Collecting With QPID!

Collecting with QPID: Revisiting Youth Homelessness in Kingston

Queen’s Project on International Development (QPID) is proud to announce Collecting with QPID as the rebrand of the campaign formerly known as 5 Days for Youth Homelessness. Collecting with QPID (CwQ) is a club-created campaign that is not affiliated with nation-wide 5 Days for Youth Homelessness. As a rebranded campaign, CwQ will have a new look, a new logo, and new campaign strategies. CwQ is an annual, week-long campaign focusing on educating the Kingston and Queen’s community on youth homelessness while raising funds for the Kingston Youth Shelter. CwQ aims to take a more holistic and inclusive approach to focus on the community’s needs.

What Is Collecting With QPID?

Collecting with Queen’s Project on International Development (CwQ) is a week long event to educate the Queen’s and surrounding Kingston community about youth homelessness while raising money for the Kingston Youth Shelter. Given the current pandemic circumstances, our yearly campaign will take place primarily online between February 28th to March 5th. QPID’s annual campaign has been rebranded to CwQ in hopes of shifting towards a more educational and community-based initiative to support an important cause.

What Does The Kingston Youth Shelter Do?

With the mission to provide a supportive and stable environment for youth, while helping them build the tools and life skills needed to emerge from their immediate or ongoing housing crisis, the Kingston Youth Shelter houses or aids over 200 youth per year. They do this with the goal of ensuring homeless youth do not become homeless adults. The Kingston Youth Shelter is located at 113 Lower Union Street, open 365 days a year with 15 beds to fill on a first-come-first-serve basis. Not only does the shelter provide a warm place to sleep, nutritious food, and support with basic needs, they also provide counselling, Housing Assistance through the help of their Prevention Diversion worker, as well as Family Support, to mediate family struggles experienced by youth both in and out of the shelter. This is just one program the Kingston Youth Shelter offers, not to mention their Kingston Youth Transitions and Kingston Youth Families departments.

Facts About Youth Homelessness in Kingston

In Canada, young people account for 1 in 5 of people living in shelters:

• In 2013,  Kingston’s figure was higher than the national average, with 1 in 3 residents aged between 15 and 24

• In 2017, the number was reduced to 1 in 5 shelter residents ages between 15 and 24

• In 2018, 42% of the homeless population aged 0-24

• Kingston also has a higher rate of female youth who are homeless: 50% of homeless youth in Kingston are female and the national average is 20% 

• In comparison to the housed population and people who experience homelessness at an older age, the younger someone is when they first experience episodes of homelessness results in:

  • Greater likelihood of having attempted suicide

  • Increased/more severe mental health and addictions symptoms

  • Poorer quality of life 

  • Increased risk of exploitation, violence, and victimization

  • Absence of support, treatment, or care leading to the list above as well as a higher mortality rate for homeless youth 

• Indigenous and LGBTQ2S youth, including transgendered and gender-non binary, were more likely to report becoming homeless before the age of 16 than cisgender and heterosexual youth 

• 50% of homeless youth are female, 25-40% identify as LGBTQ+, and 65% have dropped out of school.