To focus on service integration and the alignment of strategies and resources, we have sought out the unusual suspects, thus finding partners not only from the housing and homelessness sector, but also from education, health, youth justice and youth work. We are committed to influence change in systems, practices and cultures to move from a crisis based approach to a prevention-based approach; this shift would enable us to reach young people before a crisis happens, as well as ensuring they have the support they need to resolve their crisis.
Poverty remains the main driver of homelessness, while relationship breakdown is the main cause. We work together to understand these issues, undertaking analysis with partners across sectors, gauging the unique challenges specific to different regions and being led by the voices of young people. Our A Way Home coalition offers a transformational approach to tackling youth homelessness
The A Way Home model has demonstrated transformational change in North America, where some communities have halved youth homelessness through working to improve systems and remove obstacles. A Way Home Canada’s “The Road Map for the Prevention of Youth Homelessness” is a great resource designed to help service providers, policy makers, communities, advocates, researchers, and all people in Canada better understand the meaning of youth homelessness prevention and provide the tools to shift the response to prevention.
Collective Impact is the formation of equal stakeholders and key cross-sector partners who work ‘collectively’ to achieve a common or shared goal.
There are five principles of a collective impact framework, to which all partners commit:
Working on the premise that no one organisation, policy or program can effectively tackle, let alone solve, increasingly complex and entrenched social problems, collective impact calls for an organisational approach where co-ordinated resources can drive action at both local and national levels.
A Way Home Scotland adopted the role of backbone organisation, supporting the partner organisations to shift from acting alone, to acting together.