Le Service à la famille de l'organisme Dans la rue : points de vue et expériences de jeunes qui y ont fait appel

Event though there has been an increased public and research interest in the street youth phenomenon in the past two decades, some aspects of their lives, one of them being parenthood, have not been yet thoroughly examined and therefore, remain unknown to a certain extent.  In order to gain a better understanding of street youth’s needs related to becoming a parent, as well as an understanding of the extent to which a service specifically tailored for such a population manages to satisfy their needs, this study had the purpose of describing and understanding the service utilization experience of the Service à la famille from the Montreal street youth agency Dans la rue.  More specifically, the objectives were to: gain an awareness and understanding of the persons and resources street youths who become parents turn to for help, and the significance of the Service à la famille among these resources; understand what brings a youth to the Service à la famille and what makes him or her use the services and activities offered; and finally, describe the perceptions and estimate the level of appreciation of the Service à la famille.  Semi-structured phone interviews were conducted with nine youths who had used the Service à la famille and had had a follow-up.  During the interview, the following themes were explored: help seeking related to becoming a parent, the utilization experience of the services and activities offered by the Service à la famille, the portrait of the service, and level of satisfaction regarding the service utilization experience.    At the time of the interview, all youths were parents of at least one child, and the majority had first sought help at the Service à la famille during pregnancy to satisfy different needs related to becoming a parent.   A variety of needs brought the youths to seek help at the Service à la famille.  These needs could be satisfied, but not necessarily at all times, through meetings with the staff and participation in group activities offered by the service.  At times, their needs corresponded to the explicit intervention goals of the service.  In general, the interviews suggest that youths have a positive perception of the Service à la famille, and more precisely, of the staff.  The interviewees named a considerable number of elements they appreciated from their service utilization experience.  Youths nevertheless perceive limitations in the ability of the Service à la famille to give help, especially budgetary constraints and the staff’s workload related to high demand of services.  Even though youths did not necessarily seek help from the service in order to prevent family violence or negligence, which is the mandate of the Service à la famille, much of them acknowledge having received valuable assistance in this regard on the part of the staff, especially when they reported having been in a violent intimate relationship.  They also recognize different ways through which the staff encouraged them to feel good and take care of themselves in order to do the same with their child or children.  All interviewees were satisfied with the follow-up they received from the Service à la famille and claimed they would recommend the service to others.  The intervention approach advocated by the service is considered to be a strong element in responding appropriately to youths’ needs.  This approach appears to have allowed youths who became parents to get the help they needed at a specific moment in time.  According to youths, an aspect of service utilization which could be improved is access to help; since the help interviewees needed was not always available when they asked for it.  Since youths perceive a lack of staff availability, they offer suggestions for improvement that would allow the aid supplied by the service to be more accessible to youths when they seek help.

Keyphrases: Street youth, Pregnancy, Parenthood, Needs, Service utilization, Qualitative evaluation