Choices for Youth 

Address: 261 Duckworth Street, St. John’s, NL, A1C 1G9 

Mandate:

Help youth to secure stable housing, education, and employment, while working toward family stability and better health, through innovative programming and social enterprise.

Target Population:

Youth aged 16-29.

Highlights of Programs/Services Offered:

Housing 

• The Choices Shelter: For Young Men and Gender Non-Conforming Youth
  • Youth are able to stay at the shelter for up to a month, while working on their own housing plan and connecting to financial and other support services. 
  • Tel: 709.757-3050
• The Lilly: Accessible supportive housing located in downtown St. John’s for youth facing homelessness to begin individualized support programs
  • The facility provides affordable housing and related supports to 14 homeless and at-risk youth. It consists of 1- and 2-bedroom units, with shared community spaces in the larger kitchens and eating areas, as well as in the living, recreational, and art spaces. 
  • Tel: (709) 739-1019 
• RallyForward: Accessible supportive housing for at-risk youth facing homelessness.
  • With 26 housing placements spread over multiple units in downtown and central St. John’s, the RallyForward program provides long-term supportive housing to any youth at risk of homelessness. 
• Soft Landing: supportive housing first model which aims to provide youth ages 16-29 rapid rehousing and shelter diversion approach for youth who are precariously housed, experiencing homelessness, or experiencing transitional homelessness.
  • the program provide supports to prevent youth from entering into homelessness or at-risk situations when arriving in St. Johns.
  • the program uses a coordinated approach meaning a single referral to housing and supports within CFY’s housing and support programs
  • Housing services and support referral : once completed email housingsupport@choicesforyouth.ca or fax 709.754.6102

Employment

• Employment Support: For young people looking to remove barriers to competitive employment or accessing education, they can access a support worker and training sessions to help reach their goals. 
• Social Enterprise: offering meaningful and supportive workplaces for many young people

Family Services 

• Momma Moments: A community based, healthy-living, peer-to-peer program for young pregnant and parenting women.
  • The Program currently runs in St. John’s and Conception Bay South, where groups meet once a week for programming that emphasizes overall wellness – mental, physical, spiritual, and social – for mother and child. 
• Family & Natural Supports: This program supports and facilitates the reconnection of youth with a family member – a cousin, a sibling, a parent, an uncle or aunt, or a grandparent.
  • The Family Reconnect team supports young people and their families by facilitating the process of reconnection, offering counselling, and continuously working with the young person to help them achieve their goals. 
• Youth in Transitions: Skill building and lifestyle coaching with the Department of Children, Seniors and Social Development
  • Youth in Transitions is a life-skills based program which provides up to 60 individuals with individualized support staff connected to the Outreach and Youth Engagement Team. 
  • Youth in the program work to develop skills like budgeting, meal planning, laundry, and transportation — and with the host of programs available at Choices for Youth, they are positioned to provide additional support to youth in the program as required.  

Health and Outreach

• Outreach and Youth Engagement: The Choices for Youth Outreach Centre is often the first point of contact with youth in need of support.
  • Youth can personal care items, warm meals, access to a telephone or computer, access to a shower, and the chance to get out of the elements and into a warm, safe space. There are also medical professionals on-site to support youth with emergent healthcare needs. Once basic needs have been met, we can work towards identifying challenges in a young person’s life and helping them navigate the systems and boundaries to help them move forward. 
  • Drop-In Centre: 12-16 Carter’s Hill Place, St. John’s 
  • Phone: (709) 754-3047 
• Drop in Services: the outreach centre offers a drop in program five days a week where youth can receive a meal and many other partner organizations can offer information and resources on various services available within CFY and the broader community.  
• Health and Harm reduction: the outreach centre has a addictions counsellor and public health nurse who are available anytime to see young people in a safe clinical setting for medical concerns, wound care, STI testing, flu shots, or any other health care support
  • The space focuses on a harm reduction model within all programming and services. The centre is a SWAP site which offers clean needles for young people, and also provides take-home Naloxone kits as well as training on how to safely use the Naloxone kit. 
• Recreation and Wellbeing: CFY offers recreational programming during the winter and summer months which include a variety of activities the promote physical health for all people.
  • Summer activities include: yoga, swimming, indoor rock climbing, scavenger hunts, and softball games. Winter activities include: snow shoeing, sliding, and trips to the local museum and archives
  • CFY also hosts programs that support youth mental health. The Artful program offers youth the chance to learn a new art technique or skill in a peer-to-peer support setting. 
  • CFY hosts workshops on many relevant topics including life skills, financial literacy, tattoo safety, and legal aid and they provide opportunities for youth to expand on their skills in areas of cooking, gardening and much more !