At the YWC, our approach is youth-centred, which is evident in all that we do.
This means that:
- Youth are meaningfully engaged in program design, implementation and evaluation (including staff, volunteers, students, researchers, clients) and able to safely and honestly impact the program through their feedback.
- Our physical space is youth-friendly, accessible (including the hours we are open), inclusive and located in the community.
- Our service delivery focuses on the importance of engagement, collaborative partnership with youth, engaging families, and centres peer support.
- We offer a flexible and accessible menu of service-delivery options that support individual choice, and that include art-based or activity-based interventions as well as medication and talk therapies.
- Our staff have experience and competencies in working with youth that include a non-authoritarian, non-judgmental, strength-based and empowering approach.
- Transition-aged youth are going through a lot of developmental changes—identity, relationships, school, work, etc! We need to provide services in a way that acknowledges the complexities of all of these transitions and emphasises the need to help smooth transitions and break down barriers to care.
Our values are, in line with a Youth Focused approach are:
- Collaboration
- Social Justice
- Self-determination
- Creativity
- Integrity
Collaboration
“We’re in this together.”
Working together as an interdisciplinary team, we share knowledge, ideas and resources to best combine our expertise in our work. As much as possible, we strive to include the voices of youth in decision making, program planning and implementation, recognizing the value of lived experience. Additionally, community partnerships allow us to provide care to youth in ways that reach beyond our organization’s capacity.
Social Justice
“Once you know better, do better”
Social justice is a group effort dedicated to creating and sustaining a fair and equal society in which each person and all groups are valued and affirmed. It includes efforts to end systemic violence and racism and all systems that devalue the dignity and humanity of any person. It recognizes that the legacy of past injustices remains all around us, so therefore promotes efforts to empower individual and group action in support of restorative justice and the full implementation of human and civil rights.
Social justice is simple. It’s about fairness in societies. It’s grounded in the idea that every human being deserves the full spectrum of political, economic and social rights, and opportunities. To withhold this access is the opposite of social justice: it’s discrimination. According to social justice principles, society should never withhold rights and opportunities because of a person’s:
- race
- gender
- sexual orientation
- age
- mental health or substance use struggles
- ability or disability
- level of education
- economic situation
- geographic location
Self-Determination
“You decide.”
As an organization, we value every individual’s autonomy and inherent right to make their own choices as they discover and determine their path to recovery. Our staff aim to create a judgment free environment and encourage youth to advocate for themselves at the YWC, in the broader community, as well as within their families. We also support the families and friends of youth in understanding that youth are the experts in their own experiences.
Creativity
“Find what works.”
We approach this work with flexibility, curiosity, and outside-the-box thinking in order to address barriers to care. Seeking new and unique solutions to challenges, we are imaginative and adaptable in the face of systemic problems. We aim to think critically and do things differently to better meet the needs of young people.
Integrity
“Do what’s right.”
We maintain consistency through each process to honour fairness while acknowledging the need for flexibility and sharing any limitations with honesty. Integrity includes upholding competence within each respective profession, holding ourselves to a higher standard and staying true to the values of each discipline as well as the collective values of YWC. To remain true to integrity is to practice ethically and stay accountable to our values.