Phoenix Youth Programs

Over the past 4 years, Phoenix has had the privilege of belonging to a National Learning Community (NCL) on Youth Homelessness.  The NLC brings together eleven organizations from across the country to discuss issues salient to our work and to our youth.  Membership is from coast to coast to coast and Phoenix, as the largest organization working with homeless youth in the Maritimes, has played an important role representing youth from our communities. 

This past June, the Learning Community, under the leadership of Eva’s Initiatives in Toronto, hosted a Leadership Academy in Program Evaluation at York University.  The two-and-a-half day event was facilitated by the Canadian Homelessness Research Network and was geared to assist Learning Community members to better evaluate and assess the impact of their work.   

Anecdotally, we know Phoenix continues to be a meaningful presence in the lives of youth.  We see this every day in our interactions and in the transformative experiences youth report.  Still, we want to better understand how Phoenix can develop better evaluation tools and garner the participation of youth who face many barriers. 

Three staff attended the leadership academy and returned to Halifax with the first steps of a plan in place.  Because our commitment is to provide intentional and effective programs and services, our goal over the next year is to develop and implement evaluations in a few of our key programs.   

Participants will also have a chance over the next year to continue to touch base with one another, and to share learnings and lessons.  Sector-specific collaboration is a key tool to making sure Phoenix stays connected and current.