Donors Archives - Youville Centre

Colourful gift bags and bath and body products donated by community for Youville moms.

18 April 20167 December 2020

Youville Moms Embrace Self-Care

Our young moms are so busy caring for their children and completing their education that sometimes it can be difficult for them to make time for taking care of themselves. This was the motivation behind our most recent Lunch and Learn on the topic of Self-Care, presented by Mary Gallagher and Michelle Torunski on April 11.

Youville students participated in a conversation about burn out, including the causes, how to recognize the signs and symptoms, and understanding that burn out may look differently for different people. The topic of self-care was discussed as a strategy for valuing yourself and maintaining positive mental health. The students also brainstormed ideas for self-care activities and what they felt they would need in a self-care tool-kit.

The students were invited to create self-care tool-kits for themselves, using toiletry bags and a wide variety of bath and body products. We would like to acknowledge the generosity of Gavin (Author of blog Frugalitiness: The Art of Being Frugal) and the Purple Urchin, who provided these items as a treat for our students. Our moms thoroughly enjoyed this activity and will be able to use the kits for self-care at home! Thank you!

Smiling Youville moms pose with gift bags and bath products that will be used to make their self care toolkits.

16 March 20167 December 2020

Generous Donor Provides Winter Wear for Youville’s Children

With such a cold and unpredictable winter this year, our young moms and their children needed warm snowsuits, boots, hats and mitts more than ever. We are quite glad to see the snow melting, as we are always happy to see Spring on the horizon!

We are grateful to all of our donors who provide the outerwear that is needed for rapidly growing babies and toddlers! One such donor, who was recently interviewed for CBC Radio and Television, is our good friend Gavin. In a short time, Gavin has used his deft skills in finding the best shopping bargains, and has donated multitudes of different items to the centre, including food, clothing, baby bottles, hygiene products, toys, and more!

Gavin’s generosity just keeps on giving, and recently he stopped by with brand new snowsuits and boots which were part of a shopping trip in which he saved 76% on his purchase (which is actually a low savings for him) and he was able to purchase snowsuits for Youville’s children, as well as the Snowsuit Fund and the refugees from Syria.

Gavin was able to purchase $7044.45 worth of children’s snowsuits and boots for $1642.26 to be shared between the organizations!!

As you can see from the photos above, our young moms were very pleased to be able to pick out some brand new winter wear for their little ones.

You can read Gavin’s blog, “Frugalitiness: The Art of Being Frugal” and see all of the amazing work he is doing to help local charities such as Youville Centre. We also look forward to welcoming Gavin again when he speaks to our students in our new Transition Course, a course in which our young moms are learning more skills and gathering valuable information from staff and guest speakers alike, to even better prepare them for “life after Youville”.

It’s always a good day when Gavin stops by, and we so appreciate his generosity, attention to detail, and understanding of the needs of our clients.

Thank you, Gavin!

6 February 2014

Students Wow Donors and Volunteers with Media and Artwork

At Youville Centre, we sincerely appreciate our generous volunteers, donors and community partners. Without their help and support, we would simply be unable to continue to motivate, educate and nurture our young mothers and their children at the level of service that we provide. This year, to show our appreciation, our students organized a very special Media Festival event.

The first of its kind in Youville history, this event allowed students to display their artwork, scrapbooks, mixed media pieces and digital films produced from the Me, My Baby, Our World (MMBOW) parenting course and the EMBRACE Your Future course (EMBRACE = Empower, Motivate, Build Resiliency, Role Model, Advocate, Communicate, Educate). Both courses are linked to credits, helping our students get closer to graduation as they learn important life skills. Executive Director Cindy Simpson launched the event by thanking our volunteers, donors and community partners, and then proudly introducing our hardworking students.

Following Cindy’s introduction, students from each class (MMBOW and EMBRACE) described the course content and shared their learning experiences. Felicia, seen below in her EMBRACE Your future t-shirt, expressed her thoughts on the course:

“This EMBRACE Your Future class has been amazing for me. It has taught me to always value myself and that negative self-talk can be hurtful. This class has made me feel more confident that if I just put my mind to something it can be accomplished and to always follow my dreams. I feel more confident in being a mother and dealing with everyday struggles.”

After the introductions, guests were invited to tour the hallway to look at the scrapbooks, and to visit each classroom where artwork and videos were on display. Each student stood beside her work of art, whether it was a video or a scrapbook, so that guests could interact with her and talk about her experiences.

Scrapbooks are an essential component of the United Way-funded Me, My Baby, Our World parenting course. During circle time, photos of moms and babies are taken by our staff and printed out immediately. In the second half of the class, students work on their scrapbooks using the photos taken during circle time. These photos show the bonding and attachment that is occurring between mom and baby, and they provide a visual history of the progress the young moms and children are making in the course. Inside the scrapbooks, moms write birth stories, descriptions of their child’s personality, and letters to their child to accompany the photos and artwork.

Guests thoroughly enjoyed the videos from the EMBRACE course. The students created these videos using iMovie software and with the help of volunteer Tesni Ellis, a graduate student at York University who has been a great help to us in the past year.

Each video was set to music and included voice-over from our young moms as they read letters to their child and made promises to them to always be there for them and protect them as they grow. In her voiceover, one of our young moms, Jordann, expressed the following to her daughter:

“Let me tell you something baby girl I will always be here for you no matter the time, place or the distance between us, when you need me I will fight and find a way to get to you at any time of day. I want you to know that you changed my life for the better. You taught me I can do anything I set my mind to as long as I work hard, it all pays off.”

Our young moms were so proud to share their videos with the donors, volunteers and community partners. The inspirational videos even caused a few happy tears to flow.

This event was planned completely by the students themselves. It was a unique opportunity for our young moms to share their work with those who support them, and the guests left the event feeling proud of, and inspired by the love our students showed toward themselves and their children through their artwork and media presentations.

Without the following donors and volunteers, these programs would not be possible:

Me, My Baby, Our World:

United Way Ottawa
Walton Developments
TD Canada Trust
City of Ottawa Lemieux Island Water Purification Plant
Mr. David Bennett
His Excellency, Governor General of Canada David Johnston and Her Excellency Mrs. Sharon Johnston who donated to our Lending Library

EMBRACE Your Future:

TELUS Ottawa Community Board
The Martel Alliance
Tesni Ellis
Ottawa Police Services
Sexual Assault Support Centre
United Way Ottawa – Project s.t.e.p.
The Ministry of Children & Youth Services (MCYS)

Special thanks to the 25+ volunteers who give the gift of time to our young moms and their children through daily acts of volunteerism in our childcare, swap shop and administrative offices. In the words of Skylah, one of our students in the Me, My Baby, Our World program, the students thank you:

“We are grateful to the committed, caring group of volunteers from the community who give their time and talent to our children and us. The contributions of our ‘Volunteer Family’ make it easier for us to manage our family’s lives and focus on our school work.”

20 December 2013

Christmastime at Youville Centre

Christmastime is a wonderful time of year at Youville Centre, with many special events for our young mothers and their children, generous donations from our wonderful community, and visits from helpful volunteers and guests to make the season bright. It goes without saying that without YOU, we would not be able to provide such a magical Christmas for our young moms and babies each year.

Please take a photo journey with us as we share with you how our centre celebrates the holiday season! This photo journey only highlights some of the generous donors who generously gave at this time of year — we are grateful to all who donated in the form of time, financial contributions, diapers, toys, clothing, bath products, baby products, special treats, gift cards, non-perishable food items and so much more!

On Community Action Day, volunteers from Hydro Ottawa decorated the centre and baked Christmas cookies for our Christmas luncheon.*Stay tuned to our blog and upcoming newsletter for a story about a couple of very special guests who visited the centre and helped prepare us for the holidays!

Moms, staff and babies sang Christmas songs at our Mom & Me Christmas Circle Event.

“The Pyjama Elf” (a.k.a. a new, passionate donor and her team) visited and provided brand new pyjamas for each mom and child in our centre.

We were chosen as a beneficiary of the Christmas Cheer Foundation which enabled us to provide food vouchers for our clients so that they could provide for their young families over the Christmas break.

The Ottawa Food Bank provided holiday extras for our clients in the form of turkeys, hams and grocery vouchers so that our young moms could prepare a special dinner for their children.

Our students “shopped” in the Christmas You-Store with play “dollars” earned through our incentive program. This empowered our young moms to choose and wrap a gift or two to give to their child on Christmas morning.

We received our annual donation of Christmas teddy bears for the children from a group of loyal donors.

Our faithful volunteers picked up, sorted, washed and organized all of the in-kind donations of clothing, toys and other items for our clients — and they did it all with a smile and a healthy portion of Christmas spirit!

Last but not least, we hosted a Christmas Luncheon for our moms, their children and their partners or family members. Everyone enjoyed a tasty turkey dinner, and our special “Elves” from TELUS handed out gift cards to each of the moms! Also helping in the kitchen and serving tables were: board members, community partners, volunteers and staff. Christmas songs were sung and a great time was had by all.

Thank you to EVERYONE who helped us at Youville Centre provide a magical Christmas for our young moms and their children. We wish all of you a healthy, safe and happy holiday season!

19 June 2013

Outpouring of Support for Mother’s Day Campaign

Mother’s Day is an important time at Youville Centre, and this May we continued our tradition with our Mother’s Day Campaign. The campaign is an annual initiative for support from the community, and it focuses on honouring mothers, both here at Youville Centre and in the community.

When donations were given, generous supporters also told us their mother’s name, as the premise of the campaign is to “honour your mother by helping the young mothers of Youville Centre”. As mothers’ names were shared with us, we wrote them on paper tulips that decorated our centre. Slowly each day as donations came in, this ‘paper garden’ grew, and our young moms saw a visual representation of our caring community.

Last year was our first year running this campaign and we were able to raise $3,500! This year we were astonished at the outpouring of support from the community as the campaign raised $7,000!

Our utmost gratitude goes out to each and every one of our donors who supported this campaign! Your donation will go directly to support the innovative programs and services we run at Youville Centre each day.

Thank you for honouring your mother — in doing so, you have directly impacted the lives of Youville Centre’s young mothers and their children.

21 December 2012

A Christmas Lunch for Youville Centre’s Young Families

On Wednesday, December 19th, Youville Centre Staff, Board Members and special guest volunteers hosted a Christmas Lunch for our young mothers and their children. This year the annual lunch was even more special as we extended the invitation to an important person in each young mother’s life.

Some of our students brought their friends, some brought their mother or another important family member, and some brought their partner, the father of their child. It was a beautiful sight to see our young mothers enjoying a festive, hot meal complete with turkey, mashed potatoes and all the fixings with their children and their family members and partners.

The lunch began with a special blessing from Father Steve, a personal friend of Youville Centre, followed by an adorable rendition of Jingle Bells by our toddlers in the SnapDragon and Daisy Rooms who thoroughly enjoyed the bells they got to shake while they sang!

Then Youville Centre Staff, Board Members and special guests served the young moms and their families, and everyone enjoyed their meal. It was a sight to see with high chairs and bibs, turkey, peas and cranberry sauce! Needless to say it was a lively lunch!

After lunch, the Youville Centre Choir sang Ave Maria and led us in a few Christmas Carols. It was touching to see our young moms showing confidence and singing their hearts out! We have a very talented choir!

The Christmas Lunch could not be complete without the arrival of Santa who had a candy cane for the children, and Mrs. Claus (a.k.a. our Executive Director, Cindy Simpson) who had grocery gift cards for each of our 48 students sponsored by The Christmas Cheer Foundation.

Pictured above, L to R: Youville Centre student Hannah and her son, Executive Director Cindy Simpson, and a representative from the Christmas Cheer Foundation.

To cap things off, Youville Centre Staff sang “We Wish You A Merry Christmas” to all in attendance. Just when we thought the lunch was coming to an end, a few of our young moms took the stage to thoughtfully thank all of the staff and community members for everything that was given to them leading up to Christmas, and they presented us with a large handmade thank you card.

A festive time was had by all and it wouldn’t have been possible without the hard work of the staff and volunteers here at Youville Centre, and we must also thank the parishes of St. Philip’s and St. Clare in Richmond for providing much of the food for this event. Also special thanks to Father Steve and to everyone who helped serve at the lunch.

See you in 2013!

21 December 2012

You-Store Makes Christmas Brighter for Young Moms

Thanks to the many generous corporate, individual and community donors who support Youville Centre, Christmas is much brighter each year for our young mothers and their children. At Youville, we do as much as we can to ensure that each young mom’s essential needs are met first, and second, that each of them and their children have some special gifts at this festive time of year.

For many of our students, this will be the first year that they experience a Christmas holiday with traditions, decorations and gifts for themselves and their children. In the weeks preparing for Christmas, we are busy elves, receiving gifts, food, diapers, gift cards, bus tickets and other essentials and treats for our young mothers, and we hide them away in Santa’s Workshop.

On two special days, we open the Christmas “You-Store”. For those of you who have toured our facility, you may be familiar with the You-Store — it is an incentive-based store stocked with brand new items and treats for mom and baby, all donated to us from generous community members and donors. “You-Bucks” are earned to spend in the You-Store when our students display good attendance, positive attitude, volunteer spirit and good effort in parenting.

The You-Store is open all year round, however, the Christmas You-Store is extra special with brand new toys donated from the community for the children of Youville Centre. Each young mother enjoys shopping through the store and selecting three special toys for their child.

When shopping is done, the students head to the wrapping stations and carefully wrap each package for their child. It is wonderful to overhear the excitement that occurs during these two special shopping days at Youville Centre.

On behalf of Youville Centre’s young mothers and their children, our sincere thanks goes out to everyone who donated to us this year leading up to Christmas. It is because of your generosity of spirit that Christmas will be brighter for our young moms and their children.

Merry Christmas!

24 September 2012

Youville Centre Donors Love to Golf!

We are very fortunate to have people such as Hassa Mirchandani and his team at Bytown Travel Ltd., the Knights of Columbus Holy Redeemer Council # 9544 and the Knights of Columbus of Divine Infant Parish in our donor community. Each year these three groups each host a golf tournament, and Youville Centre’s young mothers and children are grateful to benefit from their charitable efforts. What better way to raise funds and awareness about a charitable cause than to get some fresh air, exercise and socialize with friends and colleagues. Thank you to everyone who participated in these three tournaments!

Pictured above, L to R: Mr. Claude Sauve (General Manager, Fairmont Chateau Laurier), Deborah Sauve, William Joe and John Jarvis (General Manager, The Westin Ottawa) enjoy a sunny day of golf at the 17th Annual Bytown Travel Golf Classic in support of Youville Centre and the Education Foundation of Ottawa.

L to R: Cindy Simpson (Executive Director, Youville Centre), Clarence Maheral and Stephen Duludeof the Knights of Columbus Holy Redeemer Council, with two of Youville Centre’s infants.

Recently, Stephen Dulude and Clarence Maheral of the Knights of Columbus Holy Redeemer Council #9544 dropped by the Centre to deliver the proceeds from this year’s Rita Maheral Memorial Charity Golf Tournament. We are quite blessed to be a chosen charity of this group of Knights. Thank you!

Last but not least, the Knights of Columbus of Divine Infant Parishalso held a golf tournament, this one was in support of both Youville Centre and Miriam Centre. This generous group plans to make it an annual event so we look forward to it next year! With a great turnout, fun was had by all and they raised over $7,000 to be divided among our two charities. Many thanks to the event organizers and sponsors, and to everyone who attended. Please see below for a few photos from the tournament!

If you are interested in participating in any of these golf tournaments next year, please contact us at (613) 231-5150 Ext. 128 and we would be happy to connect you with our generous donors!

Happy Golfing!

11 September 2012

Local Photographer Shines a Light on Youville Centre

Here at Youville Centre we are very fortunate to benefit from the time and talent of many volunteers and community members. One such supporter of Youville Centre is local photographer, Dwayne Brown. Each Christmas season, Dwayne volunteers hours of his time photographing, editing and developing portraits of our young mothers and their children. His work is quite beautiful and he does a great job of capturing our courageous young women and their children as you can see from the photos below:

Recently Dwayne informed us that he was going to continue to help us spread the word about Youville Centre through his creative photography project, “Exposed“. A labour of love, this project allows Dwayne to share his personal work for free by posting it around the city. Dwayne even decided to take the project to the next level and use it to help promote charitable causes and themes. This month’s theme is “back to school“, so he chose to help us spread the word about our unique school!

Each photo now has a card on the back with information about Youville Centre, and this will continue until he chooses another worthy recipient for the month of October.

You can follow Dwayne’s blog to keep track of the project by clicking here or follow him on Twitter @_dwayne_brown_ and maybe you’ll even be the lucky recipient of a free photo!

Many thanks to Dwayne for continuing to think of Youville Centre in his charitable efforts.

11 September 2012

Youville Moms Ready for School Thanks to MBNA

For two years now, MBNA‘s Women In Leadership (WIL) Grouphas been supporting Youville Centre’s young mothers and their children in various ways. From diaper drives to food and clothing drives, financial support, event participation and guest speaking presentations, this amazing group has been with us along the way. With another academic year upon us, we were very happy to learn that the women of MBNA had decided to purchase school bags and school supplies for all 48 of our current students, and a few extra for new students that may join us in the coming months.

As you can see in the photos below, our young moms were very happy to receive their bags! Inside each bag was a healthy supply of paper, pens, a calculator, folders, and other essential tools that will help them stay on track and work towards their Ontario Secondary School credits.

Many thanks goes to MBNA’s Women in Leadership (WIL) Groupfor this wonderful gift! It is truly inspiring to have women in our community who choose to support the young women of Youville Centre as they reach toward their dreams.

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