Due to their disproportionate risk of tenancy non-sustainment there have been concerns raised for young people making a pathway out of homelessness into independent living. Despite these concerns, there has been limited research looking at how young people experience tenancy sustainment or where they move onto after terminating a tenancy. This thesis, drawing on Bourdieu’s (1990a) theory of practice, presents a reconceptualisation of tenancy sustainment as a practice of sustaining a tenancy. The theoretical-empirical analysis is based on data collected through longitudinal research involving two waves of semi- structured interviews with 25 young people, aged 16-25, who had recently made a pathway out of homelessness into their own independent tenancies. The interdependency between a tenant and their tenancy presented young people with pressures which they developed techniques of independent living in response to in order to sustain their tenancy and make it a home. Young people not only had a particular housing position of being a tenant, they held family and education-employment positions which took part in the formation and shaping of the pressures they experienced living independently. Tenancies were not seen as an end in themselves by young people who desired, through the experience of sustaining a tenancy, increasingly independent positions within their other social positions as well. An uneven process of actually existing neoliberalism across policy areas through its influence on young people’s constellation of interdependent relations also created a dissonance within the positions held by young people fostering social suffering. Young people ending a tenancy viewed this as a ‘step backwards’ when it meant decreasing independence such as a return to supported accommodation; ambivalence where it arose from the end of a relationship; and as a move forwards, or ‘getting on with life’, when making a youth transition and housing pathway towards establishing their own family household.

published_or_final_version / Social Work / Master / Master of Social Work

published_or_final_version / Social Work / Master / Master of Social Work

The purpose of this study was to gain a deep phenomenological understanding of how young adults living in a detoxification centre for people with no fixed abode made the life changing decision to free themselves from substance use and provide insights that could be helpful for counselling psychologists working therapeutically with this client group. An exploratory study was conducted using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA). The participants were between the ages of 25 and 29 years old (1 female and 5 males). All participants had spent 6 weeks in the detoxification centre at the time the interview took place. Two specific areas were pinpointed for exploration during the semi-structured interviews: (1) self-concept before entering the project and after having entered the project and been abstinent for at least 6 weeks, and (2) possible links between homelessness and substance use. Emerging themes were clustered in terms of polarities and existential dimensions. Four superordinate themes comprising of eight existential polarities were extrapolated: control-chaos; connectedness-disconnection; meaning-meaninglessness; responsibility-guilt. The data analysis revealed participants’ struggle to resolve the conflict between these polarities. Identity issues seemed to be crucial, as well as a sense of having lost touch with or possibly never developed an authentic self and a struggle to live and accept emotions in the present moment. Another aspect that emerged was difficulties in grieving losses as well as death anxiety. Connecting with others and caring about oneself seemed to be closely linked and conducive to wellbeing in participants’ experience of abstinence from substance use. On the basis of this study recommendations are made for professionals working therapeutically with this group of clients. These include taking an existential approach and using mindfulness techniques to support clients to accept the polarities we experience in life and to develop the capacity to embrace the contradictions of our existence.

published_or_final_version / Social Service Management / Master / Master of Social Sciences

published_or_final_version / abstract / Social Service Management / Master / Master of Social Sciences

published_or_final_version / Public Administration / Master / Master of Social Sciences

published_or_final_version / Social Work and Social Administration / Master / Master of Philosophy

Street youth can be viewed as an oppressed population based on the fact that most street youth experience one, if not all of the five faces of oppression. Using an anti-oppressive framework, this thesis examines whether the oppression of street youth is ever inadvertently contributed to, reproduced, or perpetuated by services that youth access voluntarily. In addition, this research also explores what possible reasons or conditions might be promoting or perpetuating the oppression of street youth through helping agencies or by helping professionals. Lastly, youth were asked what anti-oppressive practices they could identify in current services, as well as how they would begin to define anti-oppressive practice with street youth. This exploratory research used an anti-oppressive research design and a focus group methodology with a grassroots street youth run advocacy group in Vancouver.

The purpose of this study was to explore and describe the nature of local school-community human service agency collaboration undertaken to address the needs of at-risk youth. The study focused on the experience of four youth services teams in two Oregon counties. A qualitative, multiple-case study approach was used as the research design. Inquiry was guided by four questions: 1) Why and how was the collaboration initiated?, 2) What is the structure of the collaboration?, 3) What are the characteristics of the process?, and 4) What are the outcomes of the process? Data were collected through interviewing, observation, and document review. The analysis of the data proceeded inductively using a content analysis strategy. Based on a preponderance of evidence, conclusions were drawn. They included: 1. Collaboration became a viable response strategy when organizations realized that unilateral solutions were ineffective. 2. Organizational support for collaboration at. both the administrative and staff level was important. 3. The conveners of the collaboration exercised informal rather than formal authority. 4. In-kind contributions of a limited nature constituted the resource base of the collaboration. 5. Attention was paid to facilitating the process of collaboration itself. 6. Leadership of the collaboration rested primarily with the education sector. 7. While the broad vision of the collaboration was embraced by all members, at a more personal level the vision was translated into differing objectives. 8. Both direct and indirect benefits sustained members' commitment to the collaboration. 9. Generally, parent involvement was felt to be integral to the success of the collaborative effort. 10. The issue of confidentiality was addressed. 11. Collaboration resulted in improved communication among schools and agencies, but the increased understanding was largely confined to team members. 12. Collaboration appeared to facilitate access to services and service delivery for some at-risk students; however, limited documentation made it difficult to assess the team's impact on student outcomes. / Graduation date: 1993