The Identity Project

Young people comprise almost 20% of the homeless population in Canada. It is estimated between 35,000 and 40,000 Canadian youth (aged 13 - 25 years) are homeless at some point during the year and at least 6,000 on any given night. In Toronto, an estimated 1,000 - 2,000 youth find themselves searching for a place to sleep on any given night.

While a great deal is known about the risk factors associated with young people entering and remaining entrenched in street life (e.g., intergenerational poverty, childhood abuse, inadequate education, and limited employment opportunities), less is known much less about how to facilitate and sustain transitions off the streets for youth experiencing homelessness.

The scarcity of evidence on this issue means there are critical gaps in understanding how best to help homeless young people move forward in life after they become housed. For example, results from a recent longitudinal mixed method study of 51 formerly homeless youth living in Toronto and Halifax - led by Dr. Sean Kidd and colleagues and one of the most rigorous investigations to date - showed that obtaining stable housing did not necessarily translate into a sense of belonging or connection to mainstream society. While study participants demonstrated incredible commitment, the structural barriers they experienced during the transition process (e.g., inadequate education and underemployment) led to fragile identities (i.e., self-concept) as they experienced a significant decline in hope and a sense of being 'stuck'. Youth described feeling unprepared for and overwhelmed by the realities associated with the transition process, undermining their sense of belonging and confidence in achieving larger life goals.

Building on the Kidd et al. study, Dr. Naomi Thulien (the lead investigator for this study) spent 10 months following nine young people who had left the shelter system and moved into market rent housing in Toronto. The study - believed to be the first of its kind - captured the crucial role identity plays in the transition away from homelessness. Despite their remarkable determination, study participants lacked sufficient identity capital - conceptualized as a sense of purpose and control, self-efficacy, and self-esteem - to help them press on in the face of significant structural inequities. Thulien asserts that failure to understand and incorporate identity capital into transition-related supports may result in a poor return on investment as these supports are likely to be ineffective, underutilized, or rejected outright.

One notable identity-based intervention is a randomized controlled trial that targeted 264 eighth graders from high-poverty and high-unemployment neighborhoods in Detroit, Michigan. Participants who attended the seven-week intervention aimed at aligning the students' current identities with achievable positive adult identities, demonstrated improved outcomes on measures pertaining to academics, mood, and behavior, which was sustained through the two-year follow-up. The authors suggest brief identity-based interventions can have significant effects on outcomes. Despite being suggested as a promising approach, the investigators know of no other interventions (nationally or internationally) that are specifically targeting the enhancement of identity capital for formerly homeless young people. Given the limited evidence-based interventions for youth transitioning out of homelessness, the investigators believe there is a critical need for evaluations that compare findings based on different approaches, reflecting the diversity of the population and their corresponding needs.