Project 460018

Two-Spirit, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (2SLGBTQ+) youth face many social challenges, including bullying, rejection from family and friends, and homophobia and transphobia. These challenges put 2SLGBTQ+ youth at much higher risk for homelessness, so much so that this group is thought to make up about 40% of the homeless youth population in Canada. 2SLGBTQ+ youth who are homeless also experience hardships related to substance use, mental health, finding healthcare providers whom they trust, and securing safe and affordable housing. In British Columbia, Canada, these hardships are intensified by the COVID-19 pandemic, the local housing affordability crisis, and the overdose public health emergency. This project will bring together researchers, community organizations, 2SLGBTQ+ youth experiencing homelessness, and others to create new and much-needed partnerships in this area. As a group, we will work to better understand and prevent homelessness among 2SLGBTQ+ youth, while also sharing ideas about how we can tailor policies and programs to support youth who are currently homeless. We will do this through three main activities. First, we will look to the research literature to see what it says about the health and social needs of 2SLGBTQ+ youth experiencing homelessness, and to gather early ideas about how we can best go about doing research with this group. Second, we will host a set of province-wide meetings with key stakeholders, aiming to share knowledge and develop collaborations through which to promote the health of 2SLGBTQ+ youth experiencing homelessness. These meetings will also inform our third project activity, in which we will develop a proposal for a future, larger-scale research project with this priority group of young people. Ultimately, this project will pave the way for developing and actioning a research collaboration to better understand, prevent, and mitigate the impacts of homelessness among 2SLGBTQ+ youth in British Columbia.