Inner Hope

Within the Vancouver area, hundreds of teens are in need of a supportive home environment. Many are homeless or struggling to find safe, stable, substance-free places to stay.

The breakdown in these youths’ families results from addiction, abuse, neglect, mental illness and/or multi-generational poverty. A number of these youth have one or more parents who are deceased, in a correctional facility or are struggling with drug or alcohol addiction. Others have parents or grandparents who are residential school survivors. With parents who are ill-equipped to provide the direction, guidance and support needed, these youth end up fending for themselves from a young age.

The current trend and government initiative to meet the physical housing needs of youth is to dispense funding for these youth to live on their own, instead of placing them in foster care or group homes. This is related both to high costs for services and youth refusing to stay in government placements. In many cases, funding teenagers to live independently has not proven successful, but has rather created situations in which youth are being evicted from apartments, dropping out of school and becoming further addicted, perpetuating the cycles of poverty, addiction, abuse and dependency on the welfare system. However, this also creates partnership opportunities to properly provide for young people who desperately need a home. While the government has attempted to recognize the physical housing need, this cannot be separated from the emotional need for a home – a place of belonging.

Inner Hope Youth Ministries was established as a response to the sixteen youth who chose to reside with Carla and Jenny prior to Inner Hope’s existence. Our goal is to provide housing and support for youth living without places to stay or in places lacking the stability for functional living with the mentoring, programs and opportunities needed to break the cycles of addiction and social dependency.