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www.insideHALTON.com | OAKVILLE BEAVER | Thursday, October 13, 2016 | 32 First 60 days crucial after youth leaves home: Roberts continued from p.24 "The fact is that no one chooses to be homeless. Two prevailing issues are often parents with addictions, or blended family issues around conflict in the home. Youths leave home when they do not feel safe." BTG offers homeless youths three different housing options: the host home program where willing families provide a room to a youth in crisis; the Bridge House program -- one house in Burlington and one in Milton -- which helps young people transition to independent living; and case management, where BTG staff help youths co-ordinate their own housing. The complexity of situations involving Halton youths is increasing said Levac. "Our youths in Halton seem more isolated and more alone in their life situations. There are more issues with regards to developmental/ cognitive functioning, greater presence of mental health and addiction, as well as youths who are pregnant and/or parenting." Complicating the situation is the increase in housing, public transportation and food costs, said Levac. "Youths need an ongoing support network to assist them in managing day to day," he noted. "This would normally be fulfilled by family -- opening a bank account, learning to budget, grocery shopping, taking transit -- but without that support, the day-to-day living lessons of life get filled through formal support service." It is the reason why BTG does its best to find host home options for the younger youth "as they are in need the most of this type of warm hand support." "Our region's homeless youths are invisible to most of the public and invisibility means a lack of consciousness about the existence of it," said Levac. "Joe turns the public eye to see the invisibility of youth homelessness in a region where it is assumed it does not exist." Youth homelessness is a crisis that plays out all across Canada and is what drives Roberts to push his shopping cart to as many corners of the country as is humanly possible. His goal is to raise 50 cents from every Canadian, all money going to charitable partner Raising the Roof to be invested in the Upstream Project, a schoolbased homelessness prevention initiative. Fifty per cent of proceeds raised in Halton, however, will go towards BTG. "Our greatest opportunity to intervene in a young person's life is not when they're sitting on Yonge Street asking for change, is not when we find them on a street corner enslaved in the sex trade, is not when they're sitting in a jail cell having already committed crimes." What happens in the 60 days after a youth leaves home is crucial to the trajectory of that child's life and it comes down to resources and collaborative partners to push for change, said Roberts. Support is critical for front line services, Housing First initiatives and preventative measures, he noted. "There needs to be a thicker wrap of support services. We can't just give a young person keys to an apartment and say, good luck. There's great promise in looking at prevention models that catch a young person who's at risk while they're still sitting in a classroom and get them the resources they need before they leave school and before they leave home." And so, Roberts continues his push for change, one step, and one community at a time. "I'm not shy of hard work. I've been working hard for 20 years; this is just a different kind of work," he said. What propels him through the arduous physical and emotional toll the journey takes on him? "I would answer that question in the same way I would coach you how to achieve something big in your life, and that is to tether to a purpose, so really understand why you are doing it," Roberts said. When the reality of having to push himself 24 km every day along seemingly endless roads, overwhelms him, "I close my eyes and remember what it is I'm trying to do and the legacy that we're trying to build. "I only have to walk across Canada once and today is just day 149 and tomorrow is day 150. So, I'm not thinking of Toronto, Burlington or Hamilton, I'm not even thinking about Kingston, I'm thinking of rounding the corner and just playing that game." When he crosses Vancouver's city limits Sept. 30, 2017, Day 517, it won't be the end of his mission."It's the platform that we want to continue to work from as a foundation for the next 20 years, even when the walk is done. It's just the end of the beginning," he said. In Halton Roberts will reach Milton on Oct. 26, travelling along Steeles Road and south on Trafalgar Road, ending at Piper's Heath Golf Club around noon. On Oct. 27, he will set out at 7 a.m. from Ford Drive and Lakeshore Road in Oakville and continue along Lakeshore to Burlington's Elizabeth Street. At noon on Oct. 27 he will be back in Milton to participate in a parade of 1,000 Halton students along a 1-km route from Hawthorne Village Public School to Craig Kielburger Secondary School, where he will address the crowd. Among those scheduled to attend are Milton Mayor Gord Krantz, Halton Police Chief Stephen Tanner and Halton Region Chair Gary Carr. 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