Home Base Drop In Centre

With life's challenges, it can be hard for a young person to stay on track. Pathways' Home Base Youth Drop In Centre offers youth a safe place to get answers and support.
Every month, Home Base serves more than 100 homeless or at risk youth, between the ages of 13 and 24.

Hours:
We're open Monday to Thursday 12:00 pm to 8:00 pm and Fridays 1:00 am to 7:00 pm. 

The Centre is staffed by at least two Child and Youth Workers at all times, who offer one to one counselling and supervision. All staff members take an oath of confidentiality.

We are here, first and foremost, to protect the youth who use our Centre.

Our youth come to us with many different needs. Think of Home Base as a one-stop-shop helping youth to address those needs. Some of our services include:
 

At Home Base, staff work with the youth to meet their basic living needs such as food, clothing and shelter. It is the primary goal of the Centre to help youth build the necessary skills in order to promote independence. Youth that come to the Centre are all at risk. Home Base provides services to address these issues. Last year, the Centre saw more than 4,500 youth and served 7,900 meals.

Many transient youth lose most of their belongings while on the street and Home Base relies on the community for donations in order to meet the needs of the teens. With a 36% increase in the number of youth served, we have had to reach out to our community for support more than ever.

As this segment of our homeless population tends to exhaust their resources before reaching out to social services, we are constantly working to meet their primary need of shelter, before working on the other issues that have lead to their present situation. Staff support youth on an individual basis, taking into consideration their situation at that time. For some youth, independent living is the direction they are moving, while others are looking to secure a shelter bed in order to gain employment. Reintegration with family is the primary goal of staff where possible, however, temporary housing is often necessary while the youth and their family work on the issues that led to the breakdown.

Community Resource Services
Home Base understands the significance of creating a One-Stop-Shop for youth. Consequently, the Centre strives to create all the services desired by our clients or finds a local community based program that will address the needs that Home Base is unable to meet. Most often these services tend to be around the identification clinics, family counselling, legal services and Ontario Works programs. The Centre has developed great working relationships with other youth-serving agencies that work in tandem at meeting our clients’ needs.

Life Skills Training
At the Centre, youth participate in life skills training, both on an individual and group basis. Through life skills, teens develop the necessary skills needed to move on to independent living with success. In order to increase participation in the group aspect, staff often teach life skills through many venues. Often the groups are presented as activities as opposed to formal group settings. This has increased teen participation by approximately 25%. We have addressed such life skills as how to budget effectively, cooking, social and communication skills, sexual health, legal rights and current events. We are grateful to our community partners, such as Family Services for York Region, Public Health, Crosslinks and Addictions Services for York Region, which help to enhance our current services at Home Base.

Counselling
Traditionally, youth do not voluntarily participate in formal counselling, therefore staff work with clients on an informal basis. A positive adult role model has proven to be an asset in most of the lives of our young people. As homelessness is only one of the issues the youth struggle with everyday, staff spend time with clients working on issues such as family breakdown, abuse, anger management, coping skills, peer relations, drug and alcohol use and abuse. Our counselling service has been described by the youth as one of the most important elements at the Centre.

Home Base Drop In Centre
Program Manager: Theron Cumberbatch
Location: 10944 Yonge Street, Richmond Hill, 905-884-3070
 
A centre for at-risk youth ages 13 to 24 who may or may not live at home. The youth may be looking for a job or finding a way to get back into the school system. They may also be experiencing a housing crisis and in need of care or shelter. For all youth at the centre, it is a place for guidance and understanding.