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Choices Youth Shelter provides ‘safe, supportive’ environment

March 2, 2018   ·   0 Comments

By Mike Pickford

“There is a real problem here in Dufferin County. We’re doing what we can to plug the gaps and provide a home for some of our community’s most vulnerable residents.”

It’s now been more than 18 years since Choices Youth Shelter (CYS) set up shop in Orangeville. The brainchild of a local community task force committed to addressing issues surrounding affordable housing and homelessness in the region, the organization is considered as something of a safe haven for youth in the community, and has been for much of the past two decades.

A non-profit organization, CYS provides a “safe and supportive” living environment for homeless youth in Dufferin County. Extending its services to individuals between the ages of 16 and 24, Choices offers youth an alternative to living on the street, while also putting supports in place to help them transition to a move productive and brighter future says Jessyca Keyes, the organization’s emergency housing manager.

CYS as it stands today is a far cry from the entity that sprung up shortly after the turn of the millennium. As well as offering emergency 30-day accommodation, which houses up to 20 people (12 male and 8 female), at its permanent shelter on Townline, the organization has developed and successfully implemented transitional and semi-permanent programs in the community over the past few years.

In 2014 the organization opened up a transitional house on Mill Street, which provides space for youth who need to stay under the Choices umbrella for more than 30 days. Ms. Keyes says individuals can stay at this location for up to a year.

Over the past two years, Choices has opened up several semi-permanent locations in town. In that time, 12 youth who would otherwise find themselves on the streets have been housed through the program. Unlike the shelter’s two other core programs, there is no cap on the amount of time youth can spend living in the semi-permanent facilities. A big change from the emergency shelter, both the transitional and semi-permanent facilities accommodate individuals up to 30 years of age.

“We have had a lot of success over the past 18 years with our core emergency shelter, seeing over 1,450 intakes of Orangeville and area youth,” Ms. Keyes said. “But I think the organization always felt like it could be doing more. The need has always been here, we’ve consistently grown year by year and I think now, through our transitional and semi-permanent locations, we’re finally in a position to actually fight this issue in town.”

Choices’ new Transitional Housing Manager Nevada Roberts noted the organization was already seeing overwhelmingly positive results with its two newer programs.

“We’ve had some youth who initially came to us as emergency cases, spending 30 days at our primary shelter before moving on to transitional and then to semi-permanent. Now, a couple of those have managed to get themselves back on their feet, have jobs and have secured a place of their own,” Ms. Roberts said. “That’s how we gauge our success. It’s amazing for us to see some of these kids who have managed to turn their life around.”

One of those cases, who preferred to remain anonymous, noted he owes everything he has today to Choices Youth Shelter. “Who knows where I’d be today if they hadn’t taken me in and given me the platform to push myself to succeed in life,” he stated.

While they are proud of the progress they have made over the past couple of years, Ms. Keyes noted there is still work to be done in Dufferin County. As such, Choices rolled out a fourth program on Feb. 1, which gives displaced youth a place to go during the day.

“Our emergency shelter is closed from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. so all the youth have to be out in the community. If they don’t have a job, they’re out there not really doing anything,” Ms. Roberts said. “So we put together a ‘day in the life’ video to see exactly what they were getting up to. We found out it wasn’t much.”

Since that time, Ms. Roberts and Ms. Keyes, working alongside Operations Director April Nash pushed hard for day programming at the facility. Enter Edward Davey, Outreach/Program Facilitator at Choices. Over the past few months he has been working hard to develop a schedule whereby the organization opens its doors to youth during the day seven days a week.

“I think this idea has always been there, but we just didn’t have the necessary supports in place and just couldn’t make it work,” Mr. Davey said. “Now we finally have the opportunity to move forward and continue making a positive difference in the lives of the people we serve and a positive difference on the community.”

The shelter on Townline is now open between 1 p.m. and 5 p.m. Monday to Friday and from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekends and all holidays. A large portion of the initiative involves structured programming, with Mr. Davey stating Mondays are reserved for professional development, including resumé building and interviewing schools, while Wednesdays will involve cooking classes. Staff will also be planning outings at regular intervals throughout the week.

“It really is a pilot project at this point. We have a six-month spell to show that this is needed in our community. We know there is a need, we’ve seen that with the number of people who have come out since we started on Feb. 1,” Mr. Davey said. “We’re averaging very, very good numbers right. We just need to make sure we’re reaching enough people and making people aware of what we’re doing.”

For more information on Choices Youth Shelter, visit choicesyouthshelter.com.

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