Aug 20th, 2024

Youth Futures Program Has Far-Reaching Impacts 

On August 15, more than 100 students from low-income communities graduated from the Youth Futures program. 

The six-month course supports high school students aged 16-21 in building important skills in preparation for post-secondary education and employment. The bilingual program offers participants advanced leadership training, mentorship, employment experience, and post-secondary orientation at no cost. It is supported by the City of Ottawa, several partners, and the OCH Foundation.  

It provides invaluable tools to help prepare students for more successful post-secondary studies. Many of the participants are from OCH communities. The program launched in 2014, and more than 1,500 students have graduated since then.  

During the graduation ceremony, we sat down with the valedictorian for this year’s graduating class, Sirine and Callen, a mentor who is also a past participant.  

Sirine, a resident of the Beausoleil community, is no stranger to getting involved. She’s going into Grade 12 at Immaculata High School. She’s a member of Connected Youth, a program in Lowertown, which is how she heard about Youth Futures.  

“The program allowed me to step out and be open to sharing ideas and taking the initiative,” she said, adding she credits her coming out of the shell as the reason she was able to run her activity in the long-term care facility where she did her placement.  

She worked in the recreation department and organized a slime ice-breaker activity.  

“They said I was the only student to ever organize an activity on my own,” she said.  

Sirine’s job placement was a great fit because she wants to study health sciences. She also took advantage of some of the training offered by Youth Futures and took it to the next level — connecting with a CPR and first aid instructor to complete her lifesaving swimming badges. The next step is to be a lifeguard.  

She’s a dedicated student with a 97.7 percent grade average. And, when she’s not in school, she coaches soccer. They’re called the Lowertown Lions and are about to start a girls’ team.  

Callen was a mentor for the graduating class. He studies Health Sciences at Carleton University. Callen’s an OCH resident from a community in the south end of Ottawa. He completed the program two years ago. He said he got a placement at Bruyère Continuing Care. That experience led to him getting a research internship. 

He wanted to be a mentor to give back and learn more about the program from the other side.  

“It is a lot more work than I thought it would be. It’s like five jobs in one – a social worker, event planner… It tested me and was very rewarding,” he said.  

Each mentor works with 15 participants; Callen said part of his job was to build relationships with the students and establish trust. He said he will probably continue to volunteer because he believes the program does a lot of good.  

There are so many opportunities to grow and network,” he said.