Towards youth-centered information practices to support youth facing homelessness: experiences and perspectives of youth with lived experience and community service providers

Introduction Youth face a difficult journey once they become homeless, often struggling to navigate multiple systems. Information collection and use is a starting point to support youth accessing services. We aimed to better understand the experiences of information collection and use when accessing homelessness services for Canadian youth (18-30 years old) who have lived experience of homelessness and the community service providers (CSPs) serving them.Method We conducted five focus groups with 30 youth participants and eight semi-structured interviews with 15 CSPs. Using thematic analysis, we analyzed transcripts for youth and CSP sessions separately and combined the results. We sought an understanding of their “co-experience” (a flow of information from youth that is shared and given meaning by CSPs), looking for commonality, discrepancies, and unique findings between the group’s experiences.Results The relationship building between youth and CSPs is critical to information collection and use. We identified themes on safety during the information collection process, making information collection more youth-centered, youth-informed consent in information collection and use, and rethinking information to support youth over their journeys.Conclusion The findings suggest solutions around ethical, human-centered design in information collection and use to better serve the complex needs of youth facing homelessness.