Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.
I did send in a brief overview on the organization, so you'll have that in front of you, in both languages. I won't speak to what's on there, but I'll give you a very brief overview.
I've been with the organization for just over 30 years now, and Youth Opportunities has been around for 33 years in London, Ontario. For the past 20 years or so, we've carved out some unique space within the social enterprise milieu. That is because a traditional model of Youth Opportunities was to prepare people for work through job placement, workshops, and so on. We found quite some time ago that model did not work very well for folks who had a very high level of need. For example, if you're homeless, especially 20 years ago, with no access to phones or to how an employer would actually contact you if you'd never worked before, you're always behind the eight ball. You're also convincing other folks of what your aptitudes and your abilities might be, but given that the labour market looks for evidence of that, you're not able to demonstrate it.
We set up social enterprises because we really wanted a prop. We wanted a prop that was a functional business, where young people could be prepared to operate that functional business and work within all leadership roles there. That way we're not necessarily preparing them to work based on what they have done before. We can place them in a job setting based on what they want to do, the skill sets they might be interested in acquiring, the aptitudes they think they have, and how we can prepare them for that with some informal training and some formal certifications.
You'll see in front of you the various social enterprises we operate. An office recycling program was our first one. We've had a woodworking shop for almost 20 years as well. We make a line of jams and preserves called Market Quality Preserves, and they sell in our own retail space, as well as in established retailers. Some of you from Ottawa would know Farm Boy. I know its head office is here. Today actually was a big day, because it opened up its second store in London. Farm Boy carries our products within all of its stores, as well as some specialty stuff just in its London stores, all manufactured by young people as part of a training program that is a social enterprise. We also have a café, and I'll let Courtney speak to that shortly. We have a kiosk that operates in Covent Garden Market, in London, Ontario.
All of these are props, because all of these are preparing young people for work by having them do work. For young people with limited education and no work experience, we can actually sit down with them and help them understand what a job market demands of them. When people talk about initiative, showing up on time, having drive, showing some passion and interest in your job, if you've never worked before you don't understand those things. What you do understand is that, if you make a mistake, you get fired. What you understand if you've never worked before, typically, is that it's better to wait and stand and be told what to do, because if you do the wrong thing you'll get fired. Quite honestly, there's a significant disconnect. For us, the social enterprise has been a significant investment in our opportunities to be able to help them understand.
On page 2 of the overview, you'll see the successes we've had. On an annual basis now, we place 71 people through our social enterprises. You'll know from the overview that Youth Opportunities sees about 3,000 people a year. Although social enterprise is a significant part of what we do, of course it's not the key driver in terms of young people accessing Youth Opportunities Unlimited. But I would have to say that, for the high-risk youth and the less-skilled youth, it's certainly the most successful venue by far that we have to engage young people in the job market. You'll see the success rates that are there.
I was here when you were interviewing your earlier witnesses and looking at social returns. We can, I'm sure, talk about those shortly, but you'll see that we measure returns in three different ways. One is around success. You'll see those there; 91% of the young people who go through our program enjoy success through our program.
With earned revenues, for every dollar that's invested from public funds, the organization is actually earning $2 in addition to that. The federal funding right now represents about a third of the investments coming into our social enterprises.
Community impact is a key measurement for us. I've pulled out what I see and what I can share with you briefly as the key significant community impacts. There are certainly much more than that. They translate down into the individual experiences that people have and the community and public investment in Youth Opportunities Unlimited as a result of our social enterprises. Farm Boy is an example of that.
I think I'm going to turn it over to Courtney now, and she can talk a bit about her experiences.