2023 YOUTH ACTION FUND GRANTEES
Project Descriptions
The Youth Action Fund has pivoted to an invitation-only call for 2023 for selected organizations who are actively engaged with the education, justice, and/or child welfare systems. Five organizations were successful with a total amount of $525,000 allocated to new grants in 2023.
Collective of Child Welfare Survivors
Collective of Child Welfare Survivors Growth and Expansion
$100,000
CCWS' core principles are addressing anti-Black racism, decolonization, and critical youth-centered practice. Through this, we aim to rethink practices within child welfare/family policing systems in how we provide services for child welfare survivors and their families. CCWS aims to provide spaces and advocacy for child welfare survivors to develop and understand themselves in ways that break from the shame, pathologization, and carcerality forced onto them. This takes place through all of our areas of service, referring to our individual advocacy, community development (workshops, public resources, and webinars), and systemic organizing (for example, the coalition addressing. As well, by providing these services to child welfare survivors they develop a sense of community and opportunities for a radical understanding of their experiences where they can develop their own individual advocacy skills.
Youth Association of Academics, Athletics and Character Education (YAAACE)
The Community School Initiative and the Transitional School
$100,000
The Community School Initiative and the Transitional School as a collective close the existing gaps in achievement and provide holistic supports to under-achieving and justice impacted youth, many Black and racialized residing in northwest communities through mentorship, education, housing support, mental health and well-being services, and customized coordination plans. The Community School Initiative and its various components (evening and weekend tutoring, March Break Camp, and the Summer Institute) and the Transitional School provide access to caring adults to serve as protective factors enhancing the capacity building of clients to achieve their full potential. The Transitional School triages students aged 12 to 17 upon release from youth justice and adult detention facilities and those returning from suspension until they are prepared to re-engage in the regular school environment.
Positive Change Toronto Initiative
Change Justice - Empowering Somali Girls and Young Women
$100,000
The project will provide leadership opportunities for Somali girls and young women to support their peers in understanding and navigating the complexity of the justice system and become advocates to address systemic roots of criminalization. There is a growing trend (even though there has yet to be updated research and statistical data beyond stats Canada examining Black representation in incarceration) of Somali girls and women becoming vulnerable to the criminal justice system, reflecting an over representation in detention centers. There is a need to conduct qualitative research led by Somali youth for Somali youth, to look into this growing phenomenon, assess the risk factors and best solutions to minimize another form of criminalization of the Somali community in Canada. This project aims to combine both direct educational engagement about the criminal justice system, and research focus on the emerging trend of Somali girls and women coming into contact with the law. The project will enable young girls and women to view the justice system from the perspective of those who administer the system, including judicial officials, law enforcements, victims services providers, defense counsel, Crown Attorneys and others who are integral to the functioning of the system. This direct interaction with justice system actors is intended to be a learning opportunity for youth around the specific roles of each of those participants and avenues for change in the justice system to address inequities and disparities in outcomes for Somali youth, who are Black and Muslim.
FYOU: The Forgiveness Project
Look Both Ways
$100,000
Look Both Ways is a ten-assignment series accredited by OCAD University. This Creative Writing credit works through many forms of literacy and uses various forms of art including poetry, drawing and music production to explore the assignments in a deeper context.
We support young people within the justice system by providing them an outlet to share their thoughts and open up about topics they may not feel comfortable to in a generic setting. We have authentic conversations and create a safe space for these discussions to take place. FYou provides programming to assist with education and development upon release.
Restoration and Empowerment for Social Transition Centres
Strength in Storytelling: My Story, My Power.
$100,000
My Story, My Power is a storytelling program designed to mobilize youth with lived experience of homelessness and housing insecurity to tell their stories from a place of empowerment rather than victimhood. Our goal is not only to create a wealth of stories that depict various experiences of youth homelessness but also to empower youth to see that they are more than their trauma and that they have built power through what they have overcome. My Story, My Power will provide youth with the opportunity to engage with their life experiences through a variety of mediums, to help youth to process their lived experiences in a sustainable, healthy fashion, while building confidence. My Story, My Power will also equip youth with practical tools, skills, and language to help them share their stories in ways that will enable them to help advocate for the changes that they wish to see in the system. My Story, My Power is a multi-year project that will follow a cohort approach, engaging graduates of previous cohorts in the leadership of the next cohorts to remain a peer-driven program.
