Youth Empowerment and Support Services (YESS)’ Youth Support Centre is a 24/7, single-point-of-access to immediate and low-barrier physical, mental, cultural, and emotional health supports and a safe place to stay for youth aged 15-21 who are experiencing crisis in the Edmonton Metro Area. The Youth Support Centre also hosts Monday to Friday Resource and Health Hubs with physical and mental health clinics and youth-supporting resources to ensure youth 15-24 get the help they need, when they need it, and where they need it—in their community.
Our focus is on building strong collaborations with our Youth Agency Collaboration partners to leverage what each of us does best, to create more effective processes, outcomes, and opportunities for youth.
Mission
Mission
Collaboratively build a network of care to ensure youth get the expert help they need, when they need it, and where they need it.
Vision
A more connected, holistic, and lower-barrier system for youth in crisis.
Values
Courage to be honest, vulnerable, and curious.
Connection with ourselves and everyone to establish trust, empathy, and understanding.
Commitment to lead with intention, to make a meaningful difference, and be accountable in all we do.
2024-2029 Strategic Plan
Our History
We are so proud to be part of the Edmonton community for over 40 years! On September 1, 1981, YESS was officially incorporated after years of work from the community in Bonnie Doon.
Over the years we have moved from the crisis focus of emergency shelter to a prevention focus that provides everything from shelter to resources to trauma support. We even changed our name to Youth Empowerment and Support Services in 2012.
What has stayed constant is the importance of community in our mission to walk beside youth on their journeys towards healing.
Thank you to our partner agencies, board members, donors, volunteers, and wider community for collaborating with us over the years! And thank you to the youth who are courageously seizing their goals and their futures in our programs.
2023-2024 Annual Report
We are so grateful to have our community with us as we embark on an era of change at YESS.
Throughout our 43 years, YESS has embraced the spirit of evolution and continuous improvement to be able to provide youth with the help they need when they need it and where they need it. We have transformed from an overnight emergency shelter to being a collaborative partner in a community of youth care leveraging more than 30 youth agencies.
In 2018, we created an in-house trauma and mental health support program with our Wellness Integration team of psychologists and support practitioners. In 2021, YESS restructured our overnight shelter program to 24/7 access. In 2023, we moved our daytime primary medical care clinic, navigation staff, and resources from the Armoury Resource Centre to our Whyte Ave building to share space with our 24/7 crisis intervention and stabilization program and reduce barriers to access for youth, creating our first Youth Support Centre.
I am so proud of our staff for their expertise, innovation, and leadership. The strength of the relationships they have built with youth, with our fellow youth-serving organizations, and with our community of support have brought YESS to where it is today.
One thing that has stayed constant over these 43 years is the positive impacts we can have on youth when we all work together. Thank you so much for continuing to advocate for youth!
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Awards
Lieutenant Governor’s Circle on Mental Health and Addiction
The Circle’s True Awards are presented to those demonstrating commitment, passion, and ingenuity in reducing stigma and improving lives of those affected by mental illness and addiction.
YESS was awarded the Circle’s True Imagination Award 2022 for our Cohort Transitional Residence Pilot Project.
True imagination and innovation in mental health and addiction services are the cornerstone of this category. The YESS Cohort Independent Residence Pilot Project was created both as a direct response to the COVID-19 pandemic and a known lack of transitional residence in Edmonton’s current youth housing system. This pilot program was funded by Homeward Trust for one year to provide “family cohort” style living for 73 youth and allowed them to be unmasked and not socially distanced in their cohorts. The program was also designed by youth to help them identify what skills they need to work on as they transition into more independence. This program was highly successful in helping more than 40 youth transition to more independent housing and helping the other 33 youth understand what further support they need in building resilience. This unique, youth-designed model proved to be a key element needed in the support system for youth experiencing crisis and housing instability.
Queen Elizabeth II Platinum Jubilee Medal
YESS is so honoured to see our President & CEO, Margo Long, nominated for the Queen Elizabeth Platinum Jubilee Medal for her dedication and service to Alberta. To have this nomination come from Rachel Notley, MLA for our neighbourhood in Edmonton-Strathcona, is particularly meaningful and reflects the impact Margo’s leadership has had in our community.
Margo has served as the President & CEO of YESS for five years and in that time has grown our organization to become truly visionary in our scope for the ways we support youth who access our programs. Bringing our focus to the healing of trauma and integration back into community has allowed us to address the root causes of crisis and homelessness that youth face. In the past years of the pandemic, Margo empowered the leaders at YESS to become even more innovative, to try new programs and structures to meet youth where they were at in this truly unprecedented time. As we start to feel safer in looking ahead to the future, we are truly excited to have Margo’s enormous sense of vision, empathy, and bravery at the heart of this journey.