Mission
The Changa House, Centre for Children and Youth aims to provide inclusive and accessible programming, professional development, and youth involvement initiatives, focused on the eradication of violence in all its forms. The Centre will assist individuals in reaching their full potential to become positive and influential contributors to the society of tomorrow.
Vision
The Changa House will help children and youth to achieve their fullest potential through holistic programs and services.
History
For over two decades, Dr. Roz Roach and her team have witnessed first-hand the correlation between domestic violence and inter-youth violence. It has been observed that children who have witnessed or lived violence often use violence in their developmental stages as a way of coping. In 2012, Dr. Roz’s Healing Place Foundation was created to fund programs and services for children, youth and youth at risk in order to support them holistically through their adolescent development. With the mandate of working towards the eradication of violence in the lives of children, youth, and youth-at-risk locally, nationally, and globally, the Foundation strives to change lives for the better.
While there are many services available for youth which have proven to have been effective in mitigating violent behaviour, Dr. Roz Roach believes that with the appropriate resources, services, and care, the lives of children and at-risk youth can also be positively influenced. We recognize that there are large gaps between much-needed services and youth and youth-at-risk. Youth are either unaware, unwilling, or unable to access appropriate support services. It is one of our goals to attempt to reach out and connect to as many youth as possible in order to help them evolve and develop into contributing members of society.
As a result of a desire to expand existing successful programming for children, youth and youth-at-risk, the Changa House came to be.
About Us
The Changa House aims to serve male and female children, youth, and youth-at-risk between the ages 5-29, as well as their parents and guardians. These clients will be elementary, high school, or post-secondary level students. Those in need will receive services regardless of background or level of income. Clients will be served throughout Toronto, as well as regionally, provincially, and nationally.
The goal of The Changa House is to speak to four key challenges surrounding children and youth today:
• Needing a safe, comfortable, accessible, and violence-free environment where they can express themselves;
• Needing proper educational empowerment to reach their optimal levels of success within their learning careers;
• Needing healthy, supportive, and developmental programming that focuses on individual and team building exercises;
• Needing strong, grounded, and relatable youth role models who lead by example to inspire growth in positive directions.
Not only will The Changa House offer support to those in need within the Centre, the Community Outreach department will provide informational and educational workshops to local schools and organizations in the community to raise awareness of the services offered by The Changa House.
Present Update
“Violent youth crime jumped by five per cent across Canada in 2022, according to Statistics Canada. Eighteen of the youth charged with violent crime that year were in Toronto — nearly a quarter of all accused and up from just three the year before.
The average age of those involved in gun violence in the city has dropped from 25 in recent years to just 20, according to Toronto police.
Experts say the COVID-19 pandemic and its cascading catastrophes affected children and teenagers at a critical stage of their emotional and physical development. During the months that schools were closed in Ontario, developing students dealing with big emotions like anxiety, grief, and isolation simultaneously lost access to the stabilizing influence of the classroom and to community programs.
Without real-life safe spaces, young people turned to their phones and social media — where conflict, intimidation, and bullying run rife.
Children and teenagers who are repeatedly exposed to intense stress experience developmental trauma, according to forensic psychologist Dr. Dilys Haner. Those who can’t access support can get stuck in a fight-or-flight state, which leads to trouble responding appropriately to threats — like the expectations, pressure, and conflict teenagers face at their age.
“Some youth … have found themselves in situations that they couldn’t handle that then escalated, and they struggled to problem-solve to get themselves out of that,” said Haner, who works with youth offenders as part of her practice. “I’ve had youth who told me they were shocked at what they had done afterwards.”
The pandemic also exposed and worsened long-standing health inequities that research has shown to disproportionately affect racialized people — particularly Black and Indigenous communities, where social services, housing, and access to amenities were already lacking.
“Youth are keenly aware and families and communities are keenly aware that that plays a significant, significant impact on the rise and flux of gun violence [and] homicides that we’re seeing throughout the GTA,” said Tanya Sharpe, founder of the Centre for Research and Innovation for Black Survivors of Homicide Victims (CRIB). “If you don’t have a place to go to talk about alternative ways to deal with the grief, have space that’s held for you that’s culturally responsive.… You sort of get the message or the memo that, ‘My life doesn’t matter, as well.'” Rhianna Schmunk · CBC News · Posted: Jul 08, 2024
The Changa House aims to respond to the pressing needs of our children and youth. Stay tuned for more updates about our physical location. To donate towards The Changa House capital building campaign, please visit our CanadaHelps page.
