving to respond first with "let's see what we can do" rather than "we don't do that here".

The young people helped through the Street Outreach and Drop-in programs are sometimes described as "hard to serve" either because they are resistant to access the structure of our shelter or other housing and/or they have lived on the streets for so long, it takes an enormous shift for them to move inside.

The Drop-In provides:

• Access to a Youth/Outreach Worker - support, counselling, and personal planning
• Access to an in-house addictions counsellor and programs focused on support and recovery
• Access to mental health clincians and psychiatrists
• Referrals to other social service agencies including: medical professionals, addictions specialists (including detox), mental health counsellors and emergency shelter
• Help with getting I.D and applying for financial assistance
• Help finding employment and referrals to job centres, training programs
• Help with repatriation or family reunification
• Light snacks (muffins, juice and coffee)
• Clothing, message board, long distance, mailing adress
• Access to a Housing Worker, start-up kits
• Hot meals served throughout the day Monday to Friday
• Women's only drop-in on Friday morning (10:00 - 12:00)

Independent Living:

The overall goal of the Covenant House Independent Living service is to help homeless youth to access existing safe and affordable housing stock in the community and to assist them in achieving an extended period of stable tenancy. For this to occur our youth must be able to access housing stock that may normally be withheld from them, and to have the capacity to live healthy and safe independent lives.

Two full time Outreach Housing Support Workers work with various housing agencies throughout the lower mainland and with youth on the following activity areas:

1. Housing Search. The Outreach Housing Support Workers assist, support, educate and direct youth in seeking and locating appropriate accommodation possibilities in the community. This includes assisting youth to complete ad and web searches, accompanying youth to look at accommodations and to facilitate introductions to landlords, liaising and networking with other service providers and housing registries, and providing youth with the various resources they need to complete these tasks (such as bus passes, clean clothing, reference lists, etc.).

2. Secured Housing. The Outreach Housing Support Workers help youth to move into their new homes. This includes coordinating access to start up kits, food bags and furniture for youth moving into their own accommodations, as well as assisting youth in moving and with setting up their homes.

3. After Care Support. We provide outreach support as required to assist youth with maintaining housing, and to landlords to maintain youth placements. This includes home visits, advocacy on behalf of our youth to maintain their housing, as well as support and referrals to clients with addictions and behaviour management issues.

4. Specialized Support and Life Skills. We also provide educational life skills support as required to assist youth with maintaining independent living. This includes assisting youth in organizing their financial arrangements and budgeting, meal planning, grocery shopping and meal preparation, as well as providing education to youth with regard to the "British Columbia's Residential Tenancy Act," and assisting youth in organizing transportation and route planning to and from work. 

"I suffer from severe depression and substance abuse issues, and Covenant House helped me basically learn to function again. This is a very worthy cause, they were the parents I never had and helped and I will be a better person in this world because of Covenant House"