As the year draws to a close and the hustle and bustle of work and family functions become distant, fuzzy memories, we often take some time to set intentions for the new year to come. As most people know, the key to success when creating a new year’s resolution is to take some quiet time for reflection, examine your habits and behaviours and create a new achievable path moving forward. This year Raising the Roof has taken our reflection process very seriously.
Back in 2015, Raising the Roof underwent a dramatic revision for the organization while creating our current set of strategic directions. During this exercise, the organization engaged in deep reflection on the history of the organization and our ultimate impact on the issue of homelessness across Canada.
Traditionally, Raising the Roof has focused its efforts on raising funds for frontline organizations across Canada through our iconic Toque Campaign. As homelessness continued to rise across the nation, Raising the Roof ventured into large research projects on emerging trends in the homelessness population; such as our Youthworks and Child & Family Homelessness initiatives. However, although research initiatives inform the way we do work in the homelessness sector, they do not create measurable impact on the issue of homelessness.
Upon this reflective period, Raising the Roof’s Board of Directors made the decision to change the direction of the organization to focus on the prevention of homelessness and in doing, we entered into uncharted territory.
Strategic Directions:
- Prevention: Become a national LEADER in homelessness prevention.
- Education and Engagement: LEAD public education and engagement on issues and solutions related to preventing homelessness.
- Local Community Support: PARTNER to deliver proven programs that will prevent homelessness
With the generous support of Innoweave’s Impact and Strategic Clarity Module, Raising the Roof was able to work with Lynn Ferguson of Social Impact Advisors over a 6 month period to draft, pressure test and refine our Theory of Change. It was through this process that we were able to create our own theory on how we as an organization could create measurable change towards the prevention of homelessness across Canada.
After rigours refining and a short trial run, we are delighted to finally release our Raising the Roof’s first ever Theory of Change.
The concept is for our TOC, Raising the Roof aims to:
“Create a paradigm shift towards the execution of evidence proven prevention programs”
Watch our video to learn how we plan on doing so.
For Raising the Roof 2018 was a year of reflection, exciting opportunities, rapid development and some failures. Most of all we enjoyed rich learning. We are delighted to share our commitment to establish the Prevention of Homelessness for Children, Youth and their Families as our 2019 new year’s resolution and our Theory of Change action plan to do so.
