Trent Community Research Centre

This paper examines provincial post-custody accommodation. The purpose of this research, was to investigate what is currently occurring in the Haliburton Kawartha Pine Ridge (HKPR) region and review any existing best practice or programs for post-custody accommodation. To achieve this goal, a grey literature review was conducted and a survey addressing post-custody accommodation was emailed to social service organizations in the HKPR region. The survey consisted of qualitative and quantitative questions. The organizations were asked if they provided any services or support for post-custody clients, if they directly operated housing for post-custody, what problems post-custody clients experience, any barriers and challenges to meeting accommodation needs, any services that should be implemented and if the federal mandated post-release planning should be implemented provincially. The research demonstrated that the biggest barrier was a lack of housing. In terms of services, housing support workers and long term permanent housing should be implemented. The research also alluded to organizations wanting to see similar post-release planning, as mandated at the federal level. Recommendations include: targeting organizations that directly operate post-custody accommodation, disperse yearly surveys, test other post-custody accommodation models and fight for adequate housing.

The purpose of this research was to determine what feedback the City of Peterborough should gather from recipients of its supplement programs, what survey structure can be implemented on an annual basis, what impact on quality of life financial support has had on tenants, and how the rent supplement has affected the recipients' living arrangements. The City of Peterborough rent supplement program provides rent subsidies to individuals of low income to reduce the amount that they have to allocate to rent. To accomplish the goals of this study, recipients of rent supplements participated in a survey and focus group. The survey consisted of quantitative and qualitative questions inquiring about the participants' experiences since receiving the supplement. The focus group expanded on the results from the survey. Grey literature research was conducted to determine what information other municipalities have gathered on residents' experiences with their rent supplement programs. The data shows that overall the quality of life and living arrangements have improved for individuals receiving a rent supplement. Residents can now afford healthier groceries and social activities. In order to conduct the survey on an annual basis the questions should be quantitative and responses collected on a scale of strongly agree to strongly disagree. This paper is a continuation of a project that is interested in the experiences of residents receiving supplements from the City of Peterborough. Part one of this research focused on geared-to-income programs. This part focuses on flat-rate rent supplements offered by the Housing Resource Centre.

Barriers Preventing Youth From Using Transportation in Peterborough was a community based research project that was completed in the 2017-2018 academic year at Trent University,Peterborough, Ontario, Canada. The purpose of the project was to expand on information previously obtained by the Peterborough Youth Council (the host organization of the project), being that the youth demographic of Peterborough experience issues when accessing the local pubic transit system. Specifically, this project illustrated the expansion of this information and through research it was identified that the perception of transit accessibility vary significantly across socioeconomic cohorts. Through performing a literature reviews and conducting interviews, several attributes were identified as having influence over transit accessibility including: frequency, overall route and network coverage, as well as user's proximity to transit stops. However it was noted that through research that different perspectives exists in regards to which attribute is considered the most important or most significant. Ultimately, these different perspectives present the suggestion that citizens from different life-stages and social statuses hold distinctive attitudes regarding transit accessibility. As result, several research tools were created with the intention of being used in further studies conducted by the Peterborough Youth Council that would be used to investigate the specific factors that lead to youth in Peterborough having issues and feelings of anxiety when accessing public transit. Furthermore, several strategies that could improve transit accessibility, by targeting specific attributes that were deemed as having significant influence over transit accessibility were suggested.

Victim Services seeks to maintain high quality services to crime victims by maintaining officer awareness of victims' concerns while also liaising with other networks and resources in the community. Victim Services are responsible for implementing and maintaining a comprehensive program to address the broad needs of victims. The Victim Services team has long considered the potential positive impact that a volunteer program could have towards helping victims of crime in the City of Peterborough. I administered a survey responsible for addressing questions regarding the recruitment and training process, as well as the job description of volunteers. The survey was conducted with seven Victim Services units across Ontario that have volunteer programs. These areas include: Windsor, Guelph, Toronto, Durham, Hamilton, Ottawa and Waterloo. From the survey, it can be concluded that all volunteer programs with Victim Services Units operate in their own unique way depending on the needs of their corresponding geographical area. Using the information gathered from the survey, I developed recommendations pertaining to how a volunteer program should be implemented in Peterborough. The main recommendations are further outlined in the report and include: approximately six to eight volunteers, with a minimum age of 21. In addition, I recommended that volunteers must commit to a minimum of one year of volunteering with Victim Services while completing a minimum of four shifts a month. Lastly, I suggested that the training for the volunteers should be conducted with online modules and in-class sessions.

The purpose of the present project was to help the staff of the YES Shelter for Youth and Families to understand when their clients' personal information is required to be shared with others, primarily those in law enforcement. To fulfil the purpose, legislation surrounding the sharing of personal information was researched, along with other homeless shelters. Privacy policies of homeless shelters similar to the YES Shelter were obtained through email and telephone interviews. Research from the legislation allows for the personal information of clients to be shared with the police when the information is used to help an investigation and to protect the life and health of a person. With the exception of one shelter, all the shelters that shared policies lack privacy policies. However, all the shelters do not permit the sharing of client information to those outside of law enforcement. Eva's Initiatives was the only shelter to have detailed privacy policies, which allow for the disclosure of client information to those in law enforcement when the information is used to protect the life and health of a person. The research gathered from the present project is being used by the YES Shelter to create privacy policies for their staff.

Previous research has determined that having a sense of community belonging can help reduce youth's criminal involvement. Given this, the HKPR Regional HSJCC initiated the current project to explore and identify youth programs that promote and/or create the conditions to enhance youth's sense of belonging. The aim of this project was to determine what types of programs promote community belonging; identify how these programs were distributed within Haliburton, the City of Kawartha Lakes and Northumberland; and analyze how these programs were structured in terms of barriers and commonalities. Using a qualitative approach data was collected through a literature review, an environmental scan and interviews. Results revealed that multiple terms indicate community belonging, and that a diverse range of programs can help enhance this feeling. Programs identified in each of the research areas tended to be located within close proximity to one another, and were not evenly distributed. Comparisons of the programs also revealed that the most common barriers youth face to participation are financially and accessibility related. Future suggestions include: addressing these barriers, and working to better inform these communities of the impact that having a sense of community belonging can have for youth. Considering educationally based programing, program structures that view at- risk youth positively, and incorporating positive role models are recommended as future directions in developing an ideal youth program. Involving youth in continued research is also strongly suggested to enhance their sense of belonging while mitigating potential criminal involvement.