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Our Story

Working towards a better tomorrow

A Way Home Kamloops has come a long way from its grassroots beginning, which involved meeting in an abandoned building. The history begins in 2012 when Kamloops was named as one of two pilots to develop a youth homelessness action plan in a national initiative. Kamloops was one of two communities, the first in BC, to develop a youth homelessness action plan, through the Mobilizing Local Capacity program. At the same time, a grassroots collective was founded by a youth with lived experience of homelessness. This group was meeting in an abandoned building and was passionately exploring how to create housing for youth aging out of care into homelessness. The City of Kamloops approached this collective  to become the steering committee behind the plan and became A Way Home. The national initiative formed a new non-profit and as Kamloops’ work was so ground-breaking and successful, the national organization asked to use the name A Way Home Canada. Most recently this has become an international phenomenon with A Way Home America and A Way Home Scotland.

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Our Core Values

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First Voices Leadership

 

Empowering those with lived expertise to guide the community movement to end youth homelessness. Nothing about us without us!

 


Supportive

 

Ensuring a safe environment that encompasses compassion, empathy, care, and understanding of all forms of diversity.
 

 

Respect

 

Create trusting, quality relationships that promote acceptance, belonging, inclusivity, and accountability for shared decision-making.
 

 

Innovation

 

Be creative, inquisitive, and ambitious to do what has never been done before and share our learning for educational resources.
 

 

Sustainable Movement

 

Ensure balance, stability, clarity and perseverance in our focus to consistently manage future growth.

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Values are shared beliefs at the core of

A Way Home’s work that informs decision-making

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A Way Home Youth Homelessness Action Plan

A Way Home Kamloops is implementing our community plan to end youth homelessness. Our vision is that all youth in Kamloops have a safe place to call home and the supports to sustain wellness. The heart of the plan lies in the Strategic Framework and its recommendations around the areas of Prevention, Housing, and Support. The plan also includes an Implementation Plan, which lays out guidelines for moving forward, including building the proper infrastructure and conducting effective planning and monitoring.

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Strategic

Framework

The strategic framework has been developed to direct efforts to end youth homelessness in Kamloops. The Framework takes a three-pronged approach to the issue.  

An

empowered

youth

Youth Homelessness in 

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A BIT OF BACKGROUND

In October 2016 A Way Home Kamloops is the first community in Canada to conduct a youth homelessness count. We identified 129 youth who had experienced homelessness with 56 youth currently homeless. In our Youth Count Report we have collected demographic information and youth have shared their voices and hopes for change where every youth has a way home.  

Youth Homelessness in British Columbia

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A BIT OF BACKGROUND

In November 2017, A Way Home Kamloops, Katherine McParland, co-founded the B.C. Coalition to End Youth Homelessness in partnership with Fred Ford of Pacific Community Resource Society. This coalition consists of organizations from all across B.C.  Our mission is to develop a provincial plan to end youth homelessness that ensures every youth has access to safe housing and the supports needed to sustain it. A provincial plan would include: collaborating with provincial government around  role and responsibilities; developing a strategy for housing, prevention, and supports; collaborative research planning and information sharing to end youth homelessness.  This project is informed by core values that Youth First Voices are First Priority, B.C. communities should lead this work, and integration of Truth and Reconciliation Commission Calls to Action.

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