Community Knowledge Centre - Toronto Community Foundation

About this organization

Mission

Boundless is dedicated to inspiring vulnerable youth, families and communities to achieve greater independence through the pursuit of alternative education and leadership.

History of Organization

Established in 1984, and incorporated as a charity in 1989, Boundless has served over 17,000 youth and families at risk through adventure based education. We serve First Nation youth, expelled students, youth in the criminal justice system, victims of violence, adults with brain injuries; and people who present mental illness. Our program is delivered in close collaboration with over 40 community agencies in Toronto, who provide staffing, ideas, facilities and support with youth engagement. Five years ago, we became certified as an independent school, with the added capacity to issue high school credits to our clients. This milestone spawned an era where we are creating an unique alternative high school and leadership program for seriously marginalized youth.

Accolades and Accomplishments

Boundless serves the most diverse client-base with special needs of any therapeutic recreation program on the continent. We have launched, and sustained programs for young families at risk; alternative education for gang members and expelled students; developed a province wide social-rehabilitation program for people with acquired brain injuries; established close partnerships with the First nation community and devised education programs for aboriginal youth in foster care or are homeless; partnered with substance abuse programs in an effort to ameliorate the devastating impact of addictions. These social innovations underscore our capacity to engage people in extraordinary leadership initiatives in their own communities. We are one of the few adventure based programs that have successfully launched and sustained Toronto based community initiatives as an adjunct to our adventure education approach. In many cases, the Toronto-based programs are the focus, with the wilderness team-building program serving as a launching pad.

Programs

>Alternative Education for High Risk Youth

For our youth program, Boundless gives a chance for Toronto's at-risk youth to attain a high school diploma by providing recreation programs, high school credits, leadership development and community engagement. We work with young people who have been expelled from mainstream education, have a history of violence and crime, and face mental health barriers such as addictions or behavioural disorders. We collaborate with aboriginal groups, the police, youth justice and neighbourhood community centres in Toronto's at risk neighbourhoods across all dimensions of program delivery. Our method is outdoor adventure and leadership development delivered at our base camp in the Ottawa Valley. We then turn our attention to having youth launch and execute community based recreation and leadership initiatives in their own inner-city neighbourhoods. For example, in the past two years, our students developed projects such as meals on wheels; boxing, basketball and swimming programs; photography clubs; writer's groups; urban environmental stewardship; peer mediation. For our adult program, Boundless uses ambitious 5-day recreation and team-building adventures, often in a family context, to accelerate the rehabilitation curve of people with brain injuries; and other adults with chronic mental illness. Our family program serves women and young children who are fleeing violent situations and residing in shelters. Working with 20 families, we start with a 5-day retreat in the Ottawa Valley, and then continue in a year-long recreation program based out of the Downtown YMCA family resource centre. We engage in environmental stewardship on the rivers of the Ottawa Valley.

Alternative Education for High Risk Youth

By meshing recreation, youth leadership, adventure based education and the support to acquire high school credits, our program strives to assist vulnerable youth to develop protective factors that can help them become more resilient to the adversity they face. Protective factors and resiliency promote healthy youth development and reduce the risk of harmful behaviours. Two new partners figure prominently in this program - the Toronto Police (Community Mobilization Unit) and Youth Justice (Probation Officers supervising youth in the criminal justice system. Our aim to is engage alienated youth, with a history of violence, to launch recreation programs in their high risk neighbourhoods. We also shall support this high-risk cohort to return to school and obtain their high school diplomas. There are three components to this initiative: 1. Outreach – In close collaboration with staff employed by our community partners identified herein, we intend to recruit leadership candidates who shall then form community outreach teams. These teams shall conjure, design and execute community projects in Toronto aimed at providing recreation opportunities to their peers in their own neighbourhoods and by providing peer-led activities that will steer youth away from at-risk behaviours. 2. Training – Each youth shall participate in two 5-day training programs at our basecamp in the Ottawa Valley in the autumn and again in the winter. They shall bond as a team. They shall define goals for themselves as a group. They’ll create a working plan for their subsequent community projects delivered in their neighbourhoods in Toronto. 3. Education – Each student will earn at least one high school credit, and in many cases (depending on the scope of their community projects that they define) two credits.

Program Impact

1. We’ll serve a total of 100 at-risk youth who are highly vulnerable 2. We’ll issue between 120-200 high school credits, helping youth who are outcasts from the mainstream school system complete their high school diplomas 3. We’ll facilitate the building of bridges between the Toronto Police, the youth justice system and the at-risk youth 4. The project shall have a large representation from an array of ethnic minorities and First Nation youth 5. We shall engage youth to create up to 5 unique recreation and Toronto-based community programs, conflict mediation resources, peer led workshops on substance abuse and other programs noted herein

Toronto's Vital Signs® indicator(s) addressed by Program

“High school completion key to success:

• 18.5 % of those in the region 15 years old and over, had not completed secondary education in 2008” (Toronto’s Vital Signs®, 2009)

Boundless’ Alternative Education for High Risk Youth helps disenfranchised youth (expelled or suspended or on probation) attain their high school diplomas. This in turn ameliorates risk factors such as crime, violence and chronic underachievement. This program also inspires and supports youth to become leaders in their own high risk neighbourhoods as a means to bring communities closer together and to engage youth to become involved in constructive local activities.

Participant Vignette

A "typical" youth participant will be residing in an at-risk neighbourhood, for example Jane/Finch or Lawrence Heights. He/she will have dropped out of school, may be a gang member (Sri Lankan or Vietnamese for example) or have been expelled due to violence. This youth will join 14 other youth on a 5-day outdoor recreation adventure. The young person will forge close bonds with his teammates as they overcome obstacles together. Together with his/her peers, this teenager will create a "cool" community project - launching an inner city environmental program, for example. They will deliver this program over the winter months. He/she will return to Boundless to complete the requirements of earning one or two high school credits. He/she will also fine tune the nuances of their environmental program. When returning to Toronto, the youth, ideally, will support his/her peers to deliver the environmental program in an ongoing capacity. He/she will earn 1-2 credits for this experience, be the recipient of career and academic counselling, and hopefully return to school on a full time basis.