BY: MIWAKO CHANG
The start of school has returned, along with the day-to-day challenges of navigating assignments, education, friends, and more. Youth On Track Services (YNOT Services) is an organization committed to supporting youth within the community. They support youth in their day to day educational, social, financial, and mental challenges, and reduce the impacts of familial and environment-based circumstances.
YNOT plays a critical part of the community and is supported by various governmental and community organizations including Toronto Police and Fire Service, Province of Ontario, The City of Toronto, Kindred Foundation, Black Business Initiatives, and Tropicana Community Services.
YNOT utilizes preventative and collaborative approaches in their counselling services, mental health support, new immigrant school system navigation support, parenting workshops, youth after school homework support, and youth mentorship. These resources are provided through YNOT’s Empower Children for a Greater Tomorrow (ECGT) program, open to youth between 5 and 25 years old.
YNOT’s Restorative Justice program supports youth 12 to 23 years old who, at the time of their offence, had a criminal background in Canada. The program supports youth through programming and conflict management in their two-phase process.
Supported by the Government of Canada, the Heritage Capacity Building Project is a series of workshops to educate youth on understanding and responding to racism, as well as increasing self-confidence through the development of financial literacy. Youth aged 14 to 24 years old are welcome to attend.
The YNOT Ten Step Mentorship program equips mentees from the ages of 6 to 17 years of age with key life skills such as determination, creativity and leadership, in an area of focus. These include role model mentorship, business, entrepreneurship, academic, and leadership.
In addition to their regular programming, YNOT offers summer programming and seminars and workshops on a variety of topics including goal setting, career planning, substance abuse, anger management, and crime prevention.
Supported by the community, YNOT plays a key role in the development and betterment of our youth and provides valuable support for tomorrow’s leaders.
For more information, visit www.ynotservices.org.