Woman on a mission to help

Going from the street to a hostel can be challenging enough for homeless youth but transplanting their lives into homes of their own is the hardest challenge of all.

Social worker Jane Taylor, who works at helping homeless youth learn to support themselves in the working world, says mundane tasks as regular as paying the utility bill or doing laundry can seem like dauntingly foreign concepts to the homeless and eventually force many of them back onto the street.

As a case worker for the Touchstone Youth Centre in Toronto, Taylor, 26, has helped almost 100 homeless and street-involved clients get their lives back on track and out of the shelter as part of Touchstone’s Hostels to Homes program.

Taylor works on teaching the city’s homeless how to find and hold down a job, maintain an apartment and take care of the mundane tasks of normal daily life.

“Some of these people have been on the street since they were eight, nine or 10. It’s about giving these people independence and then just helping them build a healthy and happy life for themselves,” Taylor said.

She decided to become a social worker after travelling to London, England several years ago to work in an inner-city school with at-risk youth. She was taken aback by the poverty and helplessness she saw in parts of the city.

“A lot of people were really suffering. I just wanted to do more,” Taylor said.

Coming back to Toronto, Taylor decide that doing more would mean helping homeless youth not only find a meal and a place to sleep but teaching them to provide for themselves.

While the rate of homeless recidivism is high, Taylor says people don’t often see or hear about the many success stories, such as one client who has held down a steady job, an apartment and a car consistently since leaving the Touchstone program.

“There have been more successes than people would expect,” she said.

Taylor says negative stereotypes and common misconceptions play a large part in the public’s attitude to people like her clients when the reality is far starker and much less simple.

“I think a lot of people assume the homeless and street-involved youth are punks, criminals, or they’re lazy or just don’t want to get a job. Well I have some clients that have a Grade 7 education — they can’t get jobs because they can’t even fill out an application,” Taylor said.
Seeing her clients succeed is all the reward Taylor needs.

“A lot of clients are so thankful. Just seeing them succeed and come off the program is reward enough,” Taylor said.