Thanks to the almost $5 million recently distributed by the
Ontario Trillium Foundation, over 20 GTA organizations will soon be offering new or expanded programs to support the region's youth.
The 22 grantees, announced last week by the OTF, are the first cohort to recive funding through the
Youth Opportunities Fund grant (YOF), a new pot of money earmarked for nonprofits and grassroots initiatives that support GTA youth "facing multiple barriers to economic and social well-being."
When the YOF grant was announced in December of 2013, interested applicants were given the option of applying either to what the OTF termed "the Strategic Collaboration Stream"--for established organizations hoping to collaborate with new partners--or "the Grassroots Innovation Stream"- for grassroots or youth-led collectives trying out new ideas and making small-scale interventions.
The result is that the YOF's will fund larger-scale projects like the new five-year Young and Potential Fathers program to be administered by the
YMCA GTA, as well smaller initiatives like Krafty Queers, a new program to be offered by
SKETCH Toronto that will provide safe space for queer and trans-gendered youth in Toronto and Peel.
The hope, as articulated by the OTF, was to create a grant that was not only accessible and flexible, but could be leveraged to fund projects across a variety of needs and sectors.
A cursory read of this year's grantees shows that, while individually each program has specific and sometimes narrow mandate, taken together they offer extensive new supports for hosts of differently situated youth. This includes programming for, as the OTF puts it, "youth who are racialized, First Nations, Inuit or Métis, recent immigrants, LGBTTQ," have special needs and/or who face economic or social insecurity.
And, because the OTF has defined the GTA as including the City of Toronto as well as the Peel, Halton, Durham and York Regions, the programs are also geographically diffuse and geared to the needs of specific communities.
"These organizations have proposed actionable initiatives that are grounded in their day-to-day experiences," says Dev Sainani, chair of the Board of Directors with OTF. "We were impressed with how thoughtful and focused the initiatives are and expect they will deliver lasting impact to individual youth and local communities across the GTA."
This year's YOF grantees include:
WoodGreen Community Services
Awarded $953,600 over four years to expand the Rites of Passage program for African Canadian youth in three target communities in Toronto (Falstaff at Jane & Wilson, The Peanut in the Don Valley Village Neighborhood and Scarborough Village).
Eritrean Youth Collective (Care of For Youth Initiative)
$365,700 over five years to develop a youth-led leadership and mentorship program for Eritrean youth in Toronto.
Oshawa Community Health Centre
$971,700 over four years to support an Aboriginal coordinator and a mental health worker to strengthen programming and supports for Aboriginal youth living in and around Durham Region.
ArtReach Toronto
ArtReach will provide support for all YOF grassroots groups and emerging young leaders awarded funding through "the Grassroots Innovation Stream." Through their program, GOAL, ArtReach will help these organizations and individuals build their capacity and skill set.
YOF is an initiative of the
Ontario Youth Action Plan, published in the summer of 2012. The "Action Plan" is itself based on earlier research from the 2008
Review of the Roots of Youth Violence report, a report that found, among other things, that marginalized youth often lack access to safe spaces, feel disconnected from teachers and school administrators, and can’t access meaningful employment or recreational opportunities.
Writer: Katia
Source: Ontario Trillium