Recent Youthlink News Items

After more than 30 years of service to street-involved and homeless youth, YouthLink's Inner City Drop-In and Resource Centre will be closing at the end of March. The pre-employment program Youth Skills Zone closed in December last year.  

Inner City and Youth Skills Zone have been an important part of the landscape in the downtown core in serving street-involved youth. These downtown services have a long and proud history of helping countless youth over the past 30 years to move forward into a life of new hope and possibility. The drop-in with its many resources provided a safe place where street youth could rebuild their trust in people and find services that would help them.

Recognizing this important role made it all the more difficult for YouthLink, faced with funding deficits and growing demands on every front, to announce in January 2011 that the agency could no longer offer these services.  It was only after months of deliberation, that the Board of Directors determined that YouthLink was truly stretched beyond capacity and that the best course of action for the agency would be to strengthen our services in Scarborough where we had relocated our head office in 2005.  Read more >

Empowering Young Women's Group Back : Elaine, Nikita, Tiffany, Helen, Kirishaa (facilitator) Front: Anna, Tara (facilitator), Kirishma.

Congratulations to our Empowering Young Women's Group on receiving an INI Award (Identify ‘n Impact) from the City of Toronto for Enabling Collective Action.

The Indentify 'n Impact awards are sponsored by the Toronto Youth Cabinet and the City of Toronto and recognize the key role that youth play as advocates, visionaries and agents of social change. The group was recognized for its efforts in building a team to work together to better the community. 

The group meets Friday afternoons at the North West Scarborough Youth Centre Centre to talk through common issues like peer pressure, smoking, and healthy lifestyle choices with group facilitators Tara and Kirishaa, both of whom were former participants.

Last year, the group presented workshops to girls in middle school  on healthy living and relationships.

They are currently working on producing a “Girl Talk” magazine which will be distributed in local schools and libraries.

Kirishaa describes the group as "a great place to talk - we know that what is said in the room, stays in the room. It is about building our character and inner strength.  It is helping me be a stronger person and do what is right."  

Kirishaa has been involved for several years and her story was profiled in our Annual Report. > Read Kirishaa's story 

Hope, the belief that change is possible, is central to Jayna's story.  And she is now offering that hope to others simply by speaking out and sharing her experience. 

Jayna has inspired messages of support for her and other youth struggling with depression. We have created a Wall of Hope to share these messages and invite our readers to share your thoughts. What gives you hope during dark periods?  What tools have helped you in managing depression and anxiety?

Add a brick to the Wall of Hope by sharing your comments. Let's send a message to young people that there is a way forward and we are here to help.

L-R: (back row) Salim, Grenville, Fil, Karl, Jerome, Alex, Ashley, Troy(NWSYC staff); (front) Denise, Fawn, Fatima, Tracey

RBC staff took part in an unusual event at the North West Scarborough Youth Centre for the annual United Way Days of Caring initiative. Career Talks brought five staff from the RBC branch at Sheppard and Markham together with our youth leadership group to share their personal stories that led them to pursue a career in banking.  Also joining them was YouthLink Board Member and RBC employee Karl Smith. The youth heard of the challenges of moving to Canada, finding a job after university and deciding on a career.  Much wise advise was shared about the importance of liking your job and the diversity of opportunities in banking.

Thanks to branch manager Fil Delfuoco and her staff Ashley, Grenville, Jerome and Salim for taking part and to Karl for joining us.

We hope this is the first of many Career Talks to help youth sort through career choices and challenges.