Another year begins and with it Raising the Roof has set some new goals & resolutions. Here are some of those goals and our plans to achieve them.

Further embrace our Canadian identity by providing materials in both official languages.

This year, we plan to focus on developing more of our communications and content in French by translating documents and articles. In other words, our number one priority is generally to be more accessible in French. We began the process last year when we developed our French language Twitter account @CHEZTOIT. Good news, we are now also able to answer your phone calls in French.

Working closely with our partners to sell a goal of 25,000 toques over the year.

Each year we partner with over 50 community agencies from across the country to sell our toques. Toque proceeds help to prevent homelessness and provide services for people at-risk of homelessness. In other words, each toque sold is a step closer to ending homelessness. Anyone can help by selling toques and being a part of an extraordinary journey towards erasing homelessness in Canada. Want to be a part of it? Talk to us now!

Getting two homes renovated for our Reside program.

Reside is a program which renovates vacant and unused properties and repurposes them as affordable housing for families and youth who are at-risk of homelessness. This year Raising the Roof aims to renovate two homes in the GTA. Plus, as the renovations happen throughout the year, we will keep you posted on the amazing process of taking an abandoned house and making it a HOME for at-risk families.

Develop new relationships and partnerships.

We would like to expand our prevention program outside of Ontario, mostly by expanding our Upstream Project in 2 new communities and 4 new schools, in partnership with A Way Home and the Canadian Observatory on Homelessness. The Upstream Project is an amazing program aimed at targeting at-risk youth and helping them to access the services they need to remain in a safe environment and in school.

Research, develop, and test a new eviction prevention program.

In “A New Direction: A Framework for Homelessness Prevention” S. Gaetz and E. Dej mention that eviction prevention is a form of early intervention to prevent homelessness. Consequently, as a leader organization in homelessness prevention in Canada, in partnership with A Way Home and the Canadian Observatory on Homelessness, it is our duty to focus on finding new solutions to respond to the homelessness crisis.

Continue working with all levels of government (local, provincial, federal).

We want to ensure sure that prevention is a priority of the Canadian Government’s homelessness plan. The National Housing Strategy, released in 2017, was a huge step by the Government to focus specifically on ending homelessness.

What about you? What’s on your resolution list this year? Will you help us make our 2018 goals come true? We can use your help to ensure that those experiencing homelessness in Canada receive the essential services and supports they need to achieve their 2018 goals!