This new report warns of a “lockdown generation” — and has six big ideas for how to prevent it
Why It Matters
Young people in Canada are struggling. A majority of youth report deteriorating mental health since the pandemic began. Youth unemployment rates are still at a high. And the services vulnerable youth rely on are at risk.
A “turning point” is what a new report by YWCA Canada and YMCA Canada calls this moment in the pandemic for Gen Z and Millennials.
The report, called Preventing a Lockdown Generation and released Thursday morning, warns that the country’s young people are headed for a dark chapter, if governments and civil society organizations don’t make sure “young people in Canada…have access to the opportunities, places, support, and services they need to recover from the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic and become more resilient to future crises.” Those consequences range from disproportionate rates of job loss to disruption of education to the mental toll of isolation.
“We must recognize any recovery will be incomplete without addressing the needs of young people,” write Anjum Sultana, director of public policy and strategic communication at YWCA Canada and Jessica Stepic Lue, vice president of government relations and advocacy at YMCA Canada.
The report’s recommendations are mostly aimed at the federal government, but other sectors — including the social impact world — can certainly help too, the report says. Here’s what the authors are calling for:
“Building an inclusive society”
In this section, the YWCA and YMCA lay out the groundwork they believe governments and civil society organizations need to do to address the lockdown generation in an inclusive and intersectional way.
They call on both the federal government and civil society to fully implement the 94 Calls to Action in the Truth and Reconciliation Report and the 231 Calls to Justice in the Report for the National Inquiry Report into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls.They recommend the federal government create an Anti-Racism Act for Canada, accompanied by a National Action Plan Against Racism. They ask governments to make sure there’s “predictable, stable and core funding for organizations led by and providing services to the 2SLGBTQIAA+ community, on reserve and urban Indigenous communities, people with disabilities, Black communities and other racialized groups, as well as women and gender-diverse people.” They also call for changes to the recovery benefits for people living with disabilities and the Federal Employment Equity Act.
“Promoting meaningful employment”
The organizations ask the federal government to extend the Canada Summer Jobs program year-round. They also ask for a boost in funding for the Youth Employment and Skills Strategy, including specific funding for projects that offer on-the-job experience to young people.
“Explore establishing an employment and training Youth Guarantee policy for Canada,” the report recommends. “This would include a guarantee that all young people in Canada 30 years old and under are provided with a quality offer of employment or education and training within 16 weeks of leaving their job or schooling.”
The authors also call for lowering the uniform national eligibility requirement of Employment Insurance to 360 hours and increasing the benefit rate from 55 percent to 85 percent of earnings for low-income earners.
“Ensuring housing for all”
This section asks the federal government — and other sectors — to make a bold commitment: end chronic homelessness in Canada, where currently, one in five shelter users are youth.
To do this, they recommend all sectors “rapidly update existing and build new safe and secure housing for young people,” the report reads. “This includes high-quality transitional, permanent, supportive, and affordable housing (such as non-profit and co-operative) units which includes building at least 100,000 units of social housing and 500,000 units of non-market, co-op, and non-profit housing within 10 years. For young people with complex needs, wrap-around services should be accessible and adequately resourced as part of housing.”
The report also calls for an urban, rural, and Northern Indigenous housing strategy, expanding temporary rent assistance for low-income households — ”with a dedicated carve out for young people experiencing a core housing need with an explicit focus on young cis- and trans women, and gender diverse youth.”
“Supporting mental health and wellbeing”
The pandemic’s effects on young people’s mental health have been devastating. In a recent SickKids report, more than 70 percent of school-age children said their mental health has deteriorated during the crisis.
The YWCA and YMCA say there’s an urgent need for the federal government to “establish and invest in a Youth Mental Health Recovery Plan with clearly defined goals,” designed with input from young people themselves. They also ask the government to “expand mental health funding and increase capacity for community organizations to provide mental health and wellness programs and services to young people,” including dedicated funding for “culturally specific mental health supports for young people that recognizes historical and systemic oppression faced by Black, Indigenous, 2SLGBTQIAA+, and marginalized communities.”
They also call for eliminating “siloed grants” that only recognize one aspect of mental wellbeing, and instead find ways of funding wraparound services that include housing, settlement, employment services, and more.
“Investing in youth leadership”
“Expand the leadership role of the Prime Minister’s Youth Council to support a youth pandemic recovery response for Canada,” the report reads. “These efforts would include providing public perspectives and recommendations to the Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister and ensure a generational lens is applied to decision-making and promote broad awareness and government accountability.”
The organizations also recommend the federal government build a new fund for youth-led pandemic recovery initiatives that “would be accessible to grassroots groups, established youth-led and youth-serving charities and non-profits to invest in youth-led projects focused on pandemic recovery.”
They also ask the federal government to make sure the Taskforce on Women in the Economy engages with young cis- and trans women and gender-diverse youth; and include a child and youth wellbeing framework in the Government of Canada’s Quality of Life Framework for Federal Budget.
“Supporting the youth-serving sector”
“Ensure youth-serving organizations can recover and adapt for the future,” the report urges. “Introduce and expand financial support and stable core funding that helps organizations bridge through the next 18 months and implement modernization initiatives that promote resilience. Stable and predictable funding will address financial precarity in the sector, which has historically led to negative consequences such as timelimited programs or high turnover within the sector.
The authors also recognize that no one sector alone can prevent a lockdown generation: “Increase synergies between government, the youth sector, and the private sector,” they recommend, “to respond to the needs of young people in a sustainable way.”
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