{"id":23235,"date":"2017-08-24T13:43:52","date_gmt":"2017-08-24T17:43:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/?post_type=cu_story&p=23235"},"modified":"2025-02-03T11:30:18","modified_gmt":"2025-02-03T16:30:18","slug":"helping-find-way-home-ottawas-homeless","status":"publish","type":"cu_story","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/story\/helping-find-way-home-ottawas-homeless\/","title":{"rendered":"Helping to Find a Way Home for Ottawa\u2019s Homeless"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n Helping to Find a Way Home for Ottawa\u2019s Homeless\n <\/h1>\n \n <\/header>\n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n\n \n\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n

Professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Jackie Kennelly<\/a> has dedicated much of her academic career towards understanding and assisting those who are disadvantaged in Canadian society.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In her qualitative research, Kennelly examines issues surrounding social inclusion and exclusion, globalization and the neoliberal state, social movements, urban sociology as well as citizenship and youth cultures. She scrutinizes these phenomena ethnographically, by working with those who are impacted by these societal traits. Mostly, her work focuses on the young and marginalized. Due to the nature of her expertise, Kennelly often finds herself involved in projects which have direct influence on the municipal, regional, and national scenes. Her latest Mitacs-funded collaboration with the Alliance to End Homelessness Ottawa<\/em> (ATEHO) and A Way Home Ottawa<\/em> (AWHO) is a shining example of exactly this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She has also recently completed a project funded by a US-based educational research group, the Spencer Foundation; this project involved collaborations with local youth-serving organizations to talk to homeless youth about their perceptions of citizenship and democracy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In her collaboration with ATEHO and AWHO, Kennelly has been working with Anthropology graduate student Justin Langille to better understand youth homelessness in Canada\u2019s capital city. In embarking on this endeavour, Kennelly and Langille collaborated with AWHO to hire young people with contextual experience to conduct peer-to-peer research alongside the team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Together, the youth research liaisons, Kennelly, Langille, and Kaite Burkholder-Harris of A Way Home Ottawa<\/em> have been conducting elaborate focus groups and interviews with more than seventy youth who have personal experi- ences of homelessness. In confronting this important and difficult topic, Kennelly takes a dynamic approach to guiding the research. \u201cI\u2019m always conscious of making sure that the dialogue is very interactive in nature. It\u2019s important that we\u2019re not sitting down at a desk in a circle. Our talks are meant to be comfortable and organic. Often, we\u2019ll go for a walk and share a snack, and do the interview that way,\u201d she said. \u201cTraditional environments often alienate the people who I\u2019m speaking with, so it\u2019s ideal if we can find an art space, somewhere that helps foster a less formal setting and reminds them that they are the experts. I\u2019ve found that people tend to open up more and describe their experiences when they have the freedom to move around.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Kennelly states that the youth participants are the experts on the community and culture inherent to Ottawa, she isn\u2019t kidding. Referencing her Spencer funded research, Kennelly explains that through her interviews, she consistently discovers that youth participants all seem to possess a real sense of their identities as members of the community.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u201cWhen I asked the group if they believe they contributed to their community, they all enthusiastically agreed. They described how they added to Ottawa every day through a variety of actions and negotiations which included providing their peers with advice and support.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Although in many ways they have been legislatively left behind, the participants were still quick to echo their belief in the notion of community. \u201cEveryone in the group viewed themselves as members of the Ottawa community, but affirmed that they don\u2019t at all see themselves reflected through the powers that be,\u201d said Prof. Kennelly. \u201cSo, they don\u2019t vote or try to get involved in politics in any way, because they see no point. Instead, they act as citizens in their unique way, external to traditional story_intro_authorities.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kennelly suggests that their jadedness with government is completely logical: \u201cThey are viewed by story_intro_authorities as one-dimensional or as inconveniences when the opposite is true. These are youth that likely dealt or are currently dealing with tragic abuse. Now homeless or previously homeless, they face serious societal barriers that include confronting sometimes violent Ottawa police officers who are quick to give them tickets which they clearly cannot pay.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn turn, this criminalizes these young people, and the consequences are profound. When the tickets go unpaid, they get passed onto collections agencies, which then ruins their credit rating. The result is that the youth are not able to later acquire work, lease a car or buy a house\u2014the system is set up for them to remain oppressed.\u201d Despite these significant and unjust difficulties, Kennelly discovered that the participants remain motivated to cultivate solutions and were eager to play a role in Kennelly\u2019s project by telling their stories and offering their opinions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Spencer funded research was designed to culminate in an action project led by the youth, who decided they wanted to see films made about their experiences. Kennelly hired local filmmaker Ben Hoskyn to create the films collaboratively. They filmed their walks, talks, and ideas, and the upshot is extraordinary. The final version of the videos<\/a> are professional grade peeks into the major issues that homeless youth in Ottawa face on a daily basis, including their negative interactions with police, the need to decriminalize marijuana, and the supports they need to transition out of homelessness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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