Maria Bernard

For Youth Initiative in Toronto

Nominator Comments:

Maria is recognized for her ideas that increase revenue, reduce cost and improve services for For Youth Initiative (F.Y.I.). Maria has taken every opportunity to seek out strategic and innovative tools and techniques to simplify administrative work and therefore increase efficiency. Her vision has been long-term, selecting tools and methods that provide for continuous enhancement of efficiency and productivity, and allowing F.Y.I. to continue to focus the bulk of its energy and resources on its work in the community. Through Maria’s efforts, the agency is now better positioned for fundraising, organization to organization mentorship, equipped with improved quality standards, and information and technology systems. It is through Maria’s efforts that F.Y.I. successfully fundraised almost $60,000 in 2011. She also implemented two innovative programs: Agency Mentorship Program and the Power of ONE program, in addition to acquiring sponsorship for community programs from several banking institutions.