OVERVIEW
At G.H.Y.S. we have made it our mission to empower youth facing barriers to employment by offering innovative and supportive programs that initiate positive change and personal success in their lives. The youth we serve often have feelings of low self worth and feel that they cannot participate in the communities they live in. Prolonged experience of such feelings can lead to disengagement or isolation within society, which only contributes to increased frustration, social conflict and misunderstanding. In this context, G.H.Y.S. helps youth to reconnect and reintegrate within their larger surrounding puzzle: the community they are meant to live and participate in.MISSION STATEMENT
"We strive to empower youth facing employment challenges by offering innovative and supportive programs that initiate positive change and personal success."SKILLS LINK PROGRAM
Aims to provide participants with a core set of life and employability skills to enable them to find and maintain employment.
COMMUNITY ASSISTANCE PROGRAM
Aims to help youth enhance their quality of life and enable them to participate more fully in their communities.
MOVING FORWARD COMMUNITY ASSISTANCE PROGRAM
Aims to help adults enhance their quality of life and enable them to participate more fully in their communities.
"Although the focus of G.H.Y.S. is to assist youth in finding and maintaining employment, 10-15% of youth are reconnected to education."
"On average 60%-75% of youth enrolled in the Skills Link Program do not have high-school completion."
"According to Express Pardons and Parole Board of Canada,'96% of pardon applicants have never re-offended … This is proof that giving someone a second chance is the best motivation to be a productive member of their community and not re-offend.'"
"In the stimulus package that the Federal government created to take us through the recession, about $8 billion dollars was spent on unemployment programs. Less than 1% was spent on youth… and this was for the group that was hit hardest by the recession."
Neil Sandell, CBC Producer, The Young and the Jobless, 2011
"In a recent poll, 47% of the youth applicants were receiving Income Assistance or through parents or relatives on Income Assistance."
"In a recent year, 2010-2011, 38% of the youth enrolled in the G.H.Y.S. Skills Link program were either on Income Assistance or were supported by parents or relatives on Income Assistance prior to joining our program."