Partners For Youth's Leadership Canoe Trip 2019 (Image: Submitted)
The non-profit organization Partners For Youth plans to continue supporting at-risk children across New Brunswick in the aftermath of COVID-19.
“We support young folks with employment, healthy relationships, with access to mental health, access to housing and we help young folks get out of homelessness,” said Executive Director, John Sharpe.
“We also have seen significant impacts of the work we do with current and former youth in care and in regards to changes in public policy and in provincial programs that are available and accessible to them.”
Partners For Youth Inc. was founded in 1994 by former Senator, the Honorable Jim Ross and work with an estimated 1,000 youth every year.
The organization works together with various stakeholders, partners and the public school system to cultivate and engage youth about self esteem, the environment, mental health and healthy relationships.
Partners For Youth is also home to The New Brunswick Youth In Care Network and operates Youth Unlimited, (formally Safe Harbour House), a transitional housing program for homeless and near homeless youth from greater Saint John.
Some of Partners’ full-time staff were former participants and youth leaders, who now provide mentorship to the program’s new youth participants.
“It’s really powerful and meaningful,” added Sharpe.
The non-profit has been active since the beginning of the pandemic in supporting the province’s youth. Within 10 days of the provincial shutdown, it started delivering emergency support directly into the hands of young people who needed them.
“Our school-based programs, many of them are on hold, so we’re connecting with youth over social media to make sure that they’re okay, that they’re safe,” he said. “We do a lot of work around youth mental health and healthy relationships so that’s been a significant issue for a lot of kids right now, they’re experiencing a lot of challenges with mental health and so we’re working very hard to support them during this time.”
Requests for basic personal needs and services, from groceries, transportation and to avoid losing housing, remain high.
The organization also helps support former youth who grew up in the provincial care system, and who may have limited family support.
“We’ve heard a lot from young folks in regards to the need for violence prevention and relationship violence help; that’s been a significant challenge during this time,” Sharpe said. “It’s a very complex set of issues, and you have to be able to continue to respond to meet those needs.”
Partners For Youth Inc. is considered an essential service and its office is partially open, abiding by all of the requirements laid out by public health. It has not had to lay off any of its 19 staff members, who are working from home and on-site directly within the various programs.
“It’s been challenging and quite stressful for a lot of people, but we continue to go, day-by-day. Part of the challenge has been just waiting on information from the government,” shared Sharpe.
The organization does not qualify for the federal wage subsidy, as do most non-profits. The biggest challenge the organization will face is when Partners For Youth will start seeing a significant loss in revenue, estimated by Sharpe, in six-to-twelve months into the new year’s operation.
His job is to ensure the non-profit will not only to continue to provide the same level of service for provincial youth, but also expand its services during a time of increased need in a sector where it can take months, or years to secure funding.
“We’ve reached out to government to have those conversations and we’re still waiting for answers or a reply back; it’s trying to educate government in terms of the complexities of the non-profit sector, it is not like a conventional business,” said Sharpe.
The organization doesn’t have one specific area funding the entire operation. At any given time, they normally have 25-to-35 different significant funders investing in programs, with common partners being philanthropic foundations, corporate and individual donors and funds from the federal and provincial government.
Additionally, almost half of its funding comes from outside of the province, acting as a significant economic driver.
“It’s important for the government to understand the complexities of the sector and the contribution to the social safety net made by not for profits across the province and country,” Sharpe said.
“What happens during economic downturn is we see an impact on investment revenue and therefore and impact on donations,” he further explained.
Corporate donors and foundations often rely on the proceeds from their investments or profits, thus the recession caused by the pandemic will impact future donations.
Despite precarious funding forecasts, Partners For Youth Inc. is determined to provide crucial services for at-risk youth and individuals.
“We don’t want government handouts; we want real investment to be able to do what we do best, and that’s help the marginalized and folks who really need the support,” said Sharpe.
This story was originally published on Huddle.Today – an Acadia Broadcasting Limited content partner.
