Grants and Contributions

Over the next five years, Windsor Essex Child/Youth Advocacy Centre will deliver services to children/youth and families/caregivers impacted by abuse by providing one location for an Advocate and all community partners to collaborate. This coordinated approach allows law enforcement, child protection workers, counselling and medical services to systematically minimize trauma and make a positive difference in the lives of many children/youth and their families.

The organization will provide a comfortable and safe child-friendly environment for children and youth who are victims of abuse and help them navigate the criminal justice system. The project will also ensure the well-being and resiliency of the multi-disciplinary team members, by offering trauma training and professional development opportunities.

Over the next five years, the project will develop and pilot services at the Beacon House Child and Youth Advocacy Centre in London Ontario. The Centre will be a multidisciplinary service to address the needs of child and youth victims and/or witnesses as they navigate the criminal justice system, thereby minimizing system-induced trauma by providing a single, child-friendly setting for young victims or witnesses and their families seeking services.

Over the next five years, this project will deliver ongoing services to children, youth and families thereby minimizing system-induced trauma by providing a single, child-friendly setting for young victims or witnesses and their families seeking services. The project includes expanding services to provide support to children and youths of all forms of violence.

Abbotsford Restorative Justice and Advocacy Association’s pilot project entitled “Rising Together: Reimagining the Referral System for Restorative Justice in Abbotsford” will conduct community engagement activities to revamp their referral system and mentorship program for justice-involved youth. An Advisory Group will be put in place to oversee and support the whole process, with the goal of implementing a new restorative justice program that is more youth centered.

The National Youth Justice Network (NYJN) provides regular networking and professional development opportunities for leaders and front-line workers in youth justice across the country. Through this funding, the NYJN will contribute to increased knowledge and understanding of the operation of the youth justice system across jurisdictions, advocate and support practices that reduce the rate of re-contact with the youth justice system, and address the overrepresentation of Indigenous youth, youth from racialized communities, youth with mental health disorders and youth experiencing homelessness.

Finally, it will help the youth who participate in this program to improve their self-esteem, enable them to express a sense of “musical identity”, and prevent their future recidivism.

More specifically, this program will provide counselling upon youth being released, harness the ability to connect with local agencies that provide trauma and mental health services, and facilitate holistic case management support that is culturally responsive and helps youth to re-engage with their community.

Through the “Youth Crime Prevention and Recidivism in Civil Society (YCPR) program”, Peer Mediation And Skills Training (PMAST) will develop and implement a community-based program focusing on preventing youth criminal activity and reducing recidivism.

The “Youth Reintegration Program” is a pilot project that will provide evidence-based case management support to youth in conflict with the law in the Regional Municipality of York. The program will specifically target justice-involved Indigenous, Black, and other racialized youth by providing them with reintegration support to reduce their recidivism.