Cowichan Valley Youth Services was forced to drop its long-established employment development program after federal funding was pulled.
The Youth Employment Mentorship Program (YEMP) was a core program for the registered charity for close to 20 years and was funded by Employment and Social Development Canada, through its Service Canada program.
Until two weeks ago, YEMP offered youth aged 15 to 30 a paid, three-month pre-employment mentorship that provided the tools, training, work certificates and essential life skills for young people to confidently seek employment. It especially supported those who face personal and societal challenges.
“We are absolutely devastated,” said Cowichan Valley Youth Services (CVYS) executive director Zoe Lauckner.
“This program has a 98 per cent success rate. And for youth to come into a fully paid, 12-week program where you have all of the supports and the confidence to go out and get a job is life changing.”
When federal funding was significantly delayed this year, CVYS sought an answer from Ottawa with the help of Cowichan-Malahat-Langford MP Alistair McGegor. The news finally arrived in an email from Employment and Social Development Canada’s Youth Employment and Skills Strategy Program that stated “this funding stream was extremely oversubscribed, and decisions were final.”
When asked, Employment and Social Development Canada told The Discourse in an email response that over 1,000 applications were received for youth employment funding for 2024 to 2025, and due to the competitive nature of the call for proposals, not every organization is guaranteed its proposal will be selected.
The news of the funding cut came as a surprise to the CVYS team, who felt confident the support for the youth employment program would continue.
“We had a strong success rate for the people that we serve through the program,” CVYS board chair Chris Schultz said. “And yes, we thought it’s a matter of time to renew it, that something must just be delayed in funding. And so we didn’t really see this coming.”
The CVYS team said it is also surprised by the decision to not renew the funding because Minister Patty Hajdu (former minister of Employment, Workforce Development and Labour) publicly acknowledged the value and success of the program in 2018.
“We’ve had this going for 20 years, there’s no other organization in Cowichan that is providing pre-employment support like this to youth,” Lauckner added.
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‘A heartbreaking experience’ for Cowichan Valley Youth Services and the community
In the wake of the funding news, CVYS had no choice but to lay off three employees directly involved with the program.
Lauckner then had the difficult task of calling all 43 hopeful youth on the waitlist for the 2024 Youth Employment Mentorship Program. Part of the requirement for YEMP is to be unemployed, and many young people this summer remained without income and support in order to qualify.
“I make that call, and say it’s Zoe Lauckner, I’m calling about the YEMP program, I’m not calling with good news — so much disappointment.”
Lauckner said one young person she called became a new parent since applying. Another young man recently quit a job due to racism and remains unemployed. Many phones, she said, were no longer in service.
The shutdown of YEMP comes right after Cowichan Family Life Association and Big Brothers Big Sisters Cowichan Valley announced closures due to lack of funding. Lauckner noted that there are more youth organizations on the Island that also suffered funding cuts.
The loss of the Youth Employment Mentorship Program is not only a blow to Cowichan’s youth, Lauckner said, but also hurts the community’s progress. She noted that program cuts, combined with ongoing interconnected crises in cost of living, housing, homelessness and toxic drug poisoning and substance misuse, leaves youth with the feeling that the future seems bleak.
“A lot of the youth we support, their families were already on the streets” Lauckner said. “[We] have a program that directly impacts problematic social issues that federal governments are trying to solve right now. And [they] cut it. It’s devastating.”
Today, the Youth Employment Mentorship Program offices in the CVYS space are vacant, and the large room that program participants used to work and socialize in is unused. Computers used for resume building are turned off and boxes of cookware meant for skills-training remain unopened.
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Changing the trajectory of young lives
Cowichan Valley Youth Services has been helping young people in the Valley enter the workforce since 2005 through programs under different names. The program has been operating as the Youth Employment Mentorship Program since 2014, with federal funding in place.
Young participants engaged in a 12-week paid program that prepared them for workforce experience through classes, hands-on experience with local businesses, resume-building and support obtaining certificates including Food Safe, Serving It Right and First Aid.
“It’s this chicken-egg thing — it’s hard to get a job with no experience and it’s hard to get experience without a job. And here we provide the experience that you need,” Lauckner said. “Youth are already really embedded in some significant challenges. This program was exactly where you were able to develop the life skills and employment skills to fully change the trajectory of your life.”
Kyli Blanchard is 19-years-old and completed the last YEMP round at the end of 2023. Before the program, she said she was “having a difficult time” and had just left a job due to workplace bullying. Her friend told her about the program and she applied and was accepted.
“They helped us really beef up our resumes, and we even learned a lot of stuff about renting places, not just about employment,” Blanchard said.
Today, Blanchard works as a slot attendant at Chances Cowichan and is renting a place of her own. She said she wouldn’t have had such an opportunity without the Youth Employment Mentorship Program.
“They paid for my work shoes, my gaming licence. And the only reason I got into that job was because I have my First Aid and my Serving it Right, which are both needed,” Blanchard said.
Charley Barrett completed YEMP in 2022, overcoming personal and academic struggles to move forward with his goal of working in art and technology. The program enabled Barrett to purchase an art tablet to prepare for school.
“My confidence in social settings skyrocketed through the group. My future prospects are much better than they were and would have been without YEMP,” Barrett said.
Panago Duncan owner Matthew Huotari mentored someone through the Youth Employment Mentorship Program and eventually hired him permanently after the 12-weeks were up.
“[YEMP] set him up well to have the interview in the first place,” Huotari said.
“I think between having the job at Panago and with the training he was receiving, I saw a lot of confidence building over that time. I could see that having a job and a team atmosphere really helped him come out of his shell.”
Local businesses that have benefited from the youth employment program in the past range from cafes and care centres to larger companies like Best Buy and Tim Hortons.
Lauckner said it’s a win-win relationship between YEMP youth and local businesses.
“You’re not just getting some teenager off the street who’s never had a job before. You’re getting somebody who’s skilled and has support, and you’re having a subsidised wage,” Lauckner said.
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Youth support is an investment
The most common needs Cowichan Valley Youth Services encounters with youth are struggles with mental health and wellness, anxiety, trauma and relationship conflict. CVYS will continue to provide crucial support to youth from its offices on Coronation Avenue in Duncan.
With the support of the province’s Ministry of Children and Family Development, as well as with the community’s help, vulnerable young people can still receive one-on-one counselling, group sessions and emotional support at the centre. Youth can also drop by to connect with staff over a snack or pick up items such as sexual and reproductive health supplies.
CVYS not only supports youth, but provides counsel for parents, caregivers and families with a goal of maintaining family connection in a non-judgemental space. In the past year, CVYS served 890 individuals.
CVYS Board Chair Chris Schultz says the investment in youth programming can pay off for years to come.
“If you help people early on, it saves our society down the road. So it’s a good investment in our society, and certainly in youth. It would actually help the issues that we’re seeing everywhere.”
Blanchard said she is proud to have been part of the last program round and says the end of of the Youth Employment Mentorship Program is “so unfortunate.”
“It’s so hard for people just starting out to get work because everyone wants experience. And I think it’s the perfect place to get experience, or to get those certificates while still being able to live off of the money they give you,” she said.
Lauckner added that, as much of a blow the funding cut is to CVYS, the organization will continue to bring attention to the need for youth support in Cowichan. While the agency is still processing the news of the funding cut, Lauckner said CVYS is motivated to fill gaps in services for youth.
“Any awareness attempt in the community to help people understand what it’s like for young people is going to breed empathy and understanding,” Lauckner said. “Empathy and understanding and compassion are really important right now in our community.”
