Back 2 Basickz Youth Support Services partners with Frontlines to launch the Black Youth Outreach Program

BY PAUL JUNOR

The grand opening of Back 2 Basickz Youth Services has provided Scarborough youth with an: innovative, creative and proactive Black Youth Centre. It was made possible through funding by the Crime Prevention Action Fund of Public Safety Canada. The new center is located at 880 Ellesmere Road (3rd floor) near the intersection of Kennedy Road and Ellesmere Road.

It was founded by Amanda Coombs in 2013. The mission of the non-profit organization is to provide: academic, social, economic and entrepreneurial support for youth who are involved with the criminal justice system. The motto of this community-based organization is “Inspiring youth to realize their potential.”

The new location offers mental health programs for Black youth starting January 30^th, in partnership with Frontlines.  With respect to B2B the press release states it was founded with the primary objective of creating a safe space for marginalized and racialized youth to come together, acquire essential skills, and build a solid foundation for their futures.

Their mission revolves around empowering marginalized and racialized youth by offering comprehensive support in various aspects of life including mental health, education, employment, and social integration. They strive to break the cycle of poverty that many of these youth experience by providing them with valuable resources, and the tools to help them excel and overcome the challenges they are experiencing.

Amanda Coombs states, “It’s amazing to go back to Scarborough and the community that helped me and my son when we were going through very difficult challenges. It’s full circle to go back not as a service user, but as a service provider to make a difference to youth.”

She knows personally what it is like to spend time in a shelter as she had to resort to one and obtain help from a church that is adjacent to where the new office is located in Scarborough. The partnering organization Frontlines is located in the Weston-Mount Dennis community; their mission is to tackle the many challenges that vulnerable children and youth from BIPOC communities face in the Greater Toronto Area. It offers a range of programs and services such as education, employment, entrepreneurship, and empowerment geared to youth between the ages of six and 29.

Stachen Frederick, Executive Director of Weston Toronto states, “Grassroots organizations are the glue of our communities. As someone who founded a grassroots organization years ago, I could only dream of having an organization such as Frontlines provide funding and support for work that I love doing. This funding will have great impacts for generations to come.”

B2B will receive about one million dollars, which will stretch over five years to initiate the Black Youth Outreach (B-YOU) United Project. The press release specifies that it will provide culturally appropriate programs for Scarborough’s Black youth ages 12 to 21, who are in school and non-students who have been involved or at risk of getting involved in the justice system. There were three other organizations: Helping Hands, Challenge the Outcomes Youth Services and Student Leadership Youth Empowerment that also received funding.

The B-YOU project will focus on the following four areas:

• Employment – from job shadowing to entrepreneurs’ workshops to referrals
• Education – from free tutoring to post-secondary guidance to volunteering
• Mental health emergency crisis intervention to counseling
• Positive peer relationships – from one-to-one interactions to group engagements