2020 YOUTH ACTION FUND GRANTEES
Project Descriptions
Organization Name: Youth Taking Flight
Project Title: Youth Taking Flight After School Program
Geographical Location: Toronto, Ontario
system: Education
population served: Black/racialized youth aged 12-19
amount requested: $300,000/3 years
The YTF Aerospace and Aviation project was created in response to the growing demand for post-secondary school graduates in the Aerospace and Aviation industries. This project is designed to promote equal access to education and resources; assisting in breaking down barriers and inequalities that exist in a society based on race, gender, and socio-economic status. The lasting objective of this program will be greater diversity and increased participation of Black/Racialized youth as well as young women in the educational fields of STEM, Aviation/ Aerospace. Given the increased focus on the career opportunities within the Aerospace and Aviation fields, this project is committed to helping bridge the gap that has been created through systemic barriers and resulting in the lack of diversity within this industry. This program will provide Black/ Racialized youth interested in pursuing careers in Aerospace, Aviation and STEM with the education, mentorship and support from Black professionals in similar fields. Youth will explore the plethora of possibilities while developing 21st-century skills.
Alignment with the 5 Year Strategic Plan: Youth Taking Flight aligns with our strategic plan in that this project aligns with our strategic objective to fund youth-focused initiatives that specifically support young people within the education system, to provide them with the opportunities to realize their full potential. This project partners with the school board to host the trainings, and in turn strengthens the leadership capacity of young people with lived experience in the justice, education, and child welfare systems.
Organization Name: Amadeusz
Project Title: The Look at My Life Project
Geographical Location: City of Toronto, the Greater Toronto area and within jails
system: Justice and Education
population served: Males aged 18-35 residing in the Toronto South and East Detention Centres requesting support to complete high school and post-secondary education. Females aged 18-35 residing in the Vanier Centre for Women requesting support to complete high school. Males and Females aged 18-35 recently released from jail looking to continue pursuing their education.
amount Requested: $300,000/3 years
Amadeusz’s education attainment program provides support and opportunities for young people aged 18-35 in the adult correctional system to obtain their high school education and attend post-secondary schooling. The project facilitates the opportunity for young people to prepare for and obtain their high school certificate or diploma (General Education Development (GED), Academic and Career Entrance (ACE) or Ontario Secondary School Diploma (OSSD). For those participants who complete their secondary education through this project, staff will facilitate access to post-secondary programs/courses at their partner post-secondary institutions. They provide connections to post-release support, assisting individuals with housing, employment, continued education, social assistance and other support services. Amadeusz has also established partnerships with different academics which has enabled them to publish peer-reviewed articles that fill clear knowledge gaps.
Alignment with the 5 Year Strategic Plan: Amaedeusz is working within two of the three pillars the strategic plan outlines: Justice and Education. They have a proven model and approach to offering education programs to youth in remanded custody and are well known within the justice sector. Their organizations’ mission holds a strong alignment to the Foundation’s goals of elevating the voices and priorities of youth within the justice and education system, and through their partnerships, with the correctional and educational institutions, they are continuously seeking to promote equitable and accountable institutions and advocating for changes within both systems.
Organization Name: Positive Change T.O
Project Title: Rise Up Project
Geographical Location: Toronto West (South Etobicoke community)
system: Justice
population served: Black Somali youth
amount requested: $20,000/1 years
Positive Change T.O. aims to build the capacity of Somali youth to organize around criminal legal system reform, so they are able to influence policy decisions that contribute to the overrepresentation of young Somali people in homicides, negative police contacts, and incarceration. The project will assist Somali youth leaders, grounded in their complex identities, to understand the principles of organizing and to commence the construction for the transformation of the justice system. This includes the development of a toolkit that outlines key movement strategies, understanding how to craft and disseminate a digestible message, approaches to building collective power that relies on coalitions and identifying tactics that enable youth to act through their built power, to pressure decision-makers in supporting the specific demands of Somali youth.
Alignment with the 5 Year Strategic Plan: The Rise-Up Project aligns with our strategic plan in the project focuses on developing a strategy to support Somali youth in the Justice system to have more opportunities to reduce entry points into the Justice system. The project focuses on building youth leaders within the Somali community who have lived experience with the Justice system. Hence the direct alignment with objective #2 within the strategy to strengthen the leadership capacity of young people with lived experience in the justice system.
Organization Name: Child Welfare PAC
Project Title: Advocacy for policy change in post-secondary education
Geographical Location: Ontario
system: Child Welfare
population served: Youth in and exiting state care
amount requested: $20,000/1 year
This grant will support Child Welfare PAC to support their advocacy activities - especially these related to post-secondary access for those raised in state care. Vulnerable minorities like Black, Indigenous, LGBTQ+, and newcomers are over-represented in foster systems and the majority of foster children also experience poverty, yet, post-secondary access remains riddled with financial and psychological barriers for those raised in care. To contribute to a solution that addresses financial barriers for this group, Child Welfare PAC seeks to obtain commitments from post-secondary institutions for tuition waivers. They have already begun this important work with minimal resources and significant out-of-pocket costs for transportation, technology, printed resources, and time. To date, Laurentian, Georgian, and Loyalist have committed to 10, 15, and 16 funded spots for former and current youth-in-care respectively. These commitments represent a renewing 41 lives that can be changed forever by this policy.
Alignment with the 5 Year Strategic Plan: The advocacy for policy change in post-secondary education project aligns with our strategic plan in that this project will provide access for youth in care to gain access to post-secondary education. It also aligns with Objective 3 within the strategy which refers to ensuring the efforts of our grantees and youth with lived experience are recognized and contribute to lasting change.
Organization Name: Trust 15
Project Title: Trust in Youth Leadership (TIYL)
Geographical Location: Toronto North (North Etobicoke/Rexdale community)
system: Education
population served: Racialized youth between the ages of 13 and 20
amount requested: $300,000/3 years
Trust15 aims to create deeper and more meaningful community engagement for hard to serve youth in a highly underserved area and to youth taking the time to engage in self-reflection. They exist to give young people the social and educational tools to succeed in society.
Through their Trust in Youth Leadership (TIYL) program, Trust15’s goal is to fight the marginalization of racialized youth in the Rexdale community and increase positive societal achievements by:
● Increasing the number of targeted mentorships
● Increasing neighbourhood engagement
Youth will be encouraged by mentors, program facilitators, volunteers, teachers and members of law enforcement to get involved and be facilitators of social change, instead of victims of social injustice. Targeted access to educational opportunities and exposure to networking opportunities will serve to bring these underserved youth closer to an even playing field when compared to their more financially and socially privileged counterparts.
Alignment with the 5 Year Strategic Plan: Trust15 aligns with our strategic plan as they are working to increase the graduation rate and positive outcomes for racialized youth in the Etobicoke/Rexdale community via multiple streams - mentorship, educational opportunities, leadership opportunities, community engagement, and resource connections. These young people are underserved in the education system and may have some involvement or are at risk of having involvement in the justice system. Their initiative aligns with our strategic goal to elevate the voices and priorities of youth with lived experience in the justice and education system.
Organization Name: Success Beyond Limits
Project Title: Success Beyond Limits: Hyper-Local with a Systems Focus
Geographical Location: Jane and Finch community of Toronto
system: Education
population served: Racialized youth aged 13-21 in the Jane and Finch community with 80% being Black youth
amount requested: $300,000/ 3 years
Success Beyond Limits was developed due to the historic and persisting low High School graduation rates in the Jane and Finch community which they partly trace back to the TDSB’s Transfer and Retention Policy. This is a policy that “transfers” students from one grade to the next despite students not having the academic foundation or sufficient scholastic achievement to be “promoted” to the next grade. Their program prioritizes students that are transfer students, which are those students without the academic foundation to advance to grade 9, but are age-promoted/pushed through. SBL’s program is designed to meet the specific needs of these young people and eliminate potential barriers to access. Their program takes place at York University’s Osgoode Hall Law School during the Summer and in addition to a high school credit, SBL Mentees (incoming Grade 8 students we work with over the summer) enter into the SBL ecosystem and family. Because of that, they begin high school with a social network composed of SBL Staff, fellow Grade 9 students and SBL Mentors (older Westview students). This social network, along with a high school credit, situates students in a more confident, and more prepared position to take on the challenge of high school.
Alignment with the 5 Year Strategic Plan: Success Beyond Limits aligns with our Education strategy as they work with Black youth to receive their first high school credit and begin their secondary and post-secondary education surrounded by an ecosystem of care. The organization has also published in many academic journals to promote and advocate for equitable institutions within the Education sector.
Organization Name: Youth Wellness Lab
Project Title: Youth Wellness Lab
Geographical Location: Toronto, Ontario
system: Justice and Child Welfare
population served: Black youth, LGBTQ youth, Indigenous youth
amount requested: $20,000/1 year
The Youth Wellness Lab (YWL) is a collaborative “hub” for youth who are interested in participating in the design and dissemination of research, academic and community-based researchers who are committed to promoting the well-being of young people across a broad spectrum of domains, and service providers, networks, and advocates who are passionate about partnering on youth-related research. Their goal is to engage youth as partners and leaders in designing, developing, implementing, and disseminating research that impacts service delivery across sectors and ultimately improves youth outcomes. Despite how services and research projects are often siloed by disciplines, populations, and institutional or organizational contexts, the YWL seeks to create empirical and youth-driven knowledge that engages the intersectional identities of young people. They have a particular commitment to working with and for Black and Indigenous youth who have experienced disproportional involvement in the child welfare and justice system and whose educational outcomes have been negatively impacted by systemic and institutional racism. Members of the YWL are involved in multiple partnerships and research projects that specifically measure disparities in involvement and outcomes for these youth, articulate the policy and practice contexts in which they emerge, and develop evidence-based solutions to address these issues. In addition to building the YWL collective, which includes the recruitment and meaningful engagement of an active and growing Youth Advisory Committee (YAC), they are developing two projects in response to the social impacts of COVID-19 and police violence against Black and Indigenous communities.
Alignment with the 5 Year Strategic Plan: The Youth Wellness Lab aligns with the focus within the Strategic Plan in that this project focuses on elevating the voices of those youth with experience within the Justice and Child Welfare Systems to be engaged in the design and dissemination of research. It also aligns with objective #2 within the strategy which focused on strengthening the leadership capacity of young people with lived experience in the justice, education, and child welfare systems as this project will further develop grantees’ leadership skills of youth with lived experience of these systems.
Organization Name: Youth Association for Academics, Athletics and Character Education (YAAACE)
Project Title: The Community Initiative (CSI) and the Supplemental Education Program (SEP)
Geographical Location: West Toronto
system: Education
population served: Black children and youth
amount requested: $300,000/3 years
Youth Association for Academics, Athletics and Character Education (YAAACE) is a community organization that engages children and youth from racialized communities through its summer and weekend programming for K-Grade 8 students. Y AAACE reaches 500+ students per year, offering wrap-around education support aimed at students to reach and excel at their grade level. Their model has been recognized as an effective way of supporting educational interventions within students. This grant will assist YAAACE in their effort to increase the capacity of Black children and youth in West Toronto, and create an evidence-based model that can be replicated nationally across Canada as an alternative to educational attainment models. The Community School Initiative - CSI/Supplemental Education Program - SEP (Weekend Academy, Summer Institute, March Break Camp & Virtual School) is tasked with closing the achievement/opportunity gap by ensuring that students are at or above the provincial standard and streamlined to become 21st-century learners.
Alignment with the 5 Year Strategic Plan: YAAACE aligns with the Foundation’s Education strategy as they have a proven and highly regarded model to increase educational attainment for racialized youth. This grant will center on the educational attainment of Black youth and is focused on closing the existing gap in achievement and academic support. YAAACE also has many great partnerships within the educational system and within the province.
