We have a limited number of experiences using these because they are relatively new to the way we work, but I'll give you a hard example. Last year, the department entered into an agreement with Habitat for Humanity, where we are trying to use Habitat, whether it's on their job sites or at their rebuild stores. They have agreed to work with us and the Correctional Service of Canada to give employment to offenders so that they have one of the most important factors that leads to successful outcomes once they're out of prison.
We launched that last year at a national level where we will work with Habitat to see them offer employment opportunities. It required very little funding from the federal government, and frankly, the big aspect for us is ensuring that we have that partnership such that they can identify individuals to participate in their programs.
Another area that we're working on with the John Howard Society is, again, looking at small business enterprises where John Howard is working with individuals who have returned to the community, giving them employment and working with us such that we are able to look at their outcomes, measure what they're doing while they're either on parole or post-parole, and understand the kinds of things that seem to contribute to their ability to enter back into communities and remain successful.
There are other areas of our work where we haven't really been able to deploy these kinds of mechanisms but where we are hopeful that we would be working on youth employment projects, looking at youth who are at risk and trying to ensure that they have some of the critical factors to success. Employment would be one of those critical factors. Working with private sector or not-for-profit agencies, and again, finding different venues that allow them to become employed, stay employed, and work with us because we have to surround them with the right kinds of support to allow them the greatest chances of successes.
These are relatively new. We don't have a lot of examples of success and how they work. We've only been trying to engage in these kinds of things for a short period of time in a criminal justice context. In Canada, social financing models, such as I've described on this page, have existed for some time, particularly with respect to the environmental sector. There is very good evidence of the ability to look at investments that protect the environment, and they do so through public-private sector partnerships where we work with foundations and small enterprises to do environmental pursuits. That's far outside my expertise, but I know that's the area where there's been the most investment in this area.