Naomi Nichols: Youth Work: An Institutional Ethnography of Youth Homelessness

Abstract

In this fascinating book, Naomi Nichols takes the reader along with her as she explores the multitude of issues that homeless Canadian youth endure while attempting to access fundamental social services. Over the course of more than a year, she performed this institutional ethnography by meeting with several youth who were staying at the Street Youth Shelter (SYS) in Middlesborough, Ontario. In doing so, Nichols asked the participants to tell her about their stay at the shelter and their experiences while attempting to acquire permanent housing. The focus was not necessarily on what circumstances had brought them to the shelter, but more on what was keeping them there. Several ‘‘cracks’’ in the system are identified and discussed at length, as well as the frustrations that many youths describe while attempting to navigate a complex system of social services. What is revealed are several accounts of teens who struggle to have their basic needs met while being inundated by bureaucracy and burdensome policy. A well written introduction describes what ‘‘youth work’’ means and gives a brief overview of each chapter. Nichols then transitions to chapter 1 where she extensively describes the framework and methods of her research. This chapter’s sole purpose is to inform readers of how the ethnography was performed. She does this by explaining every aspect of the study, from the setting in which it took place to the people who were involved. Twenty-seven interviews were conducted with youth and fourteen with adult practitioners. There was also a discussion with a sixmember youth focus group, as well as numerous informal interactions and observations of activities taking place at the shelter. Her first formal interview with a youth reportedly served to greatly inform the trajectory of the project from there on out. Yet the lessons did not stop with the first meeting. Discoveries about building trust and what social dynamics worked best were regularly found. Most of these conversations took place at a nearby coffee shop when even the walk to and from was a valuable opportunity to access participants’ thoughts and experiences. The interviews with the adults usually took place wherever and whenever was most convenient for them. However, an attempt was always made to hold these discussions away from the institutional settings in which they worked. ‘‘Getting Welfare’’ is the title of the second chapter and this aptly named section describes the story of Nichols’ first meeting with one of many youths she would interview. Khaled was 18 at the time of the interview and had a daunting and somewhat depressing story consisting of a two-year struggle to find housing and get connected with the provincial welfare program called Ontario Works. Starting from when he was 16 and living on a park bench, the story somehow becomes even more disheartening as he explains his hopeless search for help. With no direction or education on how the system works, Khaled repeatedly runs into roadblocks. He is not even allowed into the social services building without first being signed up for assistance via phone or the web. From frustrations with the automated phone service to a lack of personal documentation, he is unable to ask the appropriate questions just to begin the process. The chapter repeatedly demonstrates the difficulties for someone like Khaled to gain assistance. The third chapter discusses the legal ramifications of being under the care of Children’s Aid Society, an independent organization that provides child protective services. The stories of four youth are told in order to demonstrate how differing designations assigned by the & Chad Brown cb38@umail.iu.edu