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The purpose of the present project was to help the staff of the YES Shelter for Youth and Families to understand when their clients' personal information is required to be shared with others, primarily those in law enforcement. To fulfil the purpose, legislation surrounding the sharing of personal information was researched, along with other homeless shelters. Privacy policies of homeless shelters similar to the YES Shelter were obtained through email and telephone interviews. Research from the legislation allows for the personal information of clients to be shared with the police when the information is used to help an investigation and to protect the life and health of a person. With the exception of one shelter, all the shelters that shared policies lack privacy policies. However, all the shelters do not permit the sharing of client information to those outside of law enforcement. Eva's Initiatives was the only shelter to have detailed privacy policies, which allow for the disclosure of client information to those in law enforcement when the information is used to protect the life and health of a person. The research gathered from the present project is being used by the YES Shelter to create privacy policies for their staff.

Previous research has determined that having a sense of community belonging can help reduce youth's criminal involvement. Given this, the HKPR Regional HSJCC initiated the current project to explore and identify youth programs that promote and/or create the conditions to enhance youth's sense of belonging. The aim of this project was to determine what types of programs promote community belonging; identify how these programs were distributed within Haliburton, the City of Kawartha Lakes and Northumberland; and analyze how these programs were structured in terms of barriers and commonalities. Using a qualitative approach data was collected through a literature review, an environmental scan and interviews. Results revealed that multiple terms indicate community belonging, and that a diverse range of programs can help enhance this feeling. Programs identified in each of the research areas tended to be located within close proximity to one another, and were not evenly distributed. Comparisons of the programs also revealed that the most common barriers youth face to participation are financially and accessibility related. Future suggestions include: addressing these barriers, and working to better inform these communities of the impact that having a sense of community belonging can have for youth. Considering educationally based programing, program structures that view at- risk youth positively, and incorporating positive role models are recommended as future directions in developing an ideal youth program. Involving youth in continued research is also strongly suggested to enhance their sense of belonging while mitigating potential criminal involvement.