Thank you. That's an excellent question, but it's a bit difficult to answer, since we don't make much use of SIBs in Canada. We use other initiatives primarily.
Most of the programs that other countries have in place target the homeless, and some address recidivism, an issue you already study from a corrections standpoint.
I would say the transition of high school and university students to the job market is another challenge just about every country in Europe is facing. And to a lesser extent, that is the case in Canada and the U.S. as well. The U.K. is really exploring the potential SIBs have to help unemployed young people who are not in school. In the U.K., these young people are referred to as NEET, an acronym that stands for “not in education, employment or training”. These are young people seen as having no prospects, so the government is examining how SIBs can be leveraged to support them.
And some programs target even younger people. Saskatchewan has a program for young parents, single-parent families and young mothers at risk of being lost in the system. These are individuals who had children at a very young age, who dropped out of school and so forth.
In some cases, it's a matter of transitioning. They are trying to carve out a place for themselves in their community, make a home for their family or find decent employment, but they have trouble making that transition. That's why these kinds of problems are so complex.