Guidance for Loved Youth Foster Care is rising against all odds

BY MICHAEL THOMAS

Guidance for Loved Youth Foster Care aka GFLY is a Black run organization that is dedicated to making sure that Black and Indigenous youth in the criminal justice system survives and soar in their efforts to realize their full potential.

One of the mottos of this organization is to make sure they give a family-like environment for these youth to flourish, but like lots of things in life, there are obstacles that this organization will have to jump over to reach their destination.

I spoke with the founder of this organization Shereen Callender about the organization’s plans, her courage in the face of adversity, and how God is front and center in all that her fraternity is doing.

Callender, who started her career at the Toronto District School Board and worked her way up to Peel Children’s Aid, has been in the caring for youth business for over fifteen years told me, when her organization applied for help from Durham CAS “I was told on Zoom meeting with Michelle Watson there is no need for a program like this as Black and Indigenous youth are not the concern right now, and that there was a type of Police organization that was doing something similar already, so there was no need for another one.”

All this when it is public knowledge that Black children make up a large part of the population in the Children’s Aid Society here in this country.

Callender told me she also reached out to Toronto’s Mayor’s office in connection to set up a meeting but that too went dead, “I sent them the date and time as requested but never got a follow-up,” she said.

“Both the Mayors of Ajax and Brampton actually opened up my email and did not respond back to me.”

I asked Callender why folks who should have had these youths’ best interest at heart not reply to her request and she answered, “Because it is not on their agenda, it’s not their main focus, maybe it does not bring in the money that they need it to bring in.”

That said, Callender is a fighter and will not be discouraged in her efforts. Her organization is currently hosting a staffing agency, supporting youths that are going through troubling times by creating programs for them.

GFLY is also partners with DKH Visionary, which is a Black organization that focuses on youth that are striving to be athletes but are dealing with mental health.

Together they put programs in place for youth: there is a co-op program, and a car dealership where youths can come in and work.

“We actually pay them,” Callender said, “We are also partners with Candy Apple Personal Trainer, who personally trains the youth to have that experience to get the physical aspects of their movement and we do counselling through working out. We also have a mental health nurse attached to Guidance for Loved Youth who works with the youths on a one-to-one basis with counselling.”

Callender said, “If any youth comes to Guidance for Loved Youth Foster Care there is always help.” Her fraternity is not all about money, “We go above and beyond for that youth, it’s about helping them and showing that someone actually loves them, some actually cares, someone actually wants to see them succeed.”

As for plans, she said, “We have already put in our application to become a foster care service. We can help Black and Indigenous youth that have been charged with criminal offenses, are living in halfway houses, going in and out of the jail system, they can be placed in homes with a family-like environment to give them what they were missing, which is the reason why they committed these crimes.”

“Guidance for Loved Youth is going to be a huge organization that is going to be a one-stop-shop in giving the support that is needed, where it is lacking,” Callender said.