Youth Social Infrastructure | Relationships and collaboration amplify youth innovation in Ontario
Over the last few years there has been a boom of youth engagement and organizing across Ontario. To help sustain this momentum and ensure that youth organizing continues to be encouraged and supported, even in an era of economic uncertainty and complexity, the Ontario Trillium Foundation is actively sharing knowledge and resources, partnering with other funders and convening leaders from across the province. 
Youth Social Infrastructure (YSI) emerged through this work and in partnership with Laidlaw Foundation and Tides Canada. YSI exists because we know that meaningful relationships, networks of people and collaboration create and sustain positive change in communities.
Learn about how YSI got started
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Creating Economic Opportunities for Youth | The Future Fund allocates $4 million each year to innovative projects that are focused on Ontario's futures. The current goal of the Fund is to support initiatives that help build economic opportunities for Ontario youth by:
- Providing entrepreneurial skills development and support for youth to generate innovative and promising business or social enterprise ideas;
- Incubating and strengthening skills, talents, personal interests and attributes of Ontario youth and link them to meaningful economic opportunities that will help build strong communities;
- Providing opportunities for youth to build a connection with employers to shape workplace environments and culture in ways that are stimulating and adaptable to the new workforce.
Read about the five most recent grants awarded |
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Your chance to choose the best of youth
On March 23, the Foundation will be honouring the best of the best - those organizations that exemplify excellence, innovation and leadership in building healthy communities across the province - through the Great Grants Awards. We will showcase eight organizations our volunteer and staff think are truly extraordinary in terms of impact, innovation or collaboration.
New this year!
The People's Choice Award will be given to a youth-led or youth-serving organization, and will be chosen by Ontarians from eighteen nominees in an online vote. February 29th is the last day to vote for your favourite initiative.Recipient will be announced March 23. |
Supporting Social Innovation | |
Three examples of youth-centric social innovation supported by funder partnerships
Arti Freeman, Ontario Trillium Foundation Program Manager, collaborated with peers from the Laidlaw and J.W. McConnel Family Foundations on an article published in The Philanthropist exploring ways in which they support social innovation in the youth sector. Read the article
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Can funders support emergence?
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The YSI experience has highlighted important lessons about how funders can support the emergence of community-led initatives and add value beyond grantmaking. Read more about the practice of emergence from a funder's perspective in this article by Program Manager, Arti Freeman and Senior Research and Policy Analyst, Viola Dessanti. |
Who are the current Future Fund grantees?
On March 1, 2011, five applicants were awarded Future Fund grants. These exceptional organizations are creating meaningful economic opportunities for the province's youth:
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Where is your work on the YE spectrum? |
There is no fixed approach to youth programming that engages youth. Youth engagement is a spectrum of approaches that are reciprocal, dynamic and interactive. They range from programs that target young people to programs for youth, run by youth.
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Why we care about youth engagement? | In 2006, the Ontario Trillium Foundation worked with the Centre of Excellence for Youth Engagement (CEYE) to find out more about the needs of youth in Ontario and to identify opportunities to strengthen OTF's granting in this area. CEYE interviewed 24 key people and grantees. It also reviewed current literature and analyzed OTF's grants to youth.
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