2020 Report – The Difference You’ve Made

We’re kind of lucky. We see the difference you’re making in the lives of youth and families, every day.

We first met Taylor in March of 2020.

Taylor first came to the Emergency Shelter in March of 2020, just as the pandemic hit. She was 19 and had already been homeless for 4 years. COVID-19 took away all of her options for staying with other people and by the time she reached us, she had already been through a lot. She was just about done.

YES Staff saw this right away and worked tirelessly to get Taylor into the safe and supported RISE Youth Housing Program. And once there, finally safe, Taylor began to heal from all the trauma she had experienced while homeless, and as a child. With this new support, she was ready to tackle her past.

You enable this work.

Now Taylor, still in the housing program, is back in high school, working towards a high school diploma. She’s made friends in her house, and she talks all the time with YES Staff, who are always looking out for her. Taylor is incredibly resilient, and just needed support to get her through an extremely difficult set of circumstances. Thank you for helping Taylor when she needed it. She’s doing amazing.

Note: Taylor’s name and image has been changed.

The difference your help has made in 2020:

And your support has been crucial through COVID-19

Thanks to an outpouring of support from our amazing community (YOU!), we were able to keep youth and families experiencing homelessness as safe as possible by enabling social distancing in emergency shelter, supplying all necessary PPE, providing free wifi and devices to youth, providing hundreds with emergency supplies, running art and wellness programming, AND helping to coordinate a vaccination clinic for our clients!

Check out our recent report, on the strength we’ve been able to pass on to these incredible young people and parents. They have survived enormous adversity, and can get through this, especially with your help.

Thank you for being on our team.

We will continue to let you know about what your support is accomplishing, and the extraordinary difference you are making to the lives of youth and families who are struggling in Peterborough.