Community Knowledge Centre - Toronto Community Foundation

About this organization

Mission

Vision

To see all youth have an opportunity to change their lives through engagement in their own communities.

Mission

Serve engages diverse and at-risk youth in experience-based education, teamwork and community involvement so that they can establish personal direction, overcome obstacles, achieve goals and become involved community members and leaders.

Methodology

Serve programs address the underlying root causes of crime, violence, and poverty by investing in vulnerable and at-risk youth. The methodology: by engaging young people in meaningful leadership roles in their communities you create an opportunity for them to learn and grow. Youth participants discover their self-worth as they realize that others need and value them. As a result they become leaders and role models along the way to achieving their own personal goals. Serve develops the leader from within.

History of Organization

While studying at Harvard our co-founders researched City Year Boston, which inspired the creation of a program in Toronto. Serve was first established in 1993, and through our evolution over 18-years, our core mandate has remained the same: Engaging Youth for Change.  Scotiabank and the Peter and Shelagh Godsoe Family Foundation, who are major philanthropic partners today, were Serve's founding supporters.

Accolades and Accomplishments

2011 received formal recognition from Elections Services City of Toronto, for our partnership in Toronto’s 2010 municipal election by engaging electors on the electoral process, and broadening the knowledge of democracy, accessibility, and ability to participate in the municipal election amongst youth.

2007 presented with the Community Safety Award from David Miller, Mayor, City of Toronto, for outstanding achievement in strengthening neighbourhoods and promoting community safety in the City of Toronto, and specifically the Expanding Minds to End Violence Project.

2005 presented with the Green Toronto Award from David Miller, Mayor, and Joe Pantalone, Deputy Minister, City of Toronto. The Green Toronto Award is the City of Toronto’s environmental award of excellence for organizations that demonstrate initiative in their efforts on behalf of Toronto’s environmental well-being.

2005 received formal congratulations from the Honourable Anne McLellan, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness, for our commitment to building safe communities in Canada.

2001 presented with the Toronto Tree Advocacy Award from the City of Toronto, for ongoing participation and leadership in tree planting projects, and contributing to raising public awareness about the beauty and ecological benefits of trees.

2001 formally recognized and commended for outstanding service and volunteer contribution to our community by the Honourable Beth Phinney, Member of Parliament.

Programs

>Experience This!
>Serve Up The Summer
>Making It Work

Using a community development approach, Serve establishes strategic partnerships with community leaders and agencies in high risk communities across the city.  Experienced staff are hired to provide guidance, coaching, and resources to the youth. On a platform of experiential and reflective learning, Serve uses a 4-pronged approach to engaging marginalized and at-risk youth: Team Development exercises and retreats; Personal Development activities; Community Service/Volunteering; Financial Achievement Awards and Stipends; and embedded throughout is an extensive employment, job and life skill curriculum.

Through this strategy, youth gain work and life skills while simultaneously helping to meet community needs. The model provides an excellent opportunity for learning and growth as participants are supported and supervised by staff. Regular reflection and journaling is integrated into all program activities. Serve programming provides youth with the motivation and opportunity to set direction, gain experience and skills, and establish connections to the community. This allows them to overcome barriers so that they may achieve long-term goals.

Another key role Serve plays is connecting youth to community resources. Serve does not duplicate services, rather Serve assists youth in accessing community services they need to improve their lives and functionality. Whether it is career-focused (e.g. employment/education), or life-focused (e.g. counseling, housing support, dental services, etc.), Serve coaches how to access the assistance required, for now and in the future.

The four programs Serve currently runs include:

1) Experience This!  a full-time, six month program for youth aged 17-24 years.

2) Serve Up the Summer a full-time, six week summer program for youth aged 13-16 years

3) Step Up, a full-time, March Break program for youth aged 13-16 years

4) Making It Work a full-time, six week summer program for youth aged 17-21 years, (with a focus on career development and employment readiness).

Experience This!

Experience This! is a full-time, six month (approx November to April) program, for 17-24 year olds who are out of school and out of work.  The Experience This! program operates in teams of ten youth, (with the number of teams run each year dependent upon funding).

• An intensive program with the most transformative results

• Individual & team based development

• Community service/development work (youth spend 50% of their time volunteering for other non-profits).

• May work on a special project (dependent on project grants).

• Includes two outdoor adventure-based retreats (a one day high ropes, and a 4 day wilderness retreat).

• Financial Assistance (a living stipend is meant to cover basic needs and allows youth living in poverty to achieve stability while they participate in full-time programming.  Receiving the stipend is dependent on youth meeting program expectations, including: regular attendance, contributing positively, and completing all required assignments.  By setting high standards for youth, the program helps them develop invaluable life and job skills, such as puctuality, responsibility and follow-through.)

In addition there is an extensive life and job skill curriculum built into the program.

The Experience This! program was designed based on research that identified that the issues facing youth from the priority neighbourhoods of Toronto are extremely complex, therefore in response, the program was designed to work with fewer youth in a comprehensive, tailored and multifaceted way to achieve greater and truly transformative results.

Funding and Program Partners

FUNDING PARTNERS

J.P. Bickell Foundation

City of Toronto - Access, Equity and Human Rights Program

Mackenzie Financial Charitable Foundation

Manulife

Paloma Foundation

Scotiabank

State Street

Slaight Music Inc.

PROGRAM PARTNERS

Adventureworks! Associates Inc.

Fred Victor Centre (Housing Access & Support Services)

Scarborough Historical Museum

Blake Boultbee Youth Outreach Service

Kensington Gardens Sunshine Centre for Seniors

Castleview

Wychwood Towers

Kinark Outdoor Centre

Toronto Catholic District School Board (Focus on Youth Program)

Multicultural History Society of Ontario

Chester Village Mural Routes

Toronto Public Health (Youth in Control Program)

Eastview Neighbourhood Community Centre

New Circles

Windfall

Flemingdon Health Centre

Ryerson University (Tri-Mentoring Program)

Wychwood Open Door

The types of community projects and partners vary from year to year (i.e. working with large number of community clients vs. small groups or one-to-one work with clients). There are variations of projects with direct service/interaction with clients, or projects undertaken that involve more indirect service (organization and preparing materials), or for public education and media.

Program Impact

The social return on investment with helping youth return to school and/or find work includes health, social, environmental and economic benefits directly to the City of Toronto. 

Over the years, Serve has established itself as an integral youth serving organization in the City of Toronto, where since our inception we have served over 1,000 diverse and at-risk youth, who have volunteered over 130,000 hours of service, and who have themselves helped 62,491 individuals in need. 

Serve's 2010-11 youth results were:

• 92% achieve their goals and continue with their high school education, enter post-secondary education or find employment (i.e. 100% of younger youth and 83% of older youth)

• 88% reported increased self-confidence and self-esteem

• 98% demonstrated increased life skills such as problem solving and conflict resolution, assertiveness, teamwork and cooperation

• 100% reported increased job search skills, employment preparedness, and experience in the community

• 98% reported that they want to be more involved with their community/city

• 98% reported that they feel better about their future (i.e. have goals, want to be involved and participate)

In addition, 100% of community project partners reported increased services/impacts and/or an increase in the number of community members reached from the contributions made by the youth of Serve.  100% of community project partners indicate that they would recommend Serve to other community organizations/agencies. 

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

"Unemployment rates for both youth and immigrants remain high.."

"In 2010, the youth unemployment rate in the Toronto Region was 22.3% above the national average: In 2010, the youth (15-24 years old) unemployment rate in the Toronto Region was 18.1% (the national youth unemployment rate was 14.8% and the provincial rate was 17.2%).  The rate was almost unchanged from 18.3% in 2009 and a full 7.6 percentage points higher than the 10.5% rate in 2000.  Long term youth unemployment rates reflect the larger economic climate in the Region.  Rate is 2009 and 2010 mirror the recession of the early 1990s."

(Toronto's Vital Signs® 2011)

Serve assists at-risk youth in going back to school or finding work.  This is done through our curriculum, 'on-the-job' experience through community service, career development and employment readiness, and leadership development strategies. 

92% of Serve youth achieve their goals and continue with their high school education, enter post-secondary education or find employment (i.e. 100% of younger youth and 83% of older youth).

Participant Vignette

Hope through hoops: Ken Bryan learns to help himself by helping kids

At the renovation site of the new $2 million supper club he’s helping to launch in Toronto’s club district, Ken Bryan manages to keep a calm confidence despite the chaos.

Bryan can smile amid the rubble and racket of this massive project because he’s used to surviving chaos and coming out the other side. The makeover of this downtown building is nothing compared to the transformation Bryan has gone through himself with the help of Serve.

“Serve saves lives by changing lives,” Bryan says. “Everything I am, I owe to that program.”

Bryan was born in Toronto to Jamaican parents. Shortly following his birth, he returned to Jamaica with his mother, who was deported after being falsely implicated in a shoplifting incident.  When Bryan was two, his father took him back to Canada, telling the boy’s mother it would be a temporary stay.  But it was a lie, and Bryan never saw his mom again until he was 14.

Back in Toronto again, Bryan’s father (who he refers to as a career criminal) eventually exited his life, at which point he was raised by his paternal grandmother, whose boyfriend was extremely violent. 

“When I was four or five I remember seeing him stabbing some people and my grandmother trying to get the blood out of the carpet. It was totally crazy,” Bryan remembers.

Bryan’s grandmother eventually left her violent partner, but then placed her grandson in foster care. Bryan

boomeranged between two different foster homes until he was about 16. When his last foster mother moved to

Ottawa, the teenager stayed in Toronto.  But with no real job, educational path or adult guidance, Bryan slipped into an aimless lifestyle that landed him on the cusp of homelessness.

“I just started bouncing around, staying on different people’s couches. I was looking for a job for about six months and I didn’t know what I wanted to do in terms of college,” he recalls.

That's when a friend told him about Serve and the Hope Through Hoops project within Serve's Experience This! program.  In the program, participants earned a stipend and used basketball as a springboard for teaching life skills to younger youth from Parkdale and Regent Park.  Though he lacked an adult mentor in his own life, Bryan signed on with the Hope Through Hoops project to take on a leadership role for the first time in his life.

Through helping the kids he coached, Bryan ultimately learned to help himself. The confidence and public speaking skills he built in the program helped him land future jobs in the financial services and marketing sectors. He even launched Firebrand Consulting, a marketing and promotional firm he sold three years ago.  He’s now the Marketing Director at Glam City Media, where he focuses on promotions, event organizing and, of course, the launch of 'The Roosevelt Room Supper Club’.

“(Serve) gives you hope and teaches you the skills you need to fill in the gaps in your life,” Bryan says.

He notes that one of the kids he coached went from getting kicked out of school for pulling a gun on the principal to later setting up his own music studio.

“Everyone has challenges and it doesn’t matter where you come from, whether it’s Parkdale or Rosedale. It teaches you that if you put together a plan, work hard on it and follow through, you’ll succeed.”

Serve Up The Summer

The Experience This! program was Serve's first program.  After a few years of running Experience This! we realized that we needed to get to youth earlier in order to introduce a preventative component to our programming (i.e. before they discontinue middle/high school) for youth from the priority neighbourhoods of Toronto, which is why Serve Up the Summer was developed.

Serve Up The Summer is a full-time, six week, summer (approx mid-July to Mid-August) program, for 13-16 year olds who have risk factors that make them vulnerable to dropping out of school. The Serve Up The Summer program operates in teams of twenty-four youth.  For the past few years, we have tried to operate programs in the Malvern and Flemingdon Park areas of Toronto (i.e. funding issues have for the 2009 and 2011 summers resulted in discontinuing the Flemingdon Park program). 

• Individual & team based development

• Community service/development work (youth spend 50% of their time volunteering for other non-profits). These hours can be submitted to their high school re: the community service requirement for high school graduation. 

• Includes one outdoor, high-ropes, adventure-based retreat

• Financial Award (a completion award is given at the end of the program.  Receiving the award is dependent on youth meeting program expectations, including: regular attendance, contributing positively, and completing all required assignments.)

NOTE: that a mini-version of Serve Up The Summer is run during March Break in the Flemingdon Park neighbourhood.  'Step-Up' is a full-time, one week program, for 13-16 years old, in teams of 24 youth.

Funding and Program Partners

FUNDING PARTNERS (2011)

Gap Inc.

Government of Canada - Human Resources & Skills Development

Special Event proceeds

PROGRAM PARTNERS

Adventureworks! Associates Inc.

Blake Boultbee Youth Outreach Service

Central Neighbourhood House (Summer Camp & Daycare Centre)

Eastview Neighbourhood Community Centre

Mural Routes

Scarborough Historical Museaum

TCDSB (Focus on Youth)

TDSM (Lester B. Pearson)

The types of community projects and partners vary from year to year (i.e. working with a large number of communtiy clients vs. small groups or one-to-one work with clients).  There are variations of projects with direct service/interaction with clients, or projects undertaken that involve more indirect service (organization and preparing materials), or for public education and media.

Program Impact

The social return on investment with helping youth return to school and/or find work includes health, social, environmental and economic benefits directly to the City of Toronto.

Over the years, Serve has established itself as an integral youth serving organization in the City of Toronto, where since our inception we have served over 1,000 diverse and at-risk youth, who have volunteered over 130,000 hours of service, and who have themselves helped 62,491 individuals in need.

Serve's 2010-11 youth results were:

 • 92% achieve their goals and continue with their high school education, enter post-secondary education or find employment (i.e. 100% of younger youth and 83% of older youth)

• 88% reported increased self-confidence and self-esteem

• 98% demonstrated increased life skills such as problem solving and conflict resolution, assertiveness, teamwork and cooperation

• 100% reported increased job search skills, employment preparedness, and experience in the community

• 98% reported that they want to be more involved with their community/city

• 98% reported that they feel better about their future (i.e. have goals, want to be involved and participate)

In addition, 100% of community project partners reported increased services/impacts and/or an increase in the number of community members reached from the contributions made by the youth of Serve. 100% of community project partners indicate that they would recommend Serve to other community organizations/agencies.

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

"Unemployment rates for both youth and immigrants remain high.."

"In 2010, the youth unemployment rate in the Toronto Region was 22.3% above the national average: In 2010, the youth (15-24 years old) unemployment rate in the Toronto Region was 18.1% (the national youth unemployment rate was 14.8% and the provincial rate was 17.2%). The rate was almost unchanged from 18.3% in 2009 and a full 7.6 percentage points higher than the 10.5% rate in 2000. Long term youth unemployment rates reflect the larger economic climate in the Region. Rate is 2009 and 2010 mirror the recession of the early 1990s."

(Toronto's Vital Signs ® 2011)

Serve Up the Summer assists diverse and at-risk youth with staying in school and identifying potential career goals.  This is done through our curriculum, through community service experience, and personald and leadership development strategies.

92% of Serve youth achieve their goals and continue with their high school education, enter post-secondary education or find employment (i.e. 100% of younger youth and 83% of older youth).

Participant Vignette

Our programs have such a positive impact on so many of our young people that have been exposed to less fortunate life circumstances.  Six of our graduates from the Serve Up The Summer program 2011 had this to say about their experience (names withheld for privacy):

"It definitely has changed me as a person.  Being in Serve really opened my eyes on real world problems.  I think the workshops really helped me learn more about issues.  I think you should continue doing workshops like these.  The service projects are very good as well."

"I think Serve was a great tool for many people.  It allowed people to get a better sense of who they are and want to be while helping other people.  This experience was great because you could clearly see how much of a difference it contributed into other members lives.  There was a definite positive growth in people from the start point to the end point.  And being able to watch/be part of that growth is a great feeling itself.  I hope this program continues to help youth for the future."

"Serve has been a great program and I can't believe six weeks are almost over.  The skills I have gained have to be job skills/experience (working with kids, gardening, customer service, etc.), communication skills to both elderly and young kids.  And I know I am open to different transportation modes such as how to use the bus/subway and RT.  I had a blast and thanks to Serve's funders and the staff members for creating and running this program."

"Serve helped me communicate better since I first started."

"When I joined this program I was really quiet and didn't socialaiz with anyone really and now I have spoken to everyone and chated with them.  I am also more understanding of other people feelings and rights.  I would like to say that I had an amazing summer and would like to join next year.  Thank you Serve for everything I learned this summer." (sic)

"My Serve experience helped me feel better about myself, helped me get over some of my insecurities and now I feel less self-con.  I also feel like now I can communicate better with people I may not know well and be less shy.  Overall I feel confident." (sic)

Making It Work

The Experience This! program was Serve's first program. After a few years of running Experience This! we realized that there was a gap in programming for marginalized 17-21 year olds that required employment readiness training and career development coaching. That is why the Making It Work program was developed. 

Making It Work is a full-time, six week, summer (approx mid-July to Mid-August) program, for 17-21 year olds who need additional and focused support with employment preparation and long term career decisions. The Making It Work program operates in teams of nine youth. Youth are recruited from the priority neighbourhoods from across the City of Toronto.  For the past few years, we have tried to operate one-two teams each summer (i.e. funding issues have for the summer of 2010 resulted in discontinuing the Making It Work program, and in 2011 we were only able to provide programming to one team of nine youth).

• Individual & team based development

• Community service/development work (youth spend 50% of their time volunteering for other non-profits). These hours can be submitted to their high school in support of the community service requirement for high school graduation.

• Includes one outdoor, high-ropes, adventure-based retreat

• Financial Assistance (a living stipend is meant to cover basic needs and allows youth living in poverty to achieve stability while they participate in full-time programming. Receiving the stipend is dependent on youth meeting program expectations, including: regular attendance, contributing positively, and completing all required assignments. By setting high standards for youth, the program helps them develop invaluable life and job skills, such as punctuality, responsibility and follow-through.)

In addition there is an extensive life and job skill curriculum built into the program.

Funding and Program Partners

FUNDING PARTNERS (2011)

Mackenzie Financial Charitable Foundation

Unrestricted donations

Proceeds from special events

PROGRAM PARTNERS

Adventureworks! Associates Inc.

Fred Victor Centre (Housing Access & Support Services)

Scarborough Historical Museum

Blake Boultbee Youth Outreach Service

Kensington Gardens Sunshine Centre for Seniors

Castleview

Wychwood Towers

Toronto Catholic District School Board (Focus on Youth Program)

Multicultural History Society of Ontario

Chester Village Mural Routes

Toronto Public Health (Youth in Control Program)

Eastview Neighbourhood Community Centre

New Circles

Windfall

Wychwood Open Door

The types of community projects and partners vary from year to year (i.e. working with large number of community clients vs. small groups or one-to-one work with clients). There are variations of projects with direct service/interaction with clients, or projects undertaken that involve more indirect service (organization and preparing materials), or for public education and media.

Program Impact

The social return on investment with helping youth return to school and/or find work includes health, social, environmental and economic benefits directly to the City of Toronto.

Over the years, Serve has established itself as an integral youth serving organization in the City of Toronto, where since our inception we have served over 1,000 diverse and at-risk youth, who have volunteered over 130,000 hours of service, and who have themselves helped 62,491 individuals in need.

Serve's 2010-11 youth results were:

• 92% achieve their goals and continue with their high school education, enter post-secondary education or find employment (i.e. 100% of younger youth and 83% of older youth)

• 88% reported increased self-confidence and self-esteem

• 98% demonstrated increased life skills such as problem solving and conflict resolution, assertiveness, teamwork and cooperation

• 100% reported increased job search skills, employment preparedness, and experience in the community

• 98% reported that they want to be more involved with their community/city

• 98% reported that they feel better about their future (i.e. have goals, want to be involved and participate)

In addition, 100% of community project partners reported increased services/impacts and/or an increase in the number of community members reached from the contributions made by the youth of Serve. 100% of community project partners indicate that they would recommend Serve to other community organizations/agencies.

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

"Unemployment rates for both youth and immigrants remain high.."

"In 2010, the youth unemployment rate in the Toronto Region was 22.3% above the national average: In 2010, the youth (15-24 years old) unemployment rate in the Toronto Region was 18.1% (the national youth unemployment rate was 14.8% and the provincial rate was 17.2%). The rate was almost unchanged from 18.3% in 2009 and a full 7.6 percentage points higher than the 10.5% rate in 2000. Long term youth unemployment rates reflect the larger economic climate in the Region. Rate is 2009 and 2010 mirror the recession of the early 1990s."

(Toronto's Vital Signs ® 2011)

Serve assists at-risk youth in going back to school or finding work. This is done through our curriculum, 'on-the-job' experience through community service, career development and employment readiness, and leadership development strategies.

92% of Serve youth achieve their goals and continue with their high school education, enter post-secondary education or find employment (i.e. 100% of younger youth and 83% of older youth).

Participant Vignette

Serve's programs have such a positive impact on so many of our young people that have been exposed to less fortunate life circumstances. Two of our graduates from the Making It Work program 2011 had this to say about their experience:

Vision of mission

One summer can change your life. A mission with SERVE set this vision on me. I participated in the “Making It Work” program. It was one of the most life-changing programs I have ever been in. From the beginning of the program it was an adventure. It was an adventure to know the unknown, to see the unseen. It was a journey to explore my gifts and talents, a discovery of ourselves and people around us, and to anchor in a treasure island of future.

Different projects and workshops were so effective and innovative to build a healthy youth community and to build a better world. The seniors` program, the Furniture Bank project and making a newcomer youth website made us experience about the real job world. Y.E.S. (Youth Employment Services) helped us to build a better resume and to improve our job searching skills. Workshops on self-innovations and real life topics were an eye opener to see the life in more optimistic ways. The boat tour (at Harbourfront), and rope climbing with team members was amazing.

What if I did not participate in the program? I would miss a world of opportunities. I would not know that there are lot of unveiled supports for us. I would never know that I can change myself with some motivation and inspiration. The life would not change its colour. The world would not be a beautiful place to live.

I am really proud of myself that I completed the six week program. I want to thank the facilitators, the sponsors and the project members to help me to come closer to my dreams.

By: Farah T. (August, 2011)

__________________________________________

Since I joined the Serve program , I strongly feel that it has somewhat had a positive impact in my life. For one, if this program didn't exist or I wasn't accepted I believe that my summer would have been wasted. I feel like I gained skills that I need that can help me during life , especially as I go into college.

It has helped me find a voice in me I didn't know I had. When I say voice I mean being able to speak out in a group of people I don't know. Starting college soon that's definitely something that I would need. It has also taught me a lot about myself.

Most importantly this program has taught me patience. It also shows you the realness of the work field, the key to succeeding in this program in my opinion would be to treat it as if it was a job. Always coming on time and come with a positive attitude, be willing to open your mind to new things. I believe I got the skills I needed to be able to apply myself to a job , and get it ! It wasn't only about work, the places and fun times we got to experience is something I will take away with me. If I had the opportunity to do it again I would.

By: Latoya M. (August, 2011)