A Reading Guide

The Youth Count Toolkit is intended for community leaders that seek to measure youth homelessness locally. Presently, there exists a wealth of resources, including the COH Point-in-Time Count Toolkit, for communities undertaking PiT Counts. The Youth Count Toolkit builds on these resources while offering youth-specific guidance on planning and implementing homeless counts.

Each section begins with an excerpt from the COH PiT Count Toolkit. These introductions provide brief overviews of key count components – for example, PiT Count Committees. Next, in the “A Focus on Youth” sections, we offer guidance on adapting the general PiT Count methodology to youth.  Finally, in the “Building Alignment: Tips & Strategies” sections of the toolkit, we provide guidance to communities implementing combined PiT and Youth Counts.

We encourage Youth Count organizers to use this toolkit, the COH PiT Count Toolkit and other resources referenced throughout, to develop effective, tailored, youth count methodologies.

For questions or comments, contact Jesse Donaldson, National PiT Count Coordinator and Project Manager for the Canadian Obervatory on Homelessness.