Pictou County Roots for Youth (PCRFY) offers safe and supportive shelter options for youth 16-24 years of age who are experiencing homelessness. The Roots House Youth Shelter offers an alternative to living on the street, and provides youth with an array of in-house services, such as referrals to various community resources and services, education and practice with independent living skills, one-on-one support and mentorship, self-reflection and self-awareness development, and support with long-term goals (e.g., health, education, and employment). The organization understands that there are multiple factors that contribute to youth homelessness, and that securing and maintaining long-term housing is often precarious. Through harnessing local housing resources and various other resources that work to meet the community's basic needs, Roots for Youth strives to ideally eradicate a youth's ongoing experience with homelessness, or a current episode of homelessness.  

PCRFY provides emergency shelter that is grounded in the theories of attachment, trauma-informed care, positive youth development, social emotional competencies, and resilience. The program emphasizes a natural supports approach, and holistic, relational, developmental, culturally-competent, and strengths-based strategies for working with youth.

The Roots House has eight (8) shelter beds in total where homeless youth can stay for a minimum of three (3) months. The Roots House also reserves three (3) additional beds per night for emergency overnight accommodation. Youth who are accessing emergency overnight accommodation are admitted into the program and are connected with Case Managers for additional support. As per standard protocol for emergency overnight accommodation, youth are only permitted access to the shelter per night on a first-come first-served basis.