Youth Services Team

East Scarborough Boys’ & Girls’ Club

Nominator Comments:

The Youth Services Team is a new team of youth workers who bring with them new ideas, energy and passion. They inspire veteran staff with new ways of thinking. For some change can be daunting, however, for the Youth Services Team it has been an opportunity to recommit to the organizations goals and challenge each other to achieve the very best. The youth department concentrates on two major areas: youth outreach and youth programs. This summer, the Kingston Galloway community was negatively impacted by a tragic act of violence on Danzig Street. One of the victims of the senseless shooting, Shyanne Charles, was a member of the Club. She was a friend to many. The Youth Services Team worked closely with the Charles family and community members to provide support in the days that followed. This is in addition to other activities like the back-to school BBQ, candle light vigil, open mic night, the Unity in the Community Conference and many more activities. The team reached out to the community in an effort to help with the healing by providing support through emotional counselling and hosted trauma counselling at the Club. The team also worked with local service provides to provide door-to-door counselling and tried to gain perspective on what the youth and community needs were to find appropriate responses/community resources.