Suchergebnisse

This article presents a qualitative analysis of the artistic expression of homeless youths, accompanied by examples of drawings and poetry gathered from youths in New York City and Toronto. The impacts of various forms of marginalization and the meanings youths give their work are examined. These meanings include art as being transformative, self-exploratory, communicative, and a redirection of emotional energy into an artistic medium and expressive process. Parallels are drawn between the art and the marginalization of homeless youths and forms and expressions subsumed under the L'Art Brut and Outsider Art movements.

Following a review of approaches taken to generate accurate estimates of the scale of child and youth homelessness in America, this article documents the methods and results of a multipronged count of homeless children and youth in New Haven, Connecticut. The survey used in this count accessed demographics and service needs, and was administered on the streets and in a wide range of service provision settings. A total of 170 homeless families were located, comprised primarily of young, single, African American women and their children. These families included 323 children, suggesting an annual prevalence of 1,688 in this community. This work addresses the paucity of information on homeless children and youth located in small to midsized cities

Youth are one of the fastest growing segments of the homeless population. Through qualitative and quantitative research and a comic book narrative, this book explores the often asked question: What happens when these young people leave the streets?

AbstractYouth without housing experience more regulation and conflict with criminal justice than their housed counterparts. Using in-depth qualitative interviews with fifty-one young people, we focus on how efforts to move away from homelessness towards long-term housing stability are impacted by conflict with law, a term referring to a broad range of experiences with various authorities in the legal system, social services, shelters, etc. Our paper comes out of a yearlong longitudinal study of the factors and processes affecting the transition away from youth homelessness in Toronto and Halifax. We consider practical barriers generated by conflict with law, but also the role that it can play in shaping the identity processes at the heart of successful transitions. Our findings highlight how conflict with law and regulation—even occurring before and during homelessness—has serious repercussions for young people well after they have left the streets.

SummaryThis paper examines both the epistemological and practical limitations and challenges of data collection by reflecting on the experiences of a team of both junior and senior researchers engaged in such a longitudinal study.FindingsThis paper argues that longitudinal research with street youth challenges the boundaries and limits of the formal constructs of research and ethics that typically guide qualitative research by grappling with field issues such as navigating reciprocity, risk and authenticity within relationships with a vulnerable group.ApplicationThis paper calls for an explicit acknowledgement of the challenges researching populations such as street youth over time in our research ethics guidelines and encourages researchers to engage in dialogue leading to more reflective, transparent and accountable framing of how we collect data in the field with vulnerable youth populations.