Young people are developmentally working to define their own identity and purpose and connections. Finding purpose and meaning in the world is a large concept that our youth do not always have capacity to delve into in their time with us; however, for those who are connected or building that connection, we want to foster their curiosity, experimentation, and beliefs so that they can feel safe to explore themselves within the larger world.

Tell us about yourself and your position at YESS!

My name is Josephine Irabor. I’m oiginally from Nigeria, West African. I came to Canada in December 1991. I am blessed with 4 great children, one girl and three boys. They are my light in this huge and challenging world. I started my position with YESS in January of 2023 as a relief youth support worker.

At YESS, we have four pillars to support holistic wellness and success: physical wellbeing, mental wellbeing, emotional wellbeing, and cultural/spiritual wellbeing. How do we define cultural/spiritual wellbeing at YESS?

For our youth, cultural and spiritual wellbeing starts with education and understanding of who and what communities they are connected to and how they make sense of the world.  Young people are developmentally working to define their own identity and purpose and connections, and we want to create an environment where cultural and spiritual practices are role-modelled, as well as available and accessible. 

We have youth who come from a diverse background, from diverse communities, and we strive to ensure that we are giving space for them to grow their value system and to value who they are, where they come from and where they are going. 

How does YESS offer culturally/spiritually relevant support for youth?

YESS is committed to helping youths access cultural resources. This includes resources for immigrants, refugees, Indigenous people, and 2SLGBTQIA+ people. We can help the with finding a religious or cultural group or place of worship, obtaining treaty status, connecting with their band or Elders, attending ceremonies or traditional activities, or any other sort of connection to culture or a culture of interest to them. The YESS Cultural Coordinator gets youth connected through food, art, and even educational movies. The goal here is to create a safe space without appropriation, instead teaching appreciation.

Cultural programming such as painting, crafts, beading, Cree classes, Land Connections, and a space where they can come take what they need for medicine or crystals and connect to what they need to practice their culture and spirituality to is also provided. There is a particular place in the Whyte building call the Wellness Integration Room. If a youth isn’t connected to their culture and is interested in exploring their identity, or if a youth is connected to their culture and wants to express it, this will be the space for that.

The kitchen also plays a huge part in in the cultural/spiritual wellbeing of the youth, in teams of the different cultural foods they provide. Some of the youth have taken part to learn and prepared meals of their culture. Youth in the supportive housing program Graham’s Place can cook for themselves have groceries of their choice provided and they get to cook their cultural meals. There are occasions where one of the YESS chefs takes youth shopping in their preferred cultural shops. How awesome is that!

How do you see the impact and ripple effects of these kinds of supports?

The impact of these kinds of supports is phenomenal. Most of the youth who access YESS leave home without having learned anything about their culture, especially in the area of food. The joy and the satisfaction you see on the faces of the youth that participant in learning to prepare meals from their culture is fulfilling. One of the ripple effects of this kind of support is that youth connect to community, culture, history, identity, faith, and above all, family/roof while away from home. This then results in a sense of belonging.

What is one thing you wish the community knew about youth who access YESS?

They are all looking for one and the same thing: to be seen as individuals. This mean that one size dose not fit all. They are not to be stereotyped. Each youth should be treated according to their needs.

Parents often run through several “nightmare” scenarios in their heads when they cannot communicate with their child: one of the worst possibilities is that their child is missing. The mental pathways and fears that come up are fuel to an already anxiety-driven situation. As a mother myself, I have lived through the fears and the pain and the confusion and the desperation that parents go through when a child is missing. Nothing short of seeing my child in person, hugging them and telling them I love them will quell those feelings.

In 2023, over 4000 individuals (including youth) were reported as missing in Edmonton. No single agency, Edmonton Police Service (EPS) department, or social services has the capacity to respond to and find over 4000 individuals in a year. That’s why we ask for collaboration with agencies, partners, parents, teachers, friends, and family members. When we are all looking together, we are more successful at finding and supporting the young person who is missing.

Process is the most important part of a collaborative effort to find someone who is missing.

EPS has an online toolkit/checklist for parents whose children are missing. This document is a place for you to understand the process, take notes and be active in the investigation:

• Evaluation
  • EPS will begin with asking if the parents/family members have checked their usual hangouts, friends’ houses, where they were last seen, who has been contacted and information around what happened leading up to their disappearance.
• Risk Assessment
  • Once it is established that a youth is missing, EPS will go through a risk assessment on the individual situation and determine what work and collaboration is needed. Highest priority will be for youth who are struggling with mental illness, anyone with a form of dementia, and other high-risk factors that will activate EPS to go out and immediately patrol for the youth.
• Investigation
  • If not a high-risk, then the missing persons department is activated, and a full investigation begins. Here, a team will look at covering a checklist of places and people that youth might be accessing, including using social media and phone tracking for support.
  • If a youth is still missing, then posters and news releases will be launched to widen the search and activate the community to be on the look out. The investigation will still continue alongside this community work; the net of support and activate participants simply grows.
• Collaboration
  • When it comes to youth who are considered missing, there is an entire system of agencies and staff members who are dedicated to immediate action and support.
  • Schools, social services agencies, shelters, EPS, and Edmonton Transit Service (ETS) are all notified of youth that are considered missing. We are all put on alert to look out for and collaborate with youth who are listed as missing.
  • EPS has an entire youth division branch that works with agencies like YESS to share and collaborate on information regarding missing youth. We share updates on sightings, access to programs or resources, and EPS does regular patrols to ensure that they are around if a youth or agency needs them.

What happens at YESS?

When we are notified of a youth who is missing and their circumstances, we activate our staff to be vigilant for sightings. We ask around if any other youth have seen them and we collaborate with fellow youth-serving agencies to ensure that we are communicating when someone has access to the youth.

And the work doesn’t stop after a youth is found. We continue to work together to ensure that both family and the young person are supported in their reconciliation and given the tools needed to access to help reduce the likelihood of the young person going missing again.

Our goal at YESS is to establish communication and connection with the young person so we can understand what happened, how we can resolve the situation and also how we can move forward with new tools and supports to prevent this from happening in the future.

As a parent, it is hard to be hit with all the emotions and fears that come from a youth who is missing. If I could share one message with those parents, I would say that there is always hope. Hope comes in the form of an entire community of people who care, who listen, who understand, and who are activated in the search. It comes in the form of a process that involves you and supports you and is working on your behalf. Emotions and anxiety can create panic and urgency and fear, and we are here to help you navigate through them and find the hope again. Because there is always hope!

There are always people who are willing to help and connect and be activated. Parents are not alone, and youth are not alone.

What is “shelter”?

As humans, we tend to use language to describe hard things in a way that is both easy and digestible.

Shelter has been the easiest word to describe the complex support that individuals experiencing houselessness need. It is easy for us to think that the answer to not having shelter is to provide shelter.  It is also easy to use shelter as the umbrella term to connect services across a large sector and make it easier to fund, explain, or support.

But the truth is that “shelter” is not easy. The general understanding is that shelters function as a transition from “early intervention work” into “community integration work/housing”; a holding place until more specific or permanent services or support can be found; and also synonymous with “emergency” or “last resort” support.

People who actually access shelter and those supports have been shouting for years that they want change within the shelter system—especially young people!

In 2017, YESS and other youth-serving agencies started to collaborate to understand the barriers that exist for youth who are in the “shelter cycle” and find themselves moving from agency to agency. In our research, it was very clear that youth do not feel safe or accommodated or productive in “shelters.” At YESS, with our mission to focus on root causes rather than symptoms, this was important information for how to stabilize youth and support their goals in a way that is sustainable.

We listened and progressed our programming from overnight shelter to a 24/7 sleep shelter and eventually into our Youth Support Centre model we are working within now.

What are the limitations of “shelter” when working with youth?

Working with youth means having only a short time period to affect positive change in their lives. It means working alongside emotional changes, developmental growth, and also traumatic experiences and responses. It is complex work trying to understand young people who do not yet understand themselves.

“Shelter” models do not really help or support this complexity. Youth need to learn so much in this short time and that learning has to start with understanding how their body is responding to trauma (When is it safe for them to sleep? When is it safe to eat?) and then try to shift their body’s needs to a “normal” rhythm that allows them to thrive within the larger community. Youth cannot keep a job or attend school if they are too afraid to sleep at night. Youth cannot focus on communicating and problem solving if they are afraid and unable to stabilize their thoughts or feelings. Youth cannot move through an addiction if the addiction is somehow making them feel safe or better than their baseline state. YESS understands these daily complexities and we moved away from the shelter model to address them.

What is the Youth Support Centre?

When youth are in their most vulnerable crisis state, they are scared and hurt and angry and desperate for help and safety. Our Youth Support Center provides a safe space for youth in any level of crisis to come and breathe and stabilize themselves.

We focus on helping them feel welcomed and safe before we launch into the more complex work of determining if they are needing crisis de-escalation work, stabilization development, or regulation work for life skills development.

We also help them navigate where it is safest for them to do this work: back home with support, in a placement that meets their needs, in a treatment facility that will help them, or in supportive housing options.

Our staff are experts at working with youth who are entrenched in their trauma responses and experiencing larger crisis moments, and the staff have the skills and processes to be able to wrap around the youth holistically (meeting their physical, mental, spiritual/cultural, and emotional needs).

When youth access YESS, our staff:

• give them back their dignity and autonomy and control when it was taken from them
• show them the possibilities of what they can achieve and where they can move their lives towards
• support them in healing the relationships that may have been damaged from the crisis and trauma responses
• help them believe that their lives matter

Moving away from the shelter model also allows YESS to be better partners with our fellow youth-serving agencies. It allows us the opportunity to:

• better communicate on behalf of youth
• provide warmer hand-offs between agencies
• work together to ensure the youth are supported together
• helping the agencies do their best work and not have to focus on/anticipate/fear the historical behaviours or actions of a youth

Youth are more than their behaviour and they need time and space and dignity to heal from experiences that are hard to heal from.

Shelter is always needed—people need a place out of the weather and they need resources that are low-barrier to access and they need a safe space to sleep. Our young people need so much more than this and they shouldn’t have to work harder to access those complex supports. It’s time to evolve our supports, in the same way that youth evolve their needs and their possibilities.

Frequently Asked Questions

What happens when a youth first comes to YESS?

When a youth first comes to YESS, we have a 3-step intake process:

• Consent – immediate

The purpose of this step, which is conducted immediately upon arrival of the youth at YESS, is to understand why the youth has come in and ensure that the youth understands their rights and responsibilities if they are to participate in the program. Formal consent is needed to access services and program expectations are defined. Preliminary demographic information is gathered and an initial set of questions is asked to determine what immediate actions may need to be taken to address immediate needs (this could include food, clothing, harm reduction supplies, medication, medical or mental health support). If the youth requires a place to sleep, a stabilization bed is provided (subject to availability).

• Context – first 24 hours

This occurs within 24 hours of the youth arriving at the Youth Support Centre. Further questions are asked about the youth’s ability to meet their basic needs and whether there are specific risk factors that may need to be addressed (e.g., self-harm, substance use, harm to others, unsafe sex). Depending on the answers to the questions, additional actions are identified. Further inquiries are made related to the youth’s strengths, needs, abilities, preferences, and perception of risk (SNAPP).

• Baseline – first 2-7 days

The purpose of this step, conducted within 2-7 days of arrival, is to better understand what the youth has (e.g., debit card, bus pass, birth certificate, bank account, provincial ID), and what the youth knows how to do (e.g., access public transit, access food in the community, use and access the internet, access family medical services). Depending on the answers to these questions, specific goals are set that identify what the youth should do next. Referrals are made to assist the youth with the next step of their journey. Staff will follow up with the youth to see if commitments are being kept.

What programs are offered at YESS?

• 24/7 crisis intervention and stabilization
  • Youth ages 15-21
  • 24/7 intake and crisis stabilization
  • 16 emergency beds
  • 8 transitional beds
  • Holistic assessment and entry into connected communities of care
• Daytime resources and services
  • Youth ages 15-24
  • Monday-Friday access
  • Onsite medical clinic
  • Onsite mental health clinic (YESS Wellness Integration Team and CASA Mental Health)
  • Housing connections
  • Cultural and identity supports
  • Programming, arts, and recreation
  • Life and wellbeing skills development

Are you the guardian of the youth? Do you take over as parents?

No, we are not legal guardians for the youth.

To be a legal guardian is a role firmly under the Government of Alberta Children’s Services branch and it is determined through court processes. There are several types of guardianship: temporary guardianship, permanent guardianship, enhanced support, and financial support. These are often determined in relation to the work and capacity of the parents and is a complex process.

So if you’re not guardians or parents, how do youth stay at YESS? Who gives them permission to stay?

At YESS, we serve youth ages 15-21 in our 24/7 crisis stabilization access, and youth ages 15-24 in our daytime access to resources. When a youth is 15, by law, we must have parental or guardian consent for them to access our programs and services. This means that when a 15-year-old youth comes to our services, we have to call their parents or guardian in order for them to stay. When a youth turns 16, they are able to consent to services on their own. This does not mean they can legally sign all contracts (driver’s licenses, leases, or financial contracts), however they can consent to being in a space, receiving services, and accessing the beds and programming.

Do you talk to parents or involve them? Why can’t you just send them home?

We involve parents as much as possible with the youth and work holistically to build up healthy relationships in the young person’s life. We take the youth’s lead on who they are consenting for us to share detailed information with and do our best to support transparent communication with parents where needed. Much of our work is helping to reassure parents that the youth are safe and supported, while simultaneously working with the youth to open channels of communication on their own with parents.

We can’t send youth home unless it is safe and appropriate for them to be there. It can depend on what court orders are in place, the safety of all people involved in the home and for the youth as well. When we do have the opportunity to problem solve with parents and youth and support their return home, we continue to follow up and ensure that safety is maintained and pathways when it is not are open and available!

I love my kid, my home is safe—why are they choosing to stay at YESS?

There are lots of complex reasons why a youth may leave home, none of which are based on a lack of love or connection with their family members. Returning home requires not just for the youth to work on themselves but also for family members to work on themselves as well.

When a family member leaves the home environment, it is never going to stay the same. Work has to be done by both parents and siblings and other family members to help evolve themselves and their environment, alongside the work needed to be done with the youth (as an individual). As family dynamics change and evolve and heal, then youth and families can reconnect. Sometimes this work happens quickly and sometimes this takes more time.

Can I have a tour to see what the Youth Support Centre looks like?

Our spaces are not open to the public for tours. We understand that seeing the physical space where we work with youth can help give you a picture of what happens at YESS, but our building is a 24/7 active program space for youth experiencing crisis. First and foremost, we must create a space that is safe for youth through boundaries, predictability, and respect for confidentiality. At this time, hosting tours is at odds with our mission and day-to-day work.

The YESS Executive Leadership team is excited to welcome a new and critical member to the YESS team. Joyce LaBriola is YESS’ first Chief Development Officer. This role has been created to help YESS achieve its bold vision to provide better and lasting outcomes for Edmonton youth in crisis. Her proven track record of providing valuable insights, results and strategic impact, will benefit YESS as an organization and the many youth we help each year.

Joyce has been an advocate for youth and social justice, a community builder, and an experienced leader throughout her impressive working life. She has decided to return to Edmonton to contribute to our mission and vision after serving as the Executive Director of the Los Angeles Youth Orchestra in Los Angeles, California. Joyce’s career spans two decades with leadership roles in the sports industry (the NHL’s Edmonton Oilers, the CFL’s Edmonton Elks, the ECHL’s Phoenix RoadRunners, and the ECHL League Office), the arts world (Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, the Winspear Centre for Music, the Citadel Theatre, and the Los Angeles Youth Orchestra), and the non-profit sector (HIV Edmonton, Unusual Suspects Theatre Company).

In addition to her professional work, Joyce founded the Artists for Life Foundation in 2009, an Edmonton-based volunteer-run non-profit organization with the mission of advocating for those affected by HIV/AIDS, those who identify as 2SLGBTQIA+, and vulnerable and marginalized populations while celebrating the philanthropic spirit of the arts. She was selected as one of Avenue Magazine’s “Top 40 Under 40” in 2012 and has been celebrated for her work in community engagement in Edmonton Woman Magazine and MUSE Music. Joyce has been awarded many honors, such as the National Philanthropy Day Award by the Association for Fundraising Professionals (AFP) and won the Imperial Sovereign Court of the Wild Rose’s Jean Lawson Award for her advocacy work. In addition, Joyce was nominated for the John Poole Promotion of the Arts Award and the YWCA Women of Distinction Award in the Arts and Culture category. As a leader in her field, Joyce was appointed to the City of Edmonton’s WAVE (Women’s Advocacy Voice of Edmonton) Committee and was named as a You Can Play Ambassador representing Western Canada. Joyce is a graduate of Rider University/Westminster Choir College and spent her entire life on the musical theatre stage. She is a professional musician, writing and performing her own work, as well as singing with Edmonton Opera and the South Pasadena Arts and Music Academy.

We are fortunate to have Joyce as a part of our leadership team and we are excited to benefit from all she has to bring! I look forward to our YESS community of support getting to meet her in the near future!

Corey Mowles
President & CEO
Youth Empowerment and Support Services

Tell us about yourself and your position at YESS!

Hi! My name is Marc Majeau, and I’m a Development Officer with Youth Empowerment and Support Services. I’ve been with YESS since 2022.

You do presentations at schools and empower their giving initiatives. How are school-age youth part of the community that supports the youth who access YESS?

When I’m speaking to students of any age, I let them know that you never really know who is struggling. It could be someone they sit beside on the bus, at lunch, or a classmate. You never know what your neighbor might be going through.

Do you have any remarkable experiences you could share from how schools and students have stepped up to support youth in their community?

I gave a presentation to a junior high in Morinville, and the students were absolutely captivated when I explained to them how much food YESS goes through in a year. When you see some of those numbers, it’s quite staggering. After the presentation, they did a month-long campaign, collecting items for the YESS pantry. When they delivered at the end, it was boxes upon boxes of snacks, about double what they were expecting to collect.

What is one thing you wish the community knew about youth who access YESS?

They’re just kids. We’ve all been one. We know how hard it can be to be sixteen years old (even in the best of circumstances!). People that age shouldn’t have to worry about where they are going to sleep, eat, and shower.