Life at YESS

Since the beginning of the pandemic, there has been a huge importance of safety in YESS programs, following health and safety guidelines that created physical safety in an unprecedented time. Of course, physical safety has always been a priority of YESS programs as we provide access to basic needs like shelter, food, clothing, etc. We also have an aspect of providing safety that is less immediately, but no less important. We also have an aspect of providing safety that is just as immediate and important as physical safety: we have to create a sense of “felt safety” for the youth, so they trust us to help them with their trauma. This critical work comes from a focus on building healthy relationships and trust, that they will feel safe in our programs.

Director of Program Innovation, Jessica Day, answers some questions about both kinds of safety, how important they have been in the pandemic world, and how we evolve practices that continue to meet youth where they are at.

Tell us about the current day-to-day realities of YESS programs, a year into the pandemic?

We are open and we are available, and we are adapting to meet the youth needs. That’s been the motto of YESS since the pandemic started and we continue to be predictable and adaptable for the youth and with the youth as it continues on. Every day, in every capacity, our youth are mandated to wear masks, socially distance, and comply with regulations. Their world is smaller now because all their safe spaces (not just agencies but homes, families, friends, buildings) are all closed to them and they have no access to any sort of reprieve. Groups and activities that helped motivate them are slowly coming, but the constantly changing AHS restrictions are creating instability for the youth. At YESS we are watching and listening to the youth as they adapt to their new world and we are trying our best to respond to their new needs. A pandemic does not slow down the need for youth to be supported as they transition through trauma—it increases! Family violence and domestic disruptions are a real and intense side-effect of the pandemic world and we have new youth who cannot “hide” at school or in day programs or avoid home life at the rec center or a friend’s house. So at YESS, we immediately responded by opening our doors and allowing youth space to exist and spend their day in safety. A year later, we are now starting to adapt our programs to focus on the life skills, self awareness, and community integration work we had in place before the pandemic. Why? Because our youth do not want to sit still. They are tired and drained and mentally unwell in this pandemic and, sadly, many of them are hitting rock bottom as they simply exist. Youth need hope and purpose and possibility in order to keep moving forward and this disappeared as the pandemic grew. We are now opening up the Armoury Resource Centre to focus on accessing community resources and building up trust with the community supports. We opened our sleep shelter to be a 24/7 sleep shelter where youth can come and go as they need sleep, and not be restricted to sleeping within set hours. And we are opening up transitional homes that focus on introducing youth to case planning, goal setting, and creating environments of growth.

What particular practices are used in YESS programs to create a safe environment for youth?

What set us apart in the pandemic was the immediate and non-negotiable approach for staff and youth to comply with AHS protocols. We were open and honest and consistent with our approach and it worked. Having already spent many years focusing on building trust and relationships, we were able to receive compliance from the youth with very little struggle. The youth understood, very quickly, that there were very few places left open to them with the pandemic closures and our overnight shelter and our daytime resource center adapted immediately to meet their needs. We opened to cover 24 hours between the two spaces, and this allowed the youth a reliable and predictable space to exist. Now, we are focusing on adjusting our programs again to help our youth have more than a place to exist, but a place to build hope and possibility again. We are showing them that it is possible to believe they can thrive, to have hope they can get out of this existence, and create space for them to have self-awareness and confidence. Whether is it space to complete school online, space to build up independent life skills, or space to practice their culture and spirituality, we have morphed back into the programming that our youth are asking for. These practices were in place before the pandemic but now, the youth are more motivated. And the need is even greater.

We now have a 24/7 sleep space at the Nexus Overnight Shelter that is open to the youth, whenever they need it, as often as they need it. The drop-in approach to sleep has given our youth the safe space to sleep when they need it most, not when it’s expected of them. Some kids need to sleep for 2-3 days to catch up with the amount of sleep they are missing. Youth are trying to survive and stay alive to stay safe, and we are gently telling them it’s okay to sleep and rest. And it’s working because when the youth get the sleep they need, they are more motivated to achieve their goals.

We also opened up a Cohort Living space that gives youth an individual room and an individual cohort within which they can unmask and breathe. Youth need social interaction and peer support, as much as they need resources, and this cohort space allows them to reconnect with similar youth and have those home-like interactions that were missing in the restrictions. Now they can unmask to watch TV, or cook together, or complete work together, just as our community does.

What is the difference between safety and “felt safety”?

Safety focuses on being protected from harm or hazards. To be safe, we implement processes and protocols and tools that will prevent accidents, exposures, or harmful situations. Every home and organization and workplace has safety protocols to help avoid injury or various levels of risk—fire extinguishers, eye washing stations, first aid kits, drills or alarms, etc. These are necessary to help individuals feel safe and protected from potential risks and allows them the capacity to do their work or live feeling protected.

“Felt safety” is subjective: it focuses on creating an environment where an individual feels safe, but is not necessarily physically safe. For our youth, who are in survival mode, where they “feel safe” is not necessarily a safe and appropriate environment. They are lacking trust that adults will “take care of them” or “keep them safe and protected” and yet, instinctively and developmentally, they need to be taken care of. When a youth is traumatized, what feels safe changes for them. “Felt safety” is built on emotional and psychological trust. When we are feeling unsafe, we are scared and anxious and fearful and our bodies are in a tense state of survival. For those who are on healthy developmental trajectories, we can recover and adapt quickly to feeling unsafe and manipulate our bodies and spaces to align with our sense of trust and our well-being. Our youth, who are traumatized and not on a healthy trajectory, adapt in unhealthy ways and manipulate environments and their bodies to align with their broken sense of trust and well-being.

To truly create a sense of “felt safety” for youth, staff, or community members, we have to follow our trauma-informed care framework. We have to be predictable, consistent, and transparent. Our policies, protocols, interactions, and expectations have to be non-judgemental and tailored to what each individual youth is feeling or needing. “Felt safety” is NOT universal: it is unique to each person. Therefore, we have to be open and honest and empathetic to the youth and their individual experiences. As “felt safety” is subjectively emotional and psychological, we have to give space and compassion to each youth as they define, redefine, and comprehend their own safety.

If we want to truly walk beside the youth as they transition through their trauma, we have to establish safety on both levels. They have to learn and trust that we will keep them safe from harm and risks, even if self-induced. They have to learn and trust that we empathize with their survival mode and mental health needs, even if dark and heavy. They have to learn and trust that we will be open and available for them when they need us, whether for sleep, mental health support, food, basic needs, independence, or pandemic reprieve.

Trauma broke their trust and took away their safety. We have to work to help them build it back.

What is one thing you wish the community knew about the work being done at YESS?

I wish the community knew how scary and hard this pandemic has been for our youth. They have had no reprieve from the mandated restrictions, no safe space to take off the mask and reset themselves. Their world has closed in on them; jobs are gone, school is gone, families are not stable, agencies are closing down or restricting services, the community is in lockdown, and they are not safe or really welcome in the adult homelessness sector. They are scrambling to find hope and purpose in a world that is already difficult and full of barriers.

I wish the community understood that YESS is working tirelessly to support the youth and adapt our programs, but we are not alone. Collaboration is no longer an idea that may work to help reduce barriers, but a necessity to surviving this pandemic. We are working with other agencies to align our available services and create a network of support and open the world of hope, trust, and potential back up for our youth.

We need the community to remember that they are a really important part of the youth’s success. I know the pandemic has made it hard. We are restricted into our individual bubbles and our scope of empathy is focused on our own families and our own circumstances. Now, more than ever, we need to remember that we ARE a community. That we need each other and the only way to survive the pandemic and restore trust and faith in our future is to collaborate, connect, and find ways to be compassionate as a whole. Whether it’s donating money to support our work, reaching out to find ways to virtually support, or whether it’s shining kindness and empathy on new people in our neighbourhoods… we have to come together and heal together in order to thrive together.

Hello everyone, and welcome to May!

This month’s newsletter theme is safety—one of the key principles of trauma-informed care. Safety is an incredibly important focus at YESS and it is at the forefront of our minds as we experience a third wave and all of its fallout in our communities. Safety is not just focusing on emergency procedures or proper handling of things that can cause harm. In trauma-informed care, safety and “felt safety” is created with predictability, consistency, and honesty. When we create safety, we build trust. We show that we value the humans we are influencing or looking out for, and we show that we can be trusted to do what we say we are going to do. This issue highlights an interview with Director of Program Innovation and creator of our Trauma Programming, Jessica Day, describing the concepts of safety and “felt safety” in our programs. We spotlight our new Manager of Operations, Darin Maxwell, and donor friends, James Flett and Judith Dyck. Our Community Spotlight features the Sexual Assault Centre of Edmonton (SACE) and an interview with Meital Siva-Jain, their Diversity, Inclusion, and Community Initiatives Team Lead. And last, but not at all least we have another incredible recipe for breakfast tostados from YESS Chef Tiffany.

Stay safe out there, folks, and take care of each other.

Read the May Newsletter here

In the fall of 2020, youth accessing the Armoury Resource Centre during the day started to express interest for a quiet, sacred place where they could specifically begin to explore their spirituality, reconnect with their religion, and have a space to be able to smudge and pray. Programming Coordinator Shantell Martineau was there to collaborate with various aspects of YESS programs to meet that need.

“Youth wanted to learn how to meditate or practice box breathing. When I met with clients to go over cultural connection pieces or medicines and how to use smudging, that was when I knew we needed a space that could be more of a sacred exploration room where one can have privacy,” says Shantell. Part of Shantell’s work with youth is providing cultural connections. Shantell an Indigenous Plains Cree Woman from Frog Lake First Nation, Treaty 6 Territory.

In an unused room at the Armoury Resource Centre, the new Sacred Space was built. There room is inclusive of all religions and spiritualities, with resources for learning, prayer, meditation, ceremony, and culture. When Shantell first introduces youth to the space she explains that there’s no right or wrong way to connect with the space or the resources and encourages them to create a personal space there that meets their needs.

All youth have access to traditional medicines as a resource at YESS. At any time, regardless of nationality, if a youth would like support from medicines, they would meet with Shantell or ask a resource worker. Shantell works with them on what medicines they are looking for and how it is intended to be used.

“That room is where I’ll take youth if they are interested in a medicine bundle or a smudge ceremony pack. I’ll put it together, and then we’ll meet in that space and now that’s where I teach them the protocols of working with medicine and the intentions, and the cultural sacredness of that,” says Shantell. “So that was really the intention of that space, to give them a place that’s their own. Youth have found it feeling so inviting and peaceful and calming, which is what we wanted the space to be.”

The hope is that this space can also function for other programs, such as Wellness Integration. If a youth can find safety and empowerment in the Sacred Space, then that might become a good location for them to access therapy or other resources. The space has also proven to be a positive retreat for staff on their breaks, for their own quiet time or meditation.

“It’s really open to the staff and the youth because we’re all in this together. We’re all surviving a pandemic together and we all need spiritual healing and we need a sacred space,” says Shantell. “As staff, we have to mirror what we want. So if we want the youth to really start a healing journey, are we mirroring that? Are we using that type of language that, ‘Hey, I’m also struggling, and I tried meditation and it helped me.’”

Shantell has even more plans for the space in a post-pandemic world. “The Sacred Space would really be the room that I would invite Elders or Knowledge Keepers to come and visit and connect with us in that space, just because of its intentions and the healing that happens in that room. This space could be really anything that you need it to be. That’s what’s beautiful about it.”

Another driving force of creating the Sacred Space has been collaboration with D’orjay, The Singing Shaman. D’orjay first approached YESS about volunteer opportunities in the fall of 2019, seeking something she could do to help or support our youth. Since then, Shaman D’orjay has been offering healing sessions twice a month. The delivery of these resources has changed in the pandemic, but youth can still meet with her virtually. Through working with Shaman D’orjay, youth have found a foundation to feel empowered and how to practice that in their lives.

“It was from that experience that we saw the need to continue and say yes, this is a nice option for some of our youth who maybe don’t want to engage in therapy in the traditional sense, but who want to start a healing journey,” says Shantell.

Access to different modes of healing has also had a cultural impact on youth.

“Some of our Indigenous youth, they come out of sessions with Shaman D’orjay feeling, like, ‘Wow! I remember being taught this, that I can access energy. I remember being taught this,’” says Shantell. “That intergenerational piece of healing comes through and then I get to meet with them, and mirror their feeling of how quickly my teachings came back to me that I had as a child, and how my spirit felt ready to remember again.

“It’s really helped some of our youth reconnect with their culture, reconnect with the teachings that maybe Kokum passed on to them. They’ve had that pain around teaching that they didn’t want to connect to again. I totally get that. I’ve connected with some youth and I share that I feel that exact same way, that when you experience a loss of a huge cultural strength in the family, that the family does tend to give up those teachings, they give them up, they put them down for a little bit, just because the pain is too great to think about that, you know, to access the teaching. Working with Shaman D’orjay has really given some of our Indigenous youth the foundation to reach out to their culture.”

From meeting the current needs of youth on their individual journeys and in the pandemic, to providing an additional safe space that can be used for current and future programs, the new Sacred Space at the Armoury Resource Centre has provided a unique retreat that embodies what it means to walk beside youth on their journeys towards healing.

“What I’m trying to teach youth is that their sacredness is in them, and sometimes we need a quiet space to explore that. I’m really trying to empower them to look within, for their spiritual guidance, whatever that may be.”

Sleep is one of the most important parts of wellness, especially for youth. We talked to Marcia East, Trauma Practitioner, and Camiel Friend, Nexus Program Supervisor, about the ways that YESS provides safe spaces and resources that meet this important need for sleep.

Why is sleep so important for youth who access YESS?

Marcia: Sleep helps to fuel our brain and our body. Youth need more sleep because their bodies and minds are growing quickly. Scientific research shows that many of our youth do not get enough sleep. To be at our best, it is recommended that we get between 8 and 10 hours of sleep every day.

In deep REM sleep, our serotonin levels are renewed, which protects us against depression, and our cells have the opportunity to repair themselves. Sleep is like giving our body fuel. Sleep allows us to integrate short term memory into long term memory, aiding in learning and synaptic strengthening, making information more salient in the brain.

How do YESS programs create healthy sleeping environments?

Camiel: The Nexus Overnight Shelter offers sleep support in a few different ways. The most obvious way is the beds, clean bedding, and availability of safe space to sleep! Some youth have different barriers to sleep. This can be trauma, mental health, addictions, insomnia—a variety of reasons that it may be a struggle. We accommodate each individual’s needs on an individual basis. We have space for youth to self-regulate as well as trained youth workers there overnight to support as needed. We manage the program with safety always the main objective. It is important to offer a safe space for youth to sleep for many reasons. Sleep is something our bodies need in order to survive. Offering a safe space through the nighttime hours is imperative to youth in high-risk lifestyles. This is the most vulnerable time in someone’s day and can sometimes be the most difficult. Shelter at nighttime means a safe night.

Marcia: We only drift into deep, restorative sleep when we are feeling safe. When we are feeling unsafe our brain causes us to remain semi-alert for self-protection. Over a period of time, this can lead to psychological problems, such as distortion of reality. Unfortunately, many individuals, including youth, experience deprivation of sleep.

It is important that we provide the kind of environment for youth which facilitates deep sleep, as it regenerates the whole body, allowing us to operate at our best capacity.

Hello everyone,

April’s Newsletter theme is rest. While it seems obvious—that we all need rest—it is often the last thing we take for ourselves. Leaders, with huge responsibilities and priorities… need rest and a pause to recharge. Children and youth, who are growing their bodies and brains and learning how to relate to themselves and others… need rest. Rest is time for regrowth, rebuilding, and regeneration—A perfect focus for April as we wait so anxiously for our glorious Summer. In this issue, we hear from YESS Youth Workers about the importance of sleep and our new Sacred Space at the Armoury Resource Centre. We highlight our United Way Community Partners and give you a little glimpse into our staff celebration. Finally we shine our donor spotlight this month on our friend Louise Davis and we say thank you to our friends at Ron Hodgson.

I encourage you all to get some REST.

Throughout the course of the pandemic, it has been hugely important to us that there be minimal interruption to YESS programs. Not just shelter and food access, but also those programs that create spaces where youth can heal from trauma, such as our Interactive Art Program. We talked to Hollis Hunter, Artistic Programming Facilitator, about the impact this program has on youth on their journeys towards healing.

Sewing activities

Tell us about yourself and your position as the Artistic Programming Facilitator at YESS.

Hello! My name is Hollis Hunter. I graduated from the University of Alberta with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Spring 2020. My personal practice and research revolve around identity politics: I navigate the challenging and rewarding question of how to visually represent 2SLGBTQ+ identities, communities, bodies, and experiences. As the Artistic Programming Facilitator at YESS, I engage with our youth in daily creative activities and work behind-the-scenes to connect youth artists to broader arts opportunities.

Tell us about the objectives of the art program.

The primary goal of the art program is to be youth-led. I spend most of my time working through “How do I best meet youth requests?” and “How do I approach youth or make myself approachable so that they can make requests?” This is always fun because one youth starting a project always entices more to join. What the youth want to gain from the art program is what it needs to be providing. Every secondary goal, such as a consistent programming schedule, or regularly restocked supplies, is centered around this. You cannot be successful in helping youth without them participating or having their wants and needs met by the program.

Hot Dog Octopus sculpture

What is it about art that makes it a powerful medium for healing?

Art is a tool for building connections. Engaging in arts activities goes beyond “making things” to learning new skills, building relationships, communicating ideas and emotions, and holding mind-body connection. Access to art programming allows youth a new path to connect with support staff, each other, and broader communities and opportunities. The art program provides youth with a medium to cope with difficult life circumstances, earn supplemental income, create archival objects, and participate in meaningful large-scale collaborative projects.

I have kids participate that are currently high, in psychosis, or emotionally coping with crises in their life. They choose to sit down and funnel their energy into a physical action like writing or colouring, and often end up calm and controlled in their ongoing interactions. I get to write contact notes about dreams, passions, relationships, and talents onto youth files full of contact notes listing conflict, abuse, substance use, and authorities; this program gives youth the space to safely be themselves.

What have been any remarkable projects/experiences you’ve had so far in the program?

I am constantly astounded by our youth. Every day I get to learn about their character, experiences, and what they can do. Every time I take out a new medium or project, there are youth that I would never have expected to be interested in art, and the things they make are amazing. My favorite thing is when youth make things that are silly and less serious or focus on playing with materials and trying new things. One youth LOVED rock painting because they got to use the natural shape of the rocks to help decide what they wanted to turn them into. Another youth was getting help to patch their jeans, and I brought out sewing machines so that we could dive deeper into their fashion interests. Sewing art programming happened for nearly a month straight because a lot of youth were really into hand-sewing, machine sewing, and embroidering jeans, hats, bags, and cotton face masks. There is so much value in learning textile and sewing skills, because it helps us protect, embellish, and cherish our clothes.

Abstract work in progress

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

This question puzzled me at first because “community” is a broad term with lots of overlap. Youth who access YESS are part of countless broader social, spiritual, recreational, and school communities. No matter what difficult life circumstances our youth are facing, they bring their unique strengths and qualities with them. It is so important to recognize that we are all going through hardships, and that the best way to heal and grow is to make room for collective care. The more that I can show up and show care for our youth, the more they can show up for themselves and others. This is how we make sure that those of us who are surviving and hurting day-to-day have space to be safe, heal, and grow.

The Interactive Art Program is proudly sponsored by Simons, who have interwoven the effect, power, and vision of art within their own culture since 1840.  The Simons family share a deeply held love and affinity for the arts, and feel strongly about helping talented young people access the possibilities to be found while exploring multiple disciplines.

“In these exceptional times it is our hope that the Interactive Arts Program continues to provide youth with an opportunity to engage their creativity, continue their path to hope and healing and celebrate their strength and courage through the visual arts,” says Yvonne Cowan, Director of Store Operations for Simons WEM.

In 2020, The REALTORS® Community Foundation joined Simons as a funder of the Interactive Art Program. Their support empowered us to take the artistic programming facilitator position from part-time to full-time.

“The REALTORS® Community Foundation has proudly supported YESS since 1989 and in 26 of the last 31 years. Their tremendous compassion for youth facing homelessness in the Edmonton Area is evident in their programs and facilities. By meeting youth where they’re at and offering diverse programs, youth of many backgrounds and interests are able to connect to positive paths forward, empowering them to achieve their goals and contribute to a strong, vibrant future for our community.”

Being able to work with my community – with transgender and nonbinary youth – is an honour for me. Transgender and nonbinary youth so often hear their identities and existence denied and invalidated, and are hurt for their identities in many ways. I see transgender and nonbinary youth, and their existence and identities are real and valid. We work with a large population of transgender and nonbinary youth, because there is a large population of displaced and homeless transgender and nonbinary youth; that is just the reality of our society at this time – a reality I am not a fan of. I work hard to try and change that reality. Sometimes it is in small ways, in correcting a co-worker on a youth’s pronouns, and helping them learn. Sometimes it is fighting for larger systemic change. Transgender Day of Visibility is both about celebrating transgender and nonbinary people and about recognizing that there is still work to be done to make the world a safe place for us to exist. I think that trying to do good is an important first step on a long but very rewarding journey. A very happy Transgender Day of Awareness to all transgender and nonbinary people, no matter where they are in their journey, no matter their personal identity, no matter what anyone else says. You are real, you are valid, and you are loved.

Ian Brown
Relief Worker
Youth Empowerment and Support Services

Hello everyone and happy Spring!

I love March. For me, it is the milestone of hope and the light at the end of a long winter. It brings singing birds, more daylight, and new fresh buds. This March our newsletter theme is Art and the wonderful things art does to us and for us. For me, art brings focus and peace. When we focus intently on something, our brains build strong connectivity between areas and pathways. Art often engages both hemispheres of the brain, which also helps bring our emotional memories to a more rational perspective. Focusing on art can help us to regulate our bodies and our breathing and the vibration of art, and through visual experiences of colour and light, can bring healing and transcendence. Art can be both intimately personal as well as public and relational and can help us understand ourselves and understand others. It can help us share our past and dream for the future. This month, we feature our own Interactive Art Program and Artistic Programming Facilitator, Hollis Hunter, as well as our incredible friends at iHuman Youth Society, who focus their entire organization on building self-esteem through the Arts. We also shine a much-deserved spotlight on our incredible funding partners at the Home Depot Orange Door Project. And finally, we have an interview with our wonderful Executive Assistant and Manager of Administration, Karen Reed, and her experience in establishing a bequest for YESS in her will. I hope this Spring you can all find a little time to do a little art, whatever that may look like.

Within YESS Programs is an incredible team we refer to as our navigators. As navigators, Natalie Morgan and Dupe Adedeji help connect youth and families to resources within YESS and our community. Get to know Natalie and Dupe and why they are so passionate about their work with youth!

Tell us a bit about yourselves!

Natalie Morgan: I have been in my role with YESS for almost four years, but I have been in the community service field for over 13 years, having worked under the umbrella of Homeward Trust with affiliated agencies such as Capital Region Housing, Bill Reese YMCA, and now YESS. My educational background is within radio broadcasting. I always tell people this field of work found me and I am happy it did.

I remained with the YMCA until I got pregnant with my son and took some years to be a stay-at-home mom until I decided to re-enter the social services field in 2017 with YESS. The rest is history!

Dupe Adedeji: I studied Psychology at the University of Guelph and graduated at the end of 2014. I moved to Edmonton in early 2015 when I became employed at YESS. It was my first professional work experience and I was excited to work in the human services field and apply some of my educational background to my job. I started my role as a resource centre staff and then became a client navigator until I left to work at another agency in 2017. I returned in 2019 when the position of a second client navigator opened up at YESS!

Describe the role of “navigator” and how this work is part of walking beside youth on their journeys towards healing and appropriate community integration.

NM: In this role, I speak with youth and parents/guardians about how YESS can support them all, whether it be shelter at the Nexus Overnight Shelter, group home placement, education, addiction and mental health referral supports, employment referral to our Youth Education and Employment Program, or family reunification.

DA: As a navigator, we support youth by empowering them to make the best decisions for themselves. We often walk alongside youth on their journeys from start to finish. This can be in the form of us providing resources in order for the youth to make the best-informed decision, calling or texting to check in on where they’re at with their goal plan, driving them to get identification, coaching them prior to speaking with a potential landlord, or supporting them by accompanying them to meetings that they’re anxious to have.

NM: This role as a navigator is very personal as we handle the ICM (Intensive Care Management) portion with the youth. In this role we walk alongside them through parts of their lives which can be triggering and painful to the youth, but we remind them of how strong they are and how far they have come on their own. We take no credit in how far a youth has come because it is their own endurance, motivation, and inner strength which allows them to reach their goal.

DA: As a majority of our youth don’t have dependable supports in their personal lives, we as navigators often fill in that gap and gradually step back as they become more confident in their journey towards independence and community integration.

NM: I say we are their coach and cheerleader all in one, cheering for them and reminding them to refocus when they get off course. I feel that knowing we won’t give up on them, even when they do, is a key component to walking along side our youth and integrating them back into the community.

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

 DA: One thing I wish the community knew about YESS youth is that they can be very resilient. Despite major challenges faced by our youth specifically with homelessness, they are still able to find and access resources that would meet their needs. Some of our youth are homeless and sleep at the shelter, but still find ways to continue schooling because education is important to them, or still make it in to work and important meetings. I am glad to be able to support youth on their journeys to success despite the difficult realities they face.  

NM: One thing I wish the community knew about our youth is how amazing they are as young people and how, for the most part, they are just like any typical teenager. They are trying to figure out who they are, what they want, what their purpose in life is. The only difference is they do it with no family, regular hugs, or positive words of affirmation. They are blindly navigating this crazy world and they are doing it wonderfully. I am proud of them every day.