Four organizations partnered to address youth homelessness in Vancouver : Quatre organismes ont conclu un partenariat pour lutter contre l'itinérance chez les jeunes à Vancouver : analyse d'une collaboration intersectorielle

The findings and opinions expressed are solely the perspectives of the research team, and may not represent the views of the funder or the four collaborating organizations. [...] We were most interested in the individuals’ relationships to the To add to our understanding of the collaboration, we organizations, their experiences collaborating with collected documents, such as email communications, the other organizations, and how their organization memoranda of understanding, as well as internal and changed as a result of the collaboration. [...] To determine how the youth moved through the services We also met with seven youth who had used, or cur- and the order that the services were accessed, we also rently use, at least two of the collaborating organi- tracked the number and types of referrals in youth zations’ services. [...] Flexibility was In order to meet the shared goal of filling gaps in both the ability to work with many different partner services for street-involved youth with mental illness, organizations who all had different skills and knowl- organizations started to adjust their procedures and edge, and the ability to provide services in a different policies. [...] You know, we have had the opportunity to educate the housing staff on medication regimes and depo injec- tions and mental health treatments, and we’ve learned a lot from our partner agencies in different ways of engaging with youth and getting out of the ‘health care professional, I’m in control’ mindset.” Mental Health service Provider With new skills mastered, the role of the staff trans- formed