What Would I do to Help this Social Issue
After researching several different ideas about how to reduce the problem I have been able to come up with my own idea of how to resolve the problem. The main idea is taken from the Covenant House where their main goal is education to reduce homelessness. I believe this is the big difference between being able to make it on your own and being forced to live on the streets. My idea is to create a shelter not just for youth but for whole families. There would be rooms that can sleep parents and children that are at risk of becoming homeless or who have already become homeless. There are a few places throughout Vancouver that already offer this service but their space is very limited.
The project will also offer education for all of these families and our programs will vary depending on the situation of each family. The programs could be:
- Raising a successful family as young parents
- Employment (this class will teach how to apply and keep a job)
- Finances
- Housing
- Counselling (this will be offered to individuals who need someone to talk to about their issues)
The whole idea of these classes is that eventually the family will be able to function as a unit and support each other. Once they have been rehabilitated they will not be sent out on their own. Support will be offered even once they have left the program.
The issue of homeless families does not seem to be very publicized one, yet when you look into near by cities such as Calgary there is an estimated 200 homeless families with one or more children. This study also found the 79% of the families were living in shelters, many of which do not offer the support they need as a family in order to get out of the cycle of homelessness. This is the reason why it is crucial they have a place to go for support, if we can help these families then we will also reduce a lot of the homeless people that are currently in shelters.
Social Value Proposition
To help families get back on their feet and teach them how to be self sustainable.
June 15, 2009 at 1:50 am
Hi Ryan,
I completely agree that education may be the key to alleviating poverty and homelessness. Would your solution take the form of a nonprofit organization, a social enterprise, or a program under the City of Vancouver? Also, how would you measure the effectiveness of the solution?
Cheers,
Hannah
June 15, 2009 at 10:34 am
Hannah I would like to say it would be a program under the city so it could have a good amount of funding, however this would be in an ideal world. I think what is far more realistic would be a non profit organization that also looks to the city for help.
The idea of the facility is to help families become self sustaining, and this is how we would measure how successful it is. The more families we help get to this stage the better. The number of families we would help would depend upon the size of the facility.
It is hard to judge how large the facility could be with out knowing what type of funding it could generate.