“I feel like a kid again”: the voices of youth experiencing homelessness in a mobile recreation program

ABSTRACT

Youth homelessness is at an all-time high in Canada and is a complex social issue. The vast majority of interventions and research focuses on addressing the immediate needs of people experiencing homelessness, such as housing, harm reduction (due to substance use, violence, and crime) food security, and illness. The important role that recreation, sport, and physical activity play in the lives of youth is well established, however, the experiences of homeless youth in these spaces are relatively unknown. Thus, in partnership with a not-for-profit organisation and emergency youth shelters, this research study explored homeless youths’ experience of participating in a mobile recreation-based program and how this experience impacted their everyday lives. Ten youth currently residing in emergency shelters who participated in the program engaged in either one-on-one or group interviews. A qualitative content analysis approach was employed and three key themes were identified: (1) creating safe social spaces and cultivating relationships, (2) reconnecting to previous passions and meaning, and (3) promoting wellness. Findings suggest that the recreation program provided unique and layered experiences for the youth participants and had profound impacts on their overall wellbeing. Implications for practitioners and policy makers are offered.

KEYWORDS:

• Youth homelessness
• trauma-informed
• sport
• recreation
• emergency shelter

Introduction

Youth homelessness is a complex social issue affecting young Canadians between the ages of 13–24 who are living independent of parents and/or caregivers and do not have the means to acquire safe and secure housing (Gaetz et al. 2016a). Due to a dearth of supports, many of these young people lack the resources to transition into independence in ways that are safe, planned, and supported. In Canada, 20% of people experiencing homelessness are youth. Particular youth are at increased risk of homelessness due to intersecting structural and systemic forms of inequity including; Indigenous youth, racialised youth, and those who identify as LGBTQ2S+ (Gaetz et al. 2016b). Each year, between 35,000–40,000 Canadian youth experience homelessness, with 6,000–7,000 being homeless on any given night (Gaetz et al. 2016b). Youth experiencing homelessness face unprecedented levels of social exclusion, loneliness, and limited social networks are particularly common, with these experiences powerfully contributing to mental health decline, substance use, feelings of hopelessness, and subsequent returns to homelessness (Gaetz et al. 2019; Smyth 2017). The vast majority of interventions and research focuses on addressing the immediate needs of people experiencing homelessness, such as housing, harm reduction (due to substance use, violence, and crime) food security, and illness (Gaetz et al. 2019).

It is well documented that youth participation in recreation, sport, and physical activity has social, physical, and emotional benefits (McHugh et al. 2015) and has transferable life skills for youth (Kendellen and Camiré 2017). Participation in sport has been viewed as a way to steer people experiencing homelessness towards proper support (e.g. housing, mental health support) (Sherry 2010) and physical health improvements (Magee 2011). According to the Homeless World Cup, a longstanding international soccer tournament for individuals faced with homelessness, sport is seen as a tool for enhancing mental health of participants by raising their self-respect, esteem, and confidence. Further, the meaning, roles, and importance of these benefits in the lives of young people are marked by the unique challenges and developmental opportunities experienced during adolescence. Youth experiencing homelessness have typically been overlooked in the literature, although there is an emerging body of research that highlights importance of wellbeing in the lives of youth on the margins. For example, Schwan, Fallon, and Milne (2018) suggest that participation in meaningful activity (e.g. creative arts, recreational sport) provides opportunity for youth experiencing homelessness to sustain their hopefulness, confidence, and mental wellness. Further, participating in activities that incorporate social connection and expression may provide opportunities to enhance youth experience within recreation spaces (Middleton et al. 2022). Informal sporting activities have been shown to connect asylum seeking youth from diverse cultural backgrounds (Middleton et al. 2022). More specific to the current work, McCelland and Giles (2014) examined the social impacts of street-involved youth participation in structured leisure programs. Although structured programming provided some social-impact, their findings point to the larger role that unstructuredleisure activities played in the lives of the participants. In this case, unstructured leisure activities ranged from casual pick-up sports games in city parks and artistic forms of leisure, to going for coffee, playing billiards, watching movies, playing chess and card games, dating, reading, listening to music, and being active in social activist groups. McClelland and Giles summarised,

These results complicate our understanding of leisure as an avenue to connect street-involved individuals to the mainstream community, as well as how forms of leisure may unite street-involved individuals with one another. Regardless of the type of unstructured leisure in which the youth engaged, these activities were used by the youth to seek out and form crucial connections with others in order to survive very trying life circumstances.

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It would be remiss to not acknowledge the challenges of social development programs for young people on the margins. Despite being seen as a site for connections to develop among youth (Middleton et al. 2022), sport contexts have also been noted as sites where societal exclusionary practices are reinforced (Spaaij 2015). Societal expectations of an ‘ideal youth athlete’ do not acknowledge the diverse and unique reasons for sport participation among youth athletes on the margins. In the case of youth experiencing homelessness, navigating norms within ‘mainstream’ programming may be challenging due to the lack of social supports that foster participation (Hopper et al. 2019). To enhance opportunities for recreation-based programming for youth experiencing homelessness, it is necessary to acknowledge the barriers they face (Trussell and Mair 2010).

Internationally, more young people are living with trauma as a result of adverse negative life experiences. Adverse childhood experiences are factors that impact one’s life both within and outside of their home. These may include, for example, neglect, physical and sexual abuse, racism, and lack of food (Smith 2018). Youth experiencing homelessness are not immune to living with trauma. For many, involvement in the foster care system often results in the ‘ageing out’ process whereby they are living without supportive or secure housing at the age of 18. Additionally, for some, living in precarious or unsafe housing situations occurs as early as 13 years old (Gaetz et al. 2016a).

Scholars have sought to understand what factors promote wellbeing among youth experiencing homelessness (Haudenhuyse, Theeboom, and Skille 2014; Jarvie and Ahrens 2019; Sherry and Osborne 2018). Gaetz et al. (2016a) indicated that programs and policies should focus on individual wellbeing, which means going beyond merely providing housing and minimal supports to also focusing on building assets, confidence, health, and resilience. One way to foster such assets is through participation in recreation (Jones et al. 2017). As argued by Simpkins et al. (2005), recreation-based activities are a key contributor to the overall wellbeing of children and youth and are of particular importance to their physical and emotional health, socialisation, and development. This is particularly important for youth who experience homelessness. Many young people lack safe spaces in which they are supported to act on the meanings they attribute in their lives and participation in recreation activity can provide this opportunity (Hopper and Iwasaki 2017; McHugh et al. 2015; van Ingen, Sharpe, and Lashua 2018). The notion of safe space has been conceptualised in a variety way, however, Spaaij and Schulenkorf (2014) encourage us to think of safe space as more than a physical space, but a psychosocial space rooted in social relations. Further, scholars (Brady 2005; Fortune et al. 2022) who have worked alongside communities on the margins have highlighted the importance of locating recreation programming where it is conveniently located and known to participants.

The Canadian national recreation framework (CPRA and ISRC 2015) acknowledges the barriers to recreation participation and has emphasised a commitment to increasing equitable and accessible recreation opportunities. Regrettably, youth experiencing homelessness are not explicitly mentioned in this policy despite the breadth of the barriers they face to accessible recreation opportunities. Many have limited access to funds needed for registration fees, proper equipment, and experience an overwhelming sense of stigma (Trussell and Mair 2010). Regardless, recreation is a right of all children and youth, and homelessness should not preclude them from participation (United Nations Human Rights 1990). Despite an increase in research that focuses on marginalised young peoples’ experiences in recreation-based programs (e.g. asylum seeking youth; Middleton et al. 2022; LGBT+; Storr et al. 2022), there remains a noticeable absence of published research that highlights experiences of youth who are homeless in recreation-based programming. This is problematic given that there are current policies and frameworks in Canada being facilitated to increase participation without first understanding and acknowledging the meanings derived from participation and the barriers to access these young people face. Therefore, the purpose of this research was to explore homeless youths’ experience of participating in a mobile recreation-based program and how their involvement impacted their everyday lives and wellbeing. The research was guided by two key research questions: (a) what are the experiences of homeless youth participating in a mobile recreation-based program? and (b) from the perspective of homeless youth, how does this experience impact their everyday lives and wellbeing through their own descriptions and stories?

Setting

Envisioned and co-created by Hockey Helps the Homeless (HHTH) and the authors, Rec on Wheels (RoW) is an innovative, Greater Toronto Area (GTA)-based, mobile recreation-based program that connected youth experiencing homelessness to a supportive community through the benefits of recreation. Youth emergency homeless shelters have long struggled to operate with reduced budgets and increased numbers of youth requiring assistance (Gaetz et al. 2016b). Through ongoing consultations with youth emergency shelter partners, the management staff identified their inability to connect youth with unrestricted, meaningful recreation activity. Thus, the focus of RoW was to provide youth experiencing homelessness with a free, mobile, recreation program and have access to safe and community through recreation participation. Two full-time facilitation employees, aged in their mid-20’s, were responsible for the delivery of the programming and a van stocked with recreational equipment (e.g. sporting equipment, musical instruments, and creative art supplies), the program operated five days a week, between August 2021 and December 2021, through partnerships with local youth-serving emergency shelters.

Trauma-informed framework

It is well established that youth who live on the margins experience adverse life events marked by trauma (Quarmby et al. 2022). Increased attention has been paid in the literature to the role of recreation and sporting activities for young people who experience trauma (Massey and Williams 2020; Quarmby et al. 2022). Engagement in trauma-informed recreation can help youth by facilitating meaningful relationships with adults and peers, competence through skill building and goal directed pursuits, and the development of interpersonal skills through cooperative play (Massey and Williams 2020). Leading scholars of recreation-based research acknowledge the strength of employing a trauma-informed approach when working with young people on the margins (Ellis and Walton-Fisette 2022; van Ingen 2016; Whitley et al. 2022). Recreation programs are among a set of approaches that have potential to support individuals experiencing homelessness cope with trauma (Whitley et al. 2022). According to Purtle (2020), a trauma-informed approach is described by four key markers a) realising that trauma exists in various forms, b) recognising how trauma manifests in people, c) having the tools to respond to trauma, and d) resisting events and activities that result in re-traumatisation.

In response to supporting the youth in RoW who have been impacted by trauma, we utilised a trauma-informed practice framework guided by five program-focused tenants. The framework was used to guide the development of RoW and the research presented here (Harris and Fallot 2002): safety (e.g. training RoW staff in trauma-informed approaches), trustworthiness (e.g., attending each emergency shelter on the same day and time), choice (e.g. providing various recreation-based activity that tapped into youths’ interests), collaboration (e.g. provided continuous informal opportunity for youth to have a say in RoW activities), and empowerment (e.g. RoW staff enthusiastically supported participants’ activity choices to further validate participants at each and every encounter). Exposure to adverse life events marked by trauma are overwhelmingly existent in the lives of homeless youth. Included in this are extreme poverty, food insecurity, and violence. The important of a trauma-informed program for this population cannot be overstated.

Methods

This project is grounded in a constructivist paradigm (Markula and Silk 2011). This epistemological approach believes that individuals create their own understandings rooted in existing knowledge and based on these previous experiences, researchers and participants engage in this process of new knowledge making (Markula and Silk 2011). This was important as we acknowledged the various realities and lived experiences of youth experiencing homelessness in recreation programming. Many sport and social development programs have poorly articulated outcomes (Coalter 2007, 2010). Coalter argued for a more logical approach to program implementation and evaluation. Thus, we utilised a precede-proceed model (PPM) (Green and Kreuter 2005) and intervention mapping (IM) (Bartholomew, Parcel, and Kok 1998) to both develop RoW and to conduct the evaluative research presented here. Both of these are planning models that allow for the co facilitation, co-identification, and use of theoretical frameworks to develop and guide programs.

Guided by our commitment to a trauma-informed approach and positioning youth at the centre of the work, we continued to engage youth participants in specific steps of the program, planning, delivery, and research. On a weekly basis, the graduate researcher engaged the youth participants in ongoing dialogue, for example, about their experiences in research, their thoughts about participating in RoW (e.g. activities they liked and disliked, feedback on facilitators), and whether they would like to talk in a one-on-one setting or in a group. We acknowledge that the experiential knowledge of those typically marginalised through research are to be valued and fostered throughout the entire research process (Smith et al. 2022). Given the time constraints for facilitating RoW, a co-production approach that engaged the youth in each step of the research process was not feasible.

The RoW staff participated in workshops where the central ideas of trauma-informed practice were outlined and included potential scenarios they might encounter. The sessions were also to ensure the staff understood trauma-informed care and knew how to operationalise a trauma-informed approach. The continued meetings between the Program Coordinator, lead researcher, and RoW staff gave the staff a chance to debrief and provided further support. This allowed us to flesh out the program, to develop the training curriculum for the RoW staff, and to prepare other program materials (e.g. training manuals, program plans). Through active engagement of our partners and youth, we engaged in a variety of methods during these phases (e.g. literature reviews, one-on-one and group interviews, ‘How are we doing?’ surveys). However, for the sake of the current work and given the sheer volume of data generated over the program delivery, we have focused our attention on highlighting youth participants’ stories shared through interviews.

Participants

At the time of the study, the youth participants were presently experiencing homelessness and utilising the support of our partner emergency shelters. Their experiences with homelessness ranged from recently arriving at an emergency shelter to recalling living without a home at 13 years old and being in and out of supportive housing for most their lives. This research was comprised of a total of 10 participants, seven men and three women over the age of 18. Participants identified with diverse cultural backgrounds (e.g. Ethiopian, French). Additional distinguishing information on participants can be found in Table 1.

Table 1. Participant pseudonyms and information.

Pseudonym		Age	Self-identified gender	Recreation interests
P1. Mackenzie		19	Male	Enjoyed attending school and had an interest in basketball, creative writing, and creative arts.
P.2 Kacey		20	Male	Enjoyed cooking and listening to music. Attended programming for social connection.
P. 3 Austin		21	Male	Passionate about team sports and enjoyed competition.
P. 4 Derek		22	Male	Enjoyed playing chess and ‘Uno’. Participated physical activity and preferred one-on-one interactions.
P. 5 Levi		20	Male	Passionate about politics and nutrition. Enjoyed playing ‘Battle Ship’ with his peers.
P. 6 Emile		18	Male	Enjoyed playing group activities (e.g. team sports).
P. 7 Eliza		19	Female	Enjoyed soccer and practicing kicking the ball around.
P. 8 Nina		19	Female	Enjoyed team sports and played on her school’s extracurricular teams.
P. 9 Thomas		21	Male	Played soccer and enjoyed card games with staff.
P. 10 Isla		18	Female	Engaged primarily in creative arts-based activities. Here spirituality and faith were important to her.

Participants were purposefully sampled and recruited by a known sponsor. Purposeful sampling includes the selection of participants based on their ability to purposefully inform specific details about the research questions (Creswell 2013). A known sponsor is someone who has a legitimate relationship with the group of interest (Patton 2002); for this study, the known sponsor was the RoW Program Coordinator. Participants were purposefully identified as those individuals who could share in-depth insights about the key issues under exploration. All of the youth participants had been engaged in RoW programming and had personal experience in participating in recreation-based activity. The youth were compensated for their participation.

Data generation

Prior to data generation, ethical approval was granted through the authors’ University Research Ethics Boards. Young people on the margins are often distrustful of research and outsiders (Hopper et al. 2019). In previous research alongside homeless youth, Ensign (2003) outlined the importance of spending a period of immersion in the community under study in order to build trust and relation. In consultation with the RoW facilitation staff and emergency shelter management, it was decided that a graduate research assistant would attend the RoW programming on a weekly basis over a period of 5-months. As a result, she was able to build rapport and demonstrate a genuine interest in and commitment to the youth participants. During her visits, she wrote detailed field notes during and immediately following attendance at the program. In acknowledging potential power-imbalances between the research assistant and the youth participants, if requested the field notes were available to the participants so they could identify any potential interactions or behaviours they preferred to be omitted (Magee and Jeanes 2011). The field notes consisted of date and time of note, description of the behaviours and social interactions that occurred, the physical environment, and specifics of the program that day (Cushion and Jones 2006).

Previous researchers doing recreation related research with youth have documented the success of utilising one-on-one interviews (Hopper et al. 2019; Schwan, Fallon, and Milne 2018) and group interviews (Dubnewick et al. 2018). Interviews were chosen by the research team as a respectful and inclusive way to generate data. Importantly, interviews provided the opportunity to generate information on a particular topic and in this case, fed into the overall evaluation process of RoW (Patton 2002). However, given our research teams’ previous experience in working with communities who live on the margins, we were sensitive to the fact that some youth participants may be more comfortable in a group setting (i.e. group interview) whereas some might feel more comfortable sharing in a one-on-one setting with the graduate research assistant. Eight participants choose one-on-one interviews, and two choose to engage in a group research conversation. They granted verbal consent prior to participating in interviews.

The graduate research assistant, RoW program coordinator, emergency shelter management, and the lead investigator all provided input into the creation of the semi-structured interview guide, which shaped the one-on-one and group interviews. The development of a semi-structured interview guide allowed the researcher and the participants flexibility in exploring their perspective on the topic of interest. Additionally, it provided a framework for the interviews so as to not completely flow off topic (Patton 2002). The interview guide was informed by the PPM and IM processes of the program evaluation that included consultation with the emergency shelter management and youth. The interview guide was also informed by a trauma-informed approach to practice and included questions that asked participants about their experience in RoW and whether they felt the program brought meaning, connections, and a sense of safety to their lives. For instance, they were asked ‘can you tell me about a time where you felt supported by your friends and the RoW staff?’ and ‘play can bring us closer together, what do you feel is necessary to support bringing people together through RoW?’. Each of the interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed professionally. Pseudonyms have been used throughout to protect the identity of participants.

Data analysis

The research team explored each of the transcripts with the following questions in mind ‘What are the experiences of homeless youth participating in a mobile recreation-based program?’ and “from the perspective of homeless youth, how does this experience impact their everyday lives and wellbeing through their own descriptions and stories? Data were analysed through inductive content analysis as described by Elo and Kyngäs (2008). There are various ways to engage in content analysis, for the sake of this work we engaged with Elo and Kyngäs (2008) three phase approach of 1) preparation; 2) organisation, and 3) reporting. Content analysis is a flexible and iterative approach to data analysis and is recommended when there is little knowledge on the phenomena (Elo and Kyngäs 2008). This approach allows for patterns in the data to be identified and explored in how they compare and contrast with each other, ultimately developing general knowledge surrounding the phenomena. Further, content analysis has been used in prior recreation program research (Dubnewick et al. 2018). Data analysis process began when the researchers began participating in the RoW programming and conversing with the youth informally during programming (Preparation). Both the graduate research assistant and lead researcher began immersing themselves within the data. This included reading and re-reading transcripts, listening back to the audio-recorded conversations, and writing initial thoughts in a journal. Throughout this initial immersion phase, the graduate research assistant was also revisiting her fieldnotes taken during her participation in RoW (Elo and Kyngäs 2008). Researchers, then, began inductively organising the data through open-coding, searching for, identifying, and labelling codes that consisted of meaningful comments, quotes, or words taken from the raw data (Organization) (Elo and Kyngäs 2008). This was done by making use of notes and headings written in the margins of the text. We utilised as many headings as necessary to describe all aspects of the content. The graduate research assistant and lead researcher conversed weekly and compared notes and initial themes and coding. Codes were then compared and contrasted, and ultimately clustered into higher-order categories that were labelled to represent the major themes within each category. Higher-order themes were then discussed between researchers, to ensure consensus among representation and interpretation of themes. The data was then revisited and further abstracted, ensuring categories and subcategories were grouped appropriately to reflect the youths’ narratives. As academic outsiders and individuals without experiences of being homeless, the graduate research assistant remained present and immersed in the RoW program during the analysis phase in order to challenge, sensitise, and validate our interpretations. The final stage of Reporting was completed by using direct quotes from the youth to represent the themes. Content analysis, as described by Elo and Kyngäs (2008), is flexible and iterative, which allowed us to capture and present the stories of the youth participants. Throughout the narratives of the youth participants the use of recreation, sport, and physical activity are used interchangeably. Their terms and descriptions have been preserved and in doing so, the terms are used interchangeably.

Verification of data included specific approaches as discussed by Morse et al. (2002). Following Morse and colleagues’ recommendations, we imbedded verification strategies throughout the study design. For instance, this study was methodologically coherent, which ensured research question matched the method and in turn matched the analytic procedure. Additional continual verification strategies were conducted that included (a) ensuring the participant sample is appropriate to the research purpose; (b) data were analysed and collected simultaneously and throughout the process to ensure congruency; and (c) analysed data are supported by new and emerging theories about newly analysed data in an iterative way, which involves thinking from a micro-macro perspective by checking and re-checking new and emerging concepts (Morse et al. 2002). These verification mechanisms were woven together to build trustworthiness and credibility.

Results

Three themes were identified from the transcripts and are supported by direct quotes from the youth participants. Findings from the one-on-one interviews and group interviews describe the youths’ experience and suggest that RoW impacted wellbeing by (1) creating safe social spaces and cultivating relationships, (2) encouraging reconnecting to previous passions and meaning, and (3) promoting wellness. For clarity purposes, the following three themes are presented independently. However, we acknowledge that each of the themes are inherently interconnected and address this in the discussion section.

Creating safe social spaces and cultivating relationships

The youth identified that participation in RoW impacted their everyday lives and wellbeing by creating safe social spaces. Creating safe social spaces is imperative to supporting homeless youth in recreation-based experiences. For example, one youth described how the RoW staff always made a point to ‘ask how I am doing and what I would like to play this week’ (Isla). For many youth the idea of safe social space was expressed through their participation in competitive activity during programming. Through participating in RoW, the youth learned competitive activities in a safe social space, which subsequently connected them to new friends with similar interests. It also allowed Austin to connect with the RoW staff. Austin, a youth residing in an emergency shelter, described his feelings about competition ‘I love competition. It brings out the dog and the lion out of people, and I love to see that’ As Austin explained, RoW created a safe space that he was able to experience and safely engage in competitive activity, which brought out parts of people’s personalities that you may not know about and to “let my guard down, ya’ know”. Arguably, this demonstrated his level of perceived safety within the program. To him, it was important that the RoW staff played alongside the youth participants, which created an equal playing field and created a safe space. In his explanation of why he felt competition and the RoW staff playing was important for young people like him he said, ‘Instead of just playing, it’s good to have competition because everything in life is designed to be competitive’. The RoW Program Coordinators committed to being at each of the partner emergency shelters at the same time each week. This provided consistency for the participants and a sense of security knowing they could count on the van to be there. The description of the connection made between the staff and youth was voiced among several participants. As Mackenzie explained, ‘One of them [RoW staff] just still wants to get a rematch out of me – because I whooped them once and they can’t never hold it down’. Importantly, for this youth, was the opportunity for them to connect to new friends [RoW staff] and to continue on with an activity started the previous week. The youth often spoke about their connection with the RoW staff as if they were their friends. At one point during the group research conversation, Emile jokingly described a time when he was playing with one of the RoW staff, he said “I think [RoW staff] kinda’ hurt himself at one point, he said, because it was so competitive [laughter]”. He went on to say ‘it is really great that they [RoW staff] are here every week, just to hang out’. Youth experiencing homelessness are often distrustful of adults and for this youth, having a space to competitively play alongside adult mentors contributed to his sense of connection.

Many of the youth spoke about their connection with RoW staff as being foundational to encourage teamwork among the staff and themselves. For instance, Kacey mentioned how it was important for him to have space to play together. He said, ‘I like to play. So, I’m like “why not to play with everybody together?”’ Further, Levi noted how teamwork allowed him to play with his peers and said ‘I like team sport because you got all your players playing with you’. Woven throughout these accounts is a sense of meaning experienced through the teamwork associated with many of the RoW activities. As one youth, Austin, described:

I like team sports. I love team sports. I really love team sports … . It’s just the part that… how we all plan something and we’re all trying to accomplish together … so team sports are very good because I think you can go further in life with teamwork.

Austin spoke about RoW not only being meaningful to his current everyday life, but also acting as a bridge to other aspects of his life. For this youth, he identified teamwork as an important life skill and how it may help connect him to other life domains (i.e. work, school, family). While participants described how RoW created safe spaces and cultivated relationships through co-participation and friendly competition, participants also described how the staff’s participation in RoW encouraged and promoted connection.

Reconnecting to previous passions and meaning

Participating in RoW seemed to encourage youth to recall memories of childhood experiences and recreational sport. Participants expressed their fondness for RoW activities by associating it with a previous activity or sport they used to participate in before coming to the shelter. For example, Austin, who enjoyed competition, mentioned he liked playing football with the other youths and RoW staff because he was able to demonstrate his skills from his youth playing in a league: ‘I love to play football. I’ve been doing it since I was a young boy, so I love doing that’. Thomas, an older youth at the shelter, echoed this sentiment, noting that he loved playing soccer with the group because it reminded him of playing with friends back home ‘I think I’m pretty competitive, so yeah, I like soccer. I’ve been playing soccer ever since I was young. Because I grew up in Ethiopia so that was the national sport there’.

Participating in RoW gave him the opportunity to reconnect with his adolescence and continue an activity he loved. He stated that before RoW, that part of him had been lacking, as he had to abandon recreation at one point to focus on school:

That’s my favorite activity but back home, mostly African families, they don’t support sports, right? Oh, you have to go to school. Yeah. So, I’ve been in club on that one but I couldn’t continue. If I can do it, my mom didn’t let me. She didn’t let me to continue.

The freedom of choice in RoW activities was evidently important for the youth experiencing homelessness, as it encouraged them to participate in fun, youthful activities, without any obligations or responsibilities. One youth, Isla, speaking about how she loved to colour, summarised this sentiment, stating: ‘I feel like a kid again’.

Participants also expressed that engaging in RoW activities gave them the opportunity to improve recreational skills and encouraged valuable life skills. For example, Mackenzie noted his surprise at being able to build on his basketball skills, despite not playing a lot growing up:

Other than increasing my skills from playing basketball, I had a good game with the two other staff members here, and another client that was here as well. And I was even remotely shocked at it. Me and one of the staff ended up winning that game.

Mackenzie explained he wasn’t usually into athletic activities, however playing basketball with RoW staff made him aware of other talents he may have. He added that he preferred learning through observing and engaging with others, and RoW staff were able to encourage that:

Me being a visual learner, it’s really easy for me to pick up on things and then learn on the fly. Watching someone and then repeating is very easy for me to do, so that’s why rec has been able to let me to do them.

Competition was often promoted by RoW staff and enjoyed by participants, and one youth, Austin, noted that participating in competitive activities could translate a mindset of how to approach other life experiences. He described how the shelter he was staying at helped him with finding work, and RoW programming completed this by promoting goal-oriented activities:

Right now, we might not be playing for money or nothing like that. But if attitude is like, “Hey, this is any kind of game that I would have”, then yes. You’re going to have the same energy. So I always bring the same energy, too. Just have that. So it’s kind of good, definitely having competition.

Youth echoed that the games played went beyond recreation and highlighted teachable skills. As Eliza learned, she remembered playing sports with her birth parents. She said ‘My dad used to tell me that playing soccer was about learning to cooperate with others’. Eliza often kicked a ball around with one of her peers. One youth, Derek, concurred with Eliza and explained how the game ‘Monopoly’ meant more to him and the youth at the shelter than simple amusement, as it helped them learn how to manage money and educated them on economical knowledge:

So Monopoly is a good game, I think. Finances, have to use your money, stuff like that. And it’s a simple game, but it teaches you how to save money and how to rent. So I think if this program is really here to help people, I think you should play board games, or simple stuff to enjoy. And teach them a good lesson.

Another youth, Nina, added that she felt the simple act of participating in a few activities with RoW could promote meaningful social qualities. She mentioned that she sometimes felt she lost control of her temper. However, when playing Jenga, a commonly stressful tower building game, with the staff and fellow youths, she learned how to remain calm under periods of stress. Nina often found herself practicing patience when interacting during the game:

It takes, sometimes after, where you think it’s so easy, it takes you a little bit after a while it’s like, “Hmm, maybe it’s not so easy”, kind of thing, right? You have to be real patient and just careful.

The act of re-engaging in previous passions allowed the youth to rediscover a sense of meaning associated with the activity. In each case, this included youth discovering new skills (e.g. basketball) and ‘trying out’ their ability to enact skills (e.g. patience, saving money) that transcend into other life domains.

Supporting wellness

Finally, it was found that RoW contributed to the youths' lives by providing space for participation in activities that addressed both mental and physical wellness. The participation in recreation activity facilitated through RoW allowed the youth to keep their mind well. For Mackeznie, RoW was an opportunity for him to feel present in the moment. He said:

It helps keep our mind active and going. Keeping my mind active, being like, I don’t like it wandering off. I always like to be in the moment, but only in my spare time when I’m doing nothing, will I let it wander.

The sentiments from Mackenzie trickled throughout all of the youths’ narratives. Importantly, the notion of meaning experienced through RoW allowed the youth to feel grounded and present. Several of the youth felt that their participation in RoW allowed them to overcome periods of instability by ‘connecting my mind to my body to move. Everything is all mind and body’ (Aiden). Given the often-challenging lived circumstances of youth experiencing homelessness, the words of this particular youth highlighted the need for him to feel ‘in control’ of his mind and body. Further, mental health to Austin was important to his overall sense of wellness. When asked about participating in RoW on a weekly basis, Austin said:

So then you’re not always like “Ah I can’t do it” but gives you that body to move your body with your mind. That’s why I love to do it, activity, stuff, so then I could use my body and my mind together to accomplish what I want. So, that’s what is good about it.

Youth also expressed that participating in RoW helped distract them from other issues and past experiences. They additionally mentioned that being at the shelters was due to issues with their homelife, as Kacey described: ‘When I come here, I have just a problem with my family. So, that’s why I am here’. When asked why he enjoyed coming to RoW, he replied: ‘Take mind off it’. Another youth, Emile, similarly described how he purposefully always chose a new activity to participate in during RoW: ‘I was always into games and sports, so it just excites me when I get to try it’, adding that learning new skills distracted him from some experiences: ‘Made me forget some people in my past life’. Other participants expressed that engaging in RoW activities helped them take their mind off of stressors that came along from other responsibilities, such as school and work, as Thomas said: ‘I even do, sometimes, when I’m stressed on school work, so I went over [to RoW] and it will help you forget things’. Isla also explained that colouring acted as a way to improve her mental health: ‘It’s my therapy’. She explained that expressing herself creatively helped her cope with some mental health issues: ‘It helps me escape from the negative’. It seemed RoW could act as an outlet for many youths, by supporting free play and amusement in a safe social environment, and allowing youth to forgo negative recreation spaces, as Nina described ‘It kind of distracts your mind from a lot of other stuff, because a lot of kids are, well [dealing] and generally it just kind of distracts you and other people around you, it just makes it more fun’.

While participants described how RoW benefited their mental wellness, participants also described how wellness was experienced physically. As one youth, Derek, remarked, ‘now we have this age with technology and everything’s becoming more and more less physical, but we still have to keep that physical strength’. Derek preferred to participate in board games during his time with RoW. However, through his narrative, it was clear that he valued physical activity outside of his time in RoW. Participants all agreed that physical activity is important for wellness. Mackenzie talked about a recent injury that resulted in him having to use crutches for six month; for him, RoW supported him in his physical activity goals. Austin shared, ‘ … I ended up losing when I had the brace for six months and crutches, it [physical activity] has helped me in general. It felt good. It’s been very beneficial’.

Discussion

In the earlier sections of this work, we outlined our use of a trauma-informed framework (Harris and Fallot 2002) to guide our development of RoW and to conceptualise youths’ experience in a mobile recreation program. We also introduced our use of PPM (Green and Kreuter 2005) and IM (Bartholomew, Parcel, and Kok 1998) as planning models in order to create coherent and logical programming. In each case, RoW provided different and more supportive environment for youth to engage in recreational activities. Given few scholarly investigations that explore youth experiencing homelessness in recreation, sport, and physical activity programming, the findings make a significant addition to the literature. In particular, and given their ongoing exclusion in mainstream recreation programming, this research highlighted how the youth participants felt safe, connected, and supported while participating in the RoW program. The experiences of the youth participants suggested they were able to build upon their confidence in a safe, supportive environment and is a key finding that builds upon Schwan, Fallon, and Milne (2018) analysis that leisure activity can enhance self-care and health-promoting practices among youth experiencing homelessness. In particular, the authors described how young people utilised art creations as a way to maintain their hopefulness, build confidence, overcome trauma, and enhance overall wellbeing.

Findings from this study highlighted how RoW supported the youth participants in creating relationships. Scholars have previously documented the role of recreation and the positive outcomes of youth experiencing homelessness developing relationships with their peers and adult facilitators (Hopper et al. 2019; Smyth 2017). Trauma-informed researchers have indicated how difficult it can be for youth experiencing trauma to build trusting and positive relationships with adults (Ellis and Walton-Fisette 2022). Participants in this study explained that they are often distrustful of adults who are in authoritative positions given the lack of commitment to genuinely care for their wellbeing in ‘mainstream’ recreation programming. The RoW staff showcased that in addition to creating physically safe environments for youth, it is both foundational and possible to develop meaningful relationships with the youth when using a trauma-informed approach (Ellis and Walton-Fisette 2022). This was done in part to their genuine caring for the youths’ backgrounds. Fundamental to this connection was the RoW staff’s age (mid 20’s) and the proximity of age to the youth participants. This impacted the importance of their continuous presence and the nature of the relationships. Further, the RoW van and staff were at each of the emergency shelters on the same day of the week and during the same timeframe. Our commitment to trustworthiness was that our programming was to be there regardless of whether any youth attended. The informal nature of the program allowed youth to explore programming on their own terms. And for many of the youth, knowing that the RoW staff were there to ‘just hang out’ was meaningful to them. Recent recreation-based research (Dubnewick et al. 2019) has pointed to the importance of increased attention both within research and practice on the ways that relationships are formed between ‘practitioners’ and ‘participants’. While the program under study clearly facilitated and highlighted the creation of positive relationships, the youths’ narratives revealed the meaning and positive experiences sought through RoW. Participants also indicated the meaningful impact their newly formed connections had on their lives. Ultimately, these findings suggest that RoW supported positive relationships, and led to many of the positive experiences of the youth.

Previous studies have shown that individuals experiencing homelessness have unique experiences participating in recreation programming (e.g. memories of playing organised sport with their families, goals and dreams of recreation participation (Haudenhuyse, Theeboom, and Skille 2014; Magee and Jeanes 2011) but are often excluded from mainstream programming spaces. This is not dissimilar to the stories shared by the youth in RoW. Many of the youth were waiting and actively seeking an opportunity to explore their recreation interests in a space that was understanding and welcoming of their lived experiences. A story shared by Thomas, a youth who was forced to immigrate from Ethiopia, portrayed how his participation in soccer provided connection to a known sporting activity from Ethiopia and brought a piece of his home to his host country (Middleton et al. 2022). Community recreation workers working alongside youth experiencing homelessness have a key role in understanding ‘what youth do with leisure, rather than what leisure does to youth’ in order to shape programming based on youths’ lived experiences (Hopper and Iwasaki 2017). Thomas’ story pointed to how RoW allowed him to reconnect and to reclaim an identity as a ‘soccer player’. Researchers have demonstrated that many young people lack recreation spaces where they can compose meaning in their lives, and that participation in informal and unstructured recreation can provide this opportunity (McCelland and Giles 2014; Middleton et al. 2022; Spaaij and Schulenkorf 2014).

Competition among individuals experiencing homelessness has been explored at depth and point to its potentially negative implications (Magee and Jeanes 2011) and positive impact (Sherry 2010). The youths’ stories highlighted at various levels the idea of ‘competition’ being a strong contributor to their overall experience in RoW and the role it plays in connecting them to their peers and the RoW staff and enhanced the youths’ excitement and enthusiasm about their participation in the activity. This finding is aligned with other youth-focused research (e.g. Middleton et al. 2022) that prioritises the connection made through sport versus any individual success or development. The stories presented showed that informal recreation programming created a ‘level playing field’ among adults, youth, and their peers to explore and create relationships. Community support programming should continue to advocate for the important role that recreation programming plays in connecting youth to others.

Despite available subsidy programs, the processes for applying for eligibility are often complicated for youth experiencing homelessness who already have few social resources (Hopper et al. 2019). Youth who do find opportunities to participate in community programming may experience the stigma of being identified as homeless by community members and/or staff, increasing feelings of isolation and exclusion (Haudenhuyse, Theeboom, and Skille 2014). Community recreation programmers can play a role in creating safe space for youth experiencing homelessness. As Spaaij and Schulenkorf (2014) illustrate, safe space in sporting contexts should foster social relations, establish trust, be inclusive of diverse political perspectives, and should act as levellers that facilitate meaningful interaction through share interests. The stories of the youth participants support Spaaij and Schulenkorf’s notion of safe spaces as opportunities to explore new interests and to rekindle interest in prior passions. Youth participants in the current study described how they felt comfortable trying new activities or participating in activities that they have fond memories of participating in prior to their current lived circumstances. Findings suggest that the youth participants attributed overwhelming importance to participation in recreation programming.

The youths’ data clearly indicated that the youth felt it was important to have a say in the activities they participated in. Previously, scholars have found that for programming to be meaningful, youth should be re-positioned not as passive receptors of programming, but rather as contributors to the programming options using youth-led approaches (Hopper and Iwasaki 2017; Iwasaki et al. 2014). These youth not only had interest in participating in recreation programming, but many of them felt that RoW supported them in exploring activities that were meaningful. This emphasises the need for recreation-based programming that is implemented with meaning at the forefront. The focus on meaning has been linked to both short- and long-term health and wellbeing outcomes (Crooks et al. 2010). The voices of the youth in the current study suggested the need for offering spaces where youth can spend self-directed, unstructured recreation time and socialise in a safe and welcoming milieu is an avenue through which this can occur (McCelland and Giles 2014). Finally, these findings suggested that youth-serving agencies and practitioners should actively involve youth in the opportunity to have input over what recreation-based activity offerings are provided.

Youth experiencing homelessness view recreation-based programs as an important avenue for building skills and for dealing with their current housing situation. The development of life skills in positive youth development programming has been explored widely (see Kendellen and Camiré 2017). The story here showed that many of the youth took it upon themselves to choose activities that they felt helped them overcome barriers to inclusion, interpersonal conflict, to communicate with shelter staff, and to meet new friends outside of their life on the street. The notion of choice and control over the activities is a key finding in the current work, as the youth were encouraged and supported to explore informal activities on their own, which allowed them to discover life skills that were meaningful to them (Camiré et al. (2021). Recreation programming is not merely ‘nice to have’ but could be viewed as essential to the lives of youth experiencing homelessness. Further, programming may serve as a key avenue for youth to explore relationship building, overcome institutional barriers, and to navigate challenging life circumstances (Middleton et al. 2022). Previous research has documented the social, emotional, and physical benefits of recreation-based programming in the lives of youth (McHugh et al. 2015); however, have not focused on youth experiencing homelessness, who arguably are faced with various and unique life challenges. The experiences of the youth participants in this article offered insights into the challenges of being ‘present in the moment’, which is supported in previous trauma-informed research focusing on youth (Ellis and Walton-Fisette 2022; Schwan, Fallon, and Milne 2018). Despite their various life happenings associated with living without a home (i.e. finding secure and safe housing, finishing school, difficult familial relationships), the youths resiliently spoke at length about the role RoW played in the ‘keeping their mind well’, which was described as being essential to their wellbeing. The findings here highlighted the importance for youth experiencing homelessness to have access to trauma-informed recreation-based programming to preserve their social support system, to develop new skills, and to maintain their physical and mental wellness.

Practical implications of this research are also worthy of highlighting. Practitioners who work alongside youth experiencing homelessness need to be made aware of the importance of trauma-informed recreation programming and the fact that it should not be overlooked. Importantly, findings suggest and reaffirm that recreation, leisure, sport, and physical activity programming is a strong avenue for youth to develop new relationships and to hone skills that are driven by their interests and needs (McCelland and Giles 2014). Programming for young people should continue to actively involve youth in programming decisions where appropriate. Despite best intentions, many youth-serving programs continue to be adult-led and focus on ‘fixing-up’ youth to be contributing members of society. Future programming should remain committed to trauma-informed approaches given the increase number of young people experiencing adverse childhood life events (Quarmby et al. 2022; Whitley et al. 2022). Programming would further benefit from youth-led approaches that amplify youth agency and that allows the youth to be experts in making decisions that directly impact their lives.

Fortune et al. (2022) outline several key policies and provisions in order support low-income community members in accessing recreation. For example, they outline relocating services to neighbourhoods where residents have limited access to public transportation, providing outreach and leisure education through community partner agencies, and offering programming at cultural groups and youth centres (Fortune et al. 2022). The findings from the current study addressed Fortune et al’.s recommendations by RoW’s commitment to ‘meeting the youth where they are at’ through the mobile recreation programming platform. This was in part to assist the youth in overcoming initial barriers to inclusion (i.e. transportation to community programming, stigma) and to demonstrate our commitment to a trauma-informed approach by remaining consistent with safety and trustworthiness. Although negative experiences in the RoW were not widely shared, logistically, a mobile platform has some inherent challenges. As an example, given that RoW was facilitated in Canada, we relied on limited emergency shelter recreation/social space for programming during the Winter months. This was limiting in that activity that required more space (i.e, sport) was reduced. Despite this, the mobile platform should remain a key consideration for future programming (Brady 2005).

Strengths of this research include the focus on youth experiencing homelessness in recreation programming using a trauma-informed approach. There has been increased attention on programming for communities (i.e. youth) who find themselves on the margins (Magee and Jeanes 2011; Middleton et al. 2022). There is a paucity of published research in the field of recreation, sport, and physical activity demonstrating the experiences of youth who are homeless in recreation programming. This research provided space for youth to be heard and showcases their stories. RoW offers a successful model for future programming and research. Limitations of this project include the transient nature of the youth participants. Given the short duration of stays at some shelters, the participants were not always in attendance at the program, which made it challenging to engage participants in more than one research conversation. Another limitation was the short length of the program. Future research and programs should consider spending more time building relations with youth participants and to engage in more than one research conversation through co-production methodologies (i.e. Youth-led Participatory Action Research see Chou et al. 2015; Smith et al. 2022). Youth should also be invited and encouraged to take an active leadership role in the planning of recreation programming (Middleton et al. 2022).

Conclusion

This research demonstrated the ways that homeless youth experience recreation-based programming and the meaning it holds in their lives. Through the centring of the youths’ experiences, we suggest that the program under study offers various practices that allow the youth to feel an overall sense of wellbeing. By focusing on informal, recreation opportunities rooted in a trauma-informed approach underscores the main contribution of this research. For example, creating relationships with peers and adults, feeling socially connected, building resilience and skills needed to overcome challenges, and an increase in overall meaning sought in recreation activity. This research also makes contributions to the field by focusing on addressing the exclusionary practices of ‘mainstream’ recreation programming by utilising a mobile platform to meet the youth in their communities. Finally, this research presents youth-identified barriers to programming and outlines the importance of ensuring access to meaningful recreation activity for this group.

Acknowledgements

We would like to acknowledge the youth participants who welcomed us into their lives and who shared their stores throughout this work. Thank-you also to the emergency shelter partners for agreeing to allow us to pilot the program.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada

Notes on contributors

Rachel Crook

Rachel Crook is a Graduate Student in the Faculty of Kinesiology and Physical Education at the University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Christa Costas-Bradstreet

Christa Costas-Bradstreet, MA, is the principal consultant with CCB Consulting and the Program Manager of Rec on Wheels. She is based in Burlington, Ontario, Canada

John C. Spence

John C. Spence, PhD, is a Professor in the Faculty of Kinesiology, Sport, and Recreation at the University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.

Katherine Tamminen

Katherine Tamminen, PhD, is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Kinesiology and Physical Education at the University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Cathy van Ingen

Cathy van Ingen, PhD, is a Professor in the Department of Kinesiology, Faculty of Applied Health Sciences at Brock University, St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada.

Tristan D. Hopper

Tristan D. Hopper, PhD, is an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Kinesiology and Health Studies at the University of Regina, Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada.