It has been an exciting year of growth and change for us here at YESS.

After revisioning the purpose of our organization to walk beside traumatized youth on their journey towards healing and appropriate community integration, we set out to ensure we had a strong foundation to do this work.

We also spent 2018/2019 focusing on building awareness around the cause of youth trauma and how important community connection is for our youth’s success. I am proud and inspired by the response of our community members and partners who are interested in educating themselves on how they too, can be part of the solution. Awareness is the first step to preventing homelessness and we have seen the community open themselves up to being aware of the trauma our youth face. We have heard from donors, community groups, neighbourhoods, partners, and natural supports that they have heard the messages we are sending and are ready to take action and walk beside us and the youth.

So what is next for 2019/2020?

This next year we will be working with our municipal, provincial, and national partners to adjust our services and strategy to be truly focused on the prevention of youth homelessness. This will mean working to build awareness of the work we and others have done in trauma as well as restructuring our services to ensure we are focusing on early intervention, housing stabilization, eviction prevention, and community support.

We invite you on our journey to prevent youth homelessness and create a healing path into community. Are you in?

Margo Long President & CEO | Youth Empowerment and Support Services

2018/2019 Financial Statements

Download our 2018/2019 Annual Report

Download

2018/2019 Outcomes & Results

729
Youth empowered in 2018/2019
5021
Volunteer hours in 2018
100
Percent of youth have experienced trauma
40
Percent of youth identify as LGBTQ2S+

Some of the success stories

  • I disciplined myself so strongly because I wanted change. I am so resilient. I always have been, but I didn’t see it until I had gone through treatment... I worked so hard to build up all my supports to be where I am today.
    Mariah, YESS Youth
  • When I became sober, I felt like I became a completely different person. I was positive about life, talkative, met good friends, and felt like I was able to succeed and move on from pretty traumatic events in my past.
    Alyssa, YESS Youth

Read more on our blog

  • Meet Our Youth: AB

    AB grew up in an abusive home. Soon they resorted to sleeping at friends’ places and sleeping outside. The first time they came to YESS was on a night when…

  • Meet Our Youth: Tom’s Story

    My name is Tom and I am 21 years old. My girlfriend’s mother took me to the YESS Shelter about three years ago. I was in a real emotional state…

  • Meet Our Youth: Erinne’s Story

    Erinne is a lifelong Edmontonian. When she was growing up her mother frequently disowned her, and when she was 16 she was permanently kicked out of the house. Erinne couch-surfed…