Making the Shift’s Research Program focusing on Canadian Youth Homelessness

Deadline: 20 May 2019

Making the Shift – Youth Homelessness Social Innovation Lab is seeking proposals for research projects within the research theme areas.

Theme Areas

Two core themes: Makeup the foundation of the project that is:

Shifting to prevention through early intervention, and
Sustaining successful exits from homelessness.

Three crosscutting themes: Support the core tenants:

Enabling health, well-being and inclusion;
Enhancing outcomes for Indigenous youth; and
Leveraging data and technology to drive policy and practices.

MtS Research Program 2019

Applications are invited for research and knowledge mobilization projects that will be implemented as part of MtS’ five year mandate. Projects will be funded that:

Are driven by demonstrable real-world problems and challenge areas
Address specific areas of interest to MtS, its partners and stakeholders
Generate research on effective approaches to prevention and sustainable exits from homelessness
Focus on one or more of the five research theme areas
Contribute to the development of a cohort of highly qualified personnel
Address Equity, Diversity and Inclusion
Have the potential to lead to the transformation of the response to youth homelessness
Help MtS to achieve its mission
Involve partnership between academic researchers and implementation organizations
Have matching cash/in-kind contributions

Funding Streams

The Making the Shift Research Program has two funding streams, taking account of differences in scale and length of projects:

Core Research Projects (CRP): These are larger and potentially multi-year projects (2-5 years) with budgets of $50,000-$100,000 annually ($500,000 total for a five-year project).
Small Research Projects (SRGP): This program funds smaller scale, catalyst or developmental research projects valued at less than $50,000 total.

Funding Availability

Making the Shift financial contributions for specific research projects are subject to availability of funds. Should Making the Shift funding levels not be available or become decreased due to unforeseen circumstances, Making the Shift and partner(s) reserve the right to reduce, defer or suspend financial contributions to grants received as a result of this funding opportunity.

Eligibility Criteria

Applicants are individuals or institutions that are applying for MtS funding.
Applicants must be affiliated with an eligible Canadian institution, meaning Canadian postsecondary academic institutions. Principle Investigators must be tenure stream faculty or adjunct faculty members.
Not-for-profit organizations can also apply for funding provided they meet Tri-Council requirements and submit the supporting documentation, which includes affiliation with an academic institution. As virtually all universities and the majority of colleges in Canada have the required policies and infrastructure in place to administer Tri-Council grants and awards and are already signatories to the Network Agreement (document to be made available for the Application stage), it is often useful to work out agreements whereby partners agree to have the postsecondary institution administer the grant. Not-for-profit organizations that require institutional eligibility must begin the institutional eligibility application process at least five business days prior to the application deadline.
Indigenous not-for-profit organizations wanting to administer the grant funds should apply for institutional eligibility.

Project Criteria

Every MtS project must have a clear focus on the prevention of youth homelessness and/or supporting sustainable exits from homelessness. This includes:
- Research projects that enhance our knowledge in these areas;
- Research and evaluation on the effectiveness of prevention-based initiatives;
- Projects that mobilize knowledge
Additionally, all projects must:
- Contribute to the knowledge-base on effective youth homelessness prevention and housing stabilization strategies that produce better outcomes for youth exiting homelessness;
  - Adhere to the definitions of:
  - homelessness prevention,
  - youth homelessness, and
  - Indigenous homelessness, as articulated by the Canadian Observatory on Homelessness;
- Involve partnerships between researchers, not-for-profit organizations, government and/or private sector partners.
- ALL funded projects must include at least one academic and one community/policy partner;
- Produce knowledge clearly designed to support shifts in policy and practice;
Demonstrate a knowledge mobilization (KMb) plan that may include:
- Academic outputs
- Outputs targeted at community partners
- Policy-related outputs
- Enhancement of partnerships
- Training and technical assistance supports to facilitate adaptation
Preference will be given to projects that:
- Provide capacity building or training opportunities for students and community members
- Engage and include people with lived experience of youth homelessness
- Engage and include Indigenous stakeholders
- Respond to community partners’ priorities
- Build capacity of community partners
- Foster cross-theme collaboration
- Include cash or in-kind contributions from applicants and/or partners