Naomi Nichols: Youth Work: An Institutional Ethnography of Youth Homelessness

In this fascinating book, Naomi Nichols takes the reader along with her as she explores the multitude of issues that homeless Canadian youth endure while attempting to access fundamental social services. Over the course of more than a year, she performed this institutional ethnography by meeting with several youth who were staying at the Street Youth Shelter (SYS) in Middlesborough, Ontario. In doing so, Nichols asked the participants to tell her about their stay at the shelter and their experiences while attempting to acquire permanent housing. The focus was not necessarily on what circumstances had brought them to the shelter, but more on what was keeping them there. Several “cracks” in the system are identified and discussed at length, as well as the frustrations that many youths describe while attempting to navigate a complex system of social services. What is revealed are several accounts of teens who struggle to have their basic needs met while being inundated by bureaucracy and burdensome policy. …