In October 2023, the Home Depot Canada Foundation presented a $75,000 donation to the Fondation des jeunes de la DPJ to support its Transitioning Towards an Autonomous Life program. With this generous contribution, the Fondation was able to expand its support provided to youths in the care in 2023–2024, during this pivotal period in their lives, to prepare them for the upcoming challenges and to reduce their risk of becoming homeless.
Three core areas of support
Few young people are equipped to stand on their own two feet as soon as they come of age. This is all the more true for youths in the care of the DYP, who lack a solid family and social structure to support them. The challenges they face are considerable, and the Fondation des jeunes de la DPJ provides them with much-needed help wherever their network is lacking, both in Montreal and in other regions of Quebec.
This funding from the Home Depot Canada Foundation enabled the Fondation to support youths in care of the DYP in three core areas in their transition to adulthood: housing stability, integration into the job market, and community support.
Housing stability
This area of support provides youths with support and helps them develop the skills needed to live independently, by giving them the opportunity to live in a transitional apartment for a few weeks. It also allows other youths who have just gone out on their own to receive financial assistance for the first few months of rent, allowing them the time needed to stabilize their situation.
Integration into the job market
Through on-the-job internships, young people learn about all the steps in getting and holding a job (drafting a résumé, job interview, appropriate behaviour, creating a project, presentation, sales, etc.). Some internships can lead to the youths signing a job contract.
Community support
In addition to developing their skills to be independent and to hold a job, youths in the care of the DYP have specific needs related to their life experience and traumas. The Fondation’s assistance would allow them to receive various forms of support, notably for mental health, intervention against sexual exploitation, running away and risks of addiction. It would also help them get peer support from former youths in care who are able to support them during this stage of their life. Specialized resources are also available as required.
Take preventive action to limit risks
The Fondation des jeunes de la DPJ’s Transitioning Towards an Autonomous Life program is part of an approach to prevent the risks that often await youths once they leave the child welfare system. Bear in mind that 33 per cent of them have experienced at least one episode of homelessness before the age of 21 when they leave their placement (youth centre, home, foster family) according to a study by university professor Martin Goyette (ENAP), who explains that “a poorly planned and poorly supported exit from placement is one of the major risk factors when we think about preventing homelessness among young people.*”
The Fondation is honoured to be able to count on the collaboration and exceptional commitment of partners like the Home Depot Canada Foundation as it pursues its mission for youths in care aged 16 to 25.
*Le tiers des ex-jeunes de la DPJ ont connu l’itinérance (A third of former youths in care have experienced homelessness), Radio-Canada, June 13, 2022, https://ici.radio-canada.ca/nouvelle/1890387/tiers-ex-jeunes-dpj-itinerance-etude-commission-laurent-services