Eva’s Initiatives’ Awards for Ending Youth Homelessness
About the Awards:
Eva’s Initiatives and the Sprott Foundation are pleased to offer four awards of $25,000 each for organizations working with homeless and at-risk youth.
The goal of the awards is to recognize community initiatives that are:
- Moving beyond responding to the most basic needs of homeless and at-risk youth
- Demonstrating significant impacts in the lives of vulnerable youth
- Delivering programs or services aimed at preventing youth homelessness
- Breaking the cycle of homelessness among youth by integrating supports such as: housing, education, employment, family connections, and interventions to address mental health concerns and/or addictions.
Applications closed January 20, 2012. We are very pleased to announce that we received over 80 applications from youth-serving organizations who are trying to make a difference. We thank everyone for their time and effort in applying and wish you the best of luck in having your program chosen by the panel.
Phoenix Housing Intake Referral Form
Charity Intelligence Makes Eva’s a Top Pick Charity … Again!
Eva’s was chosen as a Top Pick by Charity Intelligence for the second year in a row. As only 33 organizations were chosen out of the whole country, the designation is quite an honor. People often don’t have the time to research charities, so Charity Intelligence puts us under the microscope for you.
There are many reasons for our selection including the fact that we have highly measurable programs like Family Reconnect. In 2010 the program…
- assisted 19 youth in their return home from the shelter
- moved 37 youth into independent or supportive housing
- helped 15 youth remain at home through early intervention
*The monthly savings for each youth to the Toronto shelter system was $1,705.05. The savings to the shelter system for 2010 was $363,271.50, based on an average three month stay.
Other reasons for our selection:
- Our employment training program boasts a 70 per cent success rate with youth finding jobs or returning to school
- Our social enterprise—Eva’s Print Shop—has a 70 per cent success rate and a 16 per cent increase in sales growth in 2010
- We are cost effective—our fundraising and admin costs are at 15 per cent, well under the Canadian Revenue Agency’s guidelines of 30 per cent.
- We are transparent—our Annual Report is available online and our financial statements are open to anyone wanting to see them
Clare’s story
Eager to give their 12 year old daughter a new life in Canada, Clare’s mother and step-father sent her from Trinidad to live with her father and step-mother. They were hoping for a better life for her: a good education and a good job.
What Clare encountered instead was more hardship. Her step-mother rejected her and conflict in the family eventually drove her father off. Clare stayed with a family friend until she could complete high school.
Clare then moved in with her step-brother and his wife, but their marriage ended and Clare found herself staring at the doors to Eva’s Place.
Unable to work due to her immigrant status, Clare volunteered at a hospice, food bank, Meals on Wheels and a hospital while staying with Eva’s. The gift of her time and commitment to these places inspired her to become a nurse.
In December 2010, Clare applied for permanent status in Canada and, after securing stable housing, plans to attend university.
Phoenix Relocation Campaign
The relocation of Eva’s Phoenix, scheduled for 2014, will require more revenue than that granted by City Council.As such, we have embarked on a capital campaign to raise the additional funds necessary to successfully move Phoenix to its new home. We invite you to donate to this fund.
Donation Options
Online
Please visit our donation page at CanadaHelps.org and select the Phoenix Relocation Fund in the Funds designation drop-down box (donations through CanadaHelps are subject to a 3.9% administration fee by Eva’s).
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Call
You may choose to donate by calling Eva’s directly at 416-977-4497 and make your credit card donation by phone. Please let the call-taker know that your donation is designated to the Phoenix Relocation Campaign.
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Mail your cheque to:
Eva’s Initiatives
215 Spadina Ave, Suite 370
Toronto, ON M5T 2C7
Please make Cheques payable to “Eva’s Initiatives” and indicate “Designated to Phoenix Relocation Campaign” in the memo field.
We are grateful to Kelly Services staff
Kelly Services 1 University Staff Team
”Kindness in words creates confidence. Kindness in thinking creates profoundness. Kindness in giving creates love.”~Lao Tzu
For the past several years, the Family Reconnect Program’s youth and families have been privileged to receive holiday gifts from the staff of Kelly Service’s University Ave., Bloor St., and Woodbine offices. Through the kindness and thoughtfulness of Branch Managers Cathy Campbell and Kim Torrance and their staff teams, our families-in-need have their wish lists filled every year. They also beautifully wrap the gifts, create stockings and always add gourmet treats.We are honored to work with the wonderful people of Kelly Services and are grateful that they help make wishes come true. Thank you.
Kelly Services 33 Bloor St East Staff Team
Kelly Services 7030 Woodbine Ave Staff Team
Youth need their own mental health system
There is a dire need for a youth-specific mental health care system dealing with ages 16- 24. We have a child and youth system where services often end for anyone over 16, although some programs end at age 18. Youth beyond the age of 18 are often shuttled into the adult system, where their stages of development and needs differ greatly from those of adults over the age of 25.
As an agency that operates three unique shelters for youths, 16-24, we can tell you that the number of our residents with serious mental health issues averages around 40 per cent. That is statistically significant and connotes a larger issue. Youth shelters are being used as dumping grounds for youth that do not fit anywhere else.
Our staff are regularly frustrated and often devastated in trying to get seriously mentally ill youth the help they need, only to have the youth released back into our care without anything more than advice to continue their medications. This cohort is falling through the cracks in alarming and disturbing numbers.
A youth-specific mental health system must recognize youths’ need for autonomy, their risk-taking behaviours, their brain development, the unique and unprecedented issues that youth are struggling with today, as well as the distinct determinants to successfully and positively engage the youth in the process.
To better serve these youth, all staff involved in delivering services to youth, including teachers, child and youth workers and hospital staff should be comprehensively trained and educated on the emergence of mental health issues in adolescence.
Homeless youth present some additional challenges as, during the often long waits for service, they have moved from shelter to shelter and contact is lost. Due to the unique needs and transient nature of this population, the approach to counselling, case management and coordination requires contacts that are frequent, supportive, offer immediate response in times of acute crisis, and that must assist youth in a variety of areas geared to their individual circumstance.
Eva’s is not alone in our desire to see a mental health system specifically aimed at youths. We partner with youth agencies across the country under the umbrella of the Learning Community, and this is an issue of great concern to us all.
