Good morning. First of all, I'd like to speak to you about who we are and what we do, and that will provide a context for our analysis and our conclusions.
Youth Employment Services is a non-profit charity whose mission is to enrich the community by providing English-language services to help people find jobs and start small businesses. YES was founded in 1995 by a group of concerned leaders from the business, education, and corporate communities in response to the youth exodus and in recognition that employment was a major strategy in addressing retention.
Retention and renewal is still our primary mission, and every program or activity we engage in is with the purpose of supporting, retaining, and attracting individuals to Quebec. In the broader sense, we do this using a community development approach, building partnerships, attracting and cultivating volunteers, and creating networks. In concrete terms, we do this by providing support services.
Our services respond to the ongoing needs of our clients and our community. We help people start and grow businesses, find employment, and help artists who need the business skills to succeed economically through their art. We modify and adjust our programs to ensure that our services remain relevant.
We provide over 1,200 workshops at our downtown location and online. We hold events and conferences, provide coaching and counselling—over 5,000 sessions last year—mentors and internships, and we work with over 400 volunteers and a variety of partners and funders.
We pride ourselves on our ability to build strong partnerships with the business community, Broccolini, Aldo, BeaverTails, and Bombardier; with the arts community with David Usher, Lorraine Klaasen, and Jennifer Gasoi; with the academic community with the universities and colleges; with the community sector with the QCGN members; with the francophone community organizations; and with the media.
We do a regular spots on Global. We're present on CTV and the CBC, in The Gazette, and others.
The objective is to bring together networks and our clients. We work with a variety of funders from both the provincial and federal governments, foundations, corporations, and we do our own fundraising and pay-for-services activities.
In 1993 we helped over 120 clients. Today we help over 4,600 individuals who visit our downtown location close to 15,000 times a year. As well, we now have the capacity through technology to service areas outside of Montreal that need English-language services, and we are working closely with many of our regional partners, including Voice of English-speaking Québec, CASA, and others to ensure that English-language services are available in the regions of Quebec.
We also have programs where our coaches are able to provide services at the offices of our regional partners. Each year YES hosts four major conferences, including the largest English-language entrepreneurial conference and the only artists conference.
In 2008 YES did a report on the barriers to employment and self-employment for the OLMC new arrivals and visible minorities entitled, “Self-Employment and Employment in Quebec’s English-speaking Cultural Communities and Visible Minorities: Prospects and Problems”.
Between 2011 and 2012, YES brought together the OLMC partners to look at the issues of economic development of the OLMC. This research and discussion took place over a two-year span and resulted in a report entitled, “Regional Development of English Language Entrepreneurial Services”, which we have distributed today. This was in follow-up to a report done by the QCGN in 2008.
In 2013, YES recognized an increase in mental health issues within our client base and did a study with the support of the CHSSN, “Building Youth Resiliency and Community Vitality within Montreal’s English Language Population” to quantify what we were observing.
In 2013, with the support of the Status of Women, YES did a gender-based analysis to better understand the needs of women in the field of technology in Quebec. As a result, we are building exciting new partnerships in the technology industry, including Google and Ubisoft. This week we will be matching 20 women with 20 tech companies at a speed-interviewing event being held at Google.
As a result of these studies, YES has created a variety of programs to respond to all of these reports. We take a holistic approach in our responses. You can see some of these programs in the packages that we have distributed. Research allows our community to quantify the issues that we see emerging and these are an invaluable tool.
YES also heads up the employment services round table, the only coalition of community employment organizations that provide English-language employment services. This table was set up in 1998, when the federal government transferred payments and responsibilities to the provincial government, to ensure the continuity and health of English-language employment services. It continues to meet regularly.
I'll pass you to Iris Unger now.