Kingston Whig Standard, July 15, 2015
The Ministry of Children and Youth Services will unveil yet more funding and programs for Kingston youth support services on Wednesday.
Sophie Kiwala, MPP for Kingston and the Islands, announced Monday that Kingston will receive $389,000 for a new youth mentorship program.
On Wednesday, local organizations will learn about more programs and funding to be expanded to Kingston, at a meeting hosted by the Ministry of Children and Youth Services at Family and Children’s Services Frontenac, Lennox and Addington.
The announcement comes at the end of a series of meetings held in Kingston by the Premier’s Council on Youth Opportunities. Miles Hopper, spokesperson for the ministry, said he could not yet confirm what the programs will be, but said more funding is in place.
The Premier’s Council on Youth Opportunities (PCYO) met with Kingston Mayor Bryan Paterson and leaders from the United Way, Home Base Housing and Youth Diversion in City Hall on Tuesday.
The 25-member council advises Premier Kathleen Wynne and the Minister of Children and Youth Services on youth issues.
“We’re an advisory council, so when we came to Kingston we wanted to learn from initiatives here so we can take that back to the province,” vice-chair of the council Madeleine Ross said. A Grade 12 student from Kingston, Ross joined the council in 2013.
The council typically meets every two months in Toronto, but it is holding a special meeting in Kingston this July.
The new programs are part of the second phase of the $55 million Youth Action Plan, which was launched in 2012 along with the Council on Youth Opportunities. The province has named the second phase the “Enhanced Ontario Youth Action Plan” or “OYAP 2015”.
During Tuesday’s meetings, Mayor Paterson led the meeting on youth employment, while Bhavana Varma from the United Way, Tara Everitt from Home Base Housing and Daren Dougall from Youth Diversion led the meeting on youth homelessness.
The council’s chair, Natricia Drummond, said Kingston is on the right track for developing a plan for youth engagement in the city.
“It’s authentic, it’s real and they’re doing it from the front line,” she said. She said the homelessness strategy is especially promising, and they will be bringing the lessons from that project back to Queen’s Park.
She added that she was surprised to learn that the Kingston Youth Shelter is the only shelter between and Montreal.
“They have those transient young people coming from elsewhere looking for shelter, and (we’ll be looking to) lend our voice to those people,” she said.
Varma, the director of United Way, said the council’s visit reinforced the United Way’s emphasis on mentoring and on improving services for youth with disabilities.
She added that the meeting introduced new ideas, including the need to consider youth with criminal records.
“That’s something we haven’t built into our plan yet,” she said.
Tyler Johnson, a member of the Premier’s Council on Youth Opportunities (PCYO), spoke about the Focus on Youth program during the meeting.
Johnson worked for the TDSB for eight years. He became homeless when he was 15 and lived in shelters for a year. A high school co-op placement at the TDSB helped him get on his feet.
“I started getting out of homelessness, and did co-op with TDSB,” he said. “A trustee ended up hiring me after the co-op, and that’s how I got here.”
Johnson helped lead the Focus on Youth project with TDSB. According to him, the program provides high school students with practical skills and further opportunities down the road.
“It’s something that Kingston should definitely apply for,” he said.
http://www.thewhig.com/2015/07/14/more-youth-related-funding-to-be-unveiled
Leave a Reply