More Than Shelter: 25 Years of Support, Safety, and Belonging
When a young person arrives at YES Shelter for Youth and Families, they often carry more than a backpack.
They carry fear.
Exhaustion.
Uncertainty about where they’ll sleep next.
A bed is the first step.
But youth homelessness doesn’t begin and end with a bed for the night. It is a series of steps that lead from crisis to confidence, from instability to independence. And for 25 years, YES has been guiding young people and families in our community through those steps.
From emergency shelter…
To housing support…
To education and employment goals…
To reconnection with community…
To stable, independent living.
That full circle of care is what transforms lives.
As we close out our celebration year 25 Years. Thousands of Stories. One YES. we’re reflecting on what those thousands of stories have taught us:
A bed is the first step.
The next step changes everything.
And lasting change takes consistency.
From Seeing Homelessness to Understanding It
No one understands that journey better than Evan, our Youth in Transition Worker.
Evan first came to YES in August 2019 as a placement student from Fleming College. He had just moved to Peterborough from Markham. Before YES, his only exposure to homelessness was the people he would see on the subway.
“I thought I understood what homelessness looked like,” Evan says. “But shadowing staff here lifted the veil. I realized I had no real idea what people were carrying – the trauma, the mental health challenges, the constant survival mode.”
After his placement, Evan returned and stepped into a full-time overnight role in our Emergency Shelter. Working nights meant flipping his entire lifestyle – and stepping into some of the shelter’s most intense moments.
But it was during those long nights that Evan began to understand something even deeper.
Many of the youth who arrive at YES haven’t had the chance to simply be children. They’ve learned to survive. They’ve learned to be tough. They’ve learned not to trust.
The Power of Showing Up
One young man stands out to Evan.
He first arrived at our Emergency Shelter at 16. He had never used substances, but he carried significant mental health challenges and unmet needs. Influences from the street began to creep in. Trying to avoid being targeted, he felt pressure to appear tough. Eventually, he began experimenting with substances – something that can quickly become a pattern that’s hard to escape.
Today, at 19, he still returns to the shelter sporadically.
So what makes the difference?
Consistency means not giving up when progress isn’t linear. It means being there through setbacks. It means believing in a young person’s future – sometimes before they can believe in it themselves.
That consistency is only possible because of supporters like you.
Beyond Emergency: The Next Steps Matter
Recently, Evan stepped into his new role as Youth in Transition Worker. Instead of reacting to crisis after crisis, his work is intentional and future-focused.
YES Support workers each have caseloads of 20-25 individuals and though Evan has a smaller caseload of youth to start, he, like his colleagues:
- Helps to find and secure safe housing
- Supports navigation of landlords and rental applications
- Attends critical appointments and advocates in meetings
- Coaches life skills like budgeting and employment readiness
- Provides connection to education and training opportunities
- Gives ongoing check-ins to prevent a return to homelessness
“You don’t know what you don’t know,” Evan says. “Sometimes youth just need someone to explain the steps, to help them follow through, to remind them of the progress they’ve already made.”
This is how crisis becomes stability.
This is how a bed becomes just the beginning, not the end of the story.
25 Years. Thousands of Stories. One YES.
For 25 years, YES Shelter for Youth and Families has been more than an emergency response. We have been a constant presence. A steady hand. A second chance. A next step.
Every young person who signs their first lease.
Every youth who keeps an appointment because someone showed up beside them.
Every moment of perseverance when giving up would be easier.
Each one represents change made possible by a community that refuses to look away.
When you give, you are helping a young person:
Your support continues to ensure that that when someone walks through our doors, they don’t just find shelter – they find someone who will keep showing up. As we wrap up our 25th anniversary year, we invite you to be part of the next chapter.
Your generosity doesn’t just provide a bed for the night. It fuels every step that follows, ensuring that the next young person who arrives exhausted and uncertain won’t just find safety for the night – they’ll find someone committed to helping them take the next step forward.
Because of you, crisis is not the end of the story.
It’s the beginning of something better.
