Youth Aflame Programs
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Community Food Advisor Program
Food
Reach
Mental Health
Suicide Awareness
North Victoria Healthy Communities Coalition
The Students Commission
S.E.R.V.E.
Hens and Chics
Memberships and Associations
Youth Aflame is a local Christian charity
involved in social service work and committed to working with various groups
in our local communities. We endeavor to work with community groups to improve
the health and quality of life of families through needed and creative
outreach activities in both the rural and the urban communities. The scope of
our direct work has included all of Victoria County (now City of Kawartha
Lakes) and some work in Haliburton County (although our team members have
experience working in the four counties of Haliburton, Victoria, Peterborough,
and Northumberland). We have chosen to focus in the North City of Kawartha
Lakes area over the past few years.
The following is a detailed description of some of our projects from the
past seven years. You will note that we have experience in: leadership;
facilitation; collaboration and networking; fund-raising; working across
service / program, sectoral and organizational boundaries; expenditure
management; asset based community development; community quality of life
enhancement techniques; child, youth, and family program development;
electronic skills usage; and various communication techniques. We also have
knowledge of: early childhood education and development; physical and mental
health needs; healthy communities; organization development; rural versus
urban needs; and, the inclusion of all members of the community, including
isolated and remote areas.
Most of the projects that we have are volunteer run and supported with no
paid staff. We have had involvement from all age groups - both the youth and
seniors worked together in the breakfast programs especially. All of our
programs are non-stigmatizing and accessible to all segments in our community.
We have had representation on projects from all sectors including health,
social service, volunteer organizations, local government, businesses,
churches etc. It has been our intent to disseminate information to other
groups and we have the potential to teach and inspire others.
Youth Aflame does not try to create a high profile in the community because
our efforts to date have been to stimulate the community to action. We have
predominantly helped communities with the development of programs, enabled
them to become self-sustaining, and then moved on to other goals and projects.
We will continue to support programs if they need it, but our main work was to
have the community develop the ownership, and therefore the incentive, to keep
a program going (or to adapt it as required). However, our vision and plans
are developing in a new direction with much anticipation as to the plans God
has revealed.
Our expertise has, however, been recognized by many outside organizations.
We have been asked to present at Ontario Healthy Community Conferences on
fund-raising and community development. We have been an active member and
presenter for the Ontario Prevention Clearinghouse / Centre for Health
Promotion "Mapping Project". We continually update our knowledge through
participation at community conferences, through online discussion groups, and
through the involvement of other resource people as required. Because we have
experience at community and program development from a grass-roots level, we
believe that we can assist community programs to develop and flourish.
In the following brief program outlines, you will begin to see that our
programs and skills cover a broad sector of the community and have included
numerous partnerships. We have also included programs / organizations that our
team members have been involved in throughout the region. Our references are
available on request.
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Community Food Advisor Program
Youth Aflame is the lead organization and in cooperation with the Ontario
Ministry of Agriculture, Food & Rural Affairs (OMAFRA), the HKPR District
Health Unit, Family Resources of Victoria County, Ross Memorial Hospital, and
the Lindsay Boys& Girls Club. We trained 28 volunteers from September 1999 to
May 2000 in this program. Since being trained, these volunteers have gone out
into the local communities and have provided free training on nutrition as
well as food sanitation and safety issues. The home base for this project is
located in Lindsay.
We have recently entered in an agreement with OMAFRA to expand this program
into the North Victoria (City of Kawartha Lakes) and Haliburton area.
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Food Reach
This is our student nutrition program and information service. We initiated
and provided ongoing support to several school breakfast programs, both in
Victoria and Haliburton Counties over a period of four years. Food relief as
well as labor support was available for this from various foundations,
corporations, and the government. In cooperation with the Canadian Living
Foundation, local businesses, service clubs and food wholesalers, we initiated
the NutriLink project. Food Reach was the umbrella organization that supported
the development and continuation of children’s nutrition programs in the area.
Over the four years we provided supported direct services feeding children
over 18,000 meals per year that were provided free of charge through programs
that we initiated and/or supported. Youth Aflame is also registered with the
Ontario Association of Food Banks. Recognizing that the nutritional needs of
children exist outside of the school year, we developed a summer snack program
as an extension of our school child nutrition programs. This was a free,
healthy summer project referred to as a kids summer snack pack. Families that
need assistance obtained healthy foodstuffs such as fruit and vegetables.
Information on the program was distributed at the end of the school year and
especially promoted to the children and families who had been using the school
breakfast program. The current work of this program has been that of a
consulting and facilitating role for alternative food relief programs such as
community kitchens and some breakfast/snack programs.
As a result of the Harris government and the Canadian Living foundation
repeat funding for breakfast programs that became available, we decided to
concentrate our efforts on the Community Food Advisor program. Several of the
Community Food Advisors have had direct involvement with alternative programs
including school programs.
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Northern Connections Health Promotion Project
Youth Aflame initiated and developed this local mental health program. This
area has been economically depressed and suffers from a high level of
depression. Youth Aflame made an application to Health Canada for a project
that would see the development of local info-centres and a community
newsletter. This was approved under the sponsorship of Chimo Youth and Family
Services Inc. of Lindsay. Today there are nine info centres in the five local
communities and there have been over 1500 brochures (such as the CMHA
brochures) and 9000 newsletters distributed in the local communities. Although
the funding for the program ended, the info-centres are still operating and
there are plans to continue the newsletter with local sponsorship. We also
promoted healthy living by offering information on a wide range of topics such
as parenting, nutrition, active lifestyle, etc.
The Committee On Suicide Awareness
Youth Aflame helped to found and continues to support this committee which
is composed of several residents who have come together to address the suicide
issue in the area. This committee has provided teaching to various groups
including the Pregnancy Crisis Centre, Sir Sandford Fleming College and other
schools. We have also trained 40 individuals in Suicide Intervention Workshops
that have been held in Coboconk. Until Lindsay became a local call, we, in
cooperation with Telecare Lindsay and Peterborough, sponsored a local
telephone number. This committee is currently operational on a limited basis
and still provides community education and support.
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North Victoria Healthy Communities Coalition
Another outcome of the health promotion project, Youth Aflame has been the
main sponsor of this initiative. This coalition has brought together community
members around issues regarding the health of the community and we have done a
few events such as community round table discussions and a youth outreach.
Youth Aflame has received a lot of community development educational
support through the Healthy Communities Concept and we have been able to
develop the following :
"
An Asset Based Community
Development project. This project was conducted in cooperation
with the Trillium Foundation and utilized the principles of
Building Communities From The Inside Out by John McKnight. We
began by mapping the individual assets in our local communities,
conducted an extensive needs survey and began to develop an electronic
"Community Well" of information.
"
We initiated the development of
a Community Access Program site in 1997. We have since joined
with the Victoria County CAP program and operate a site at the Hens &
Chics location in Coboconk.
"
We have worked with local youth
and had a some local youth apply to the Trillium Get Up! Stand Up!
program under the name Youth N’Action. Their desire was, and
continues to be, to develop a composition of the local history that
could be utilized for tourism, web sites, local school education, etc.
We would like to see a local Youth Committee. We were able to
take some of the local disadvantaged youth to Canada’s Wonderland free
of charge with the assistance of the local Civitan Club.
"
We assisted the Northern
Connections project with a community presentation at the local
Agricultural fair. This was done with assistance from the Great Lakes
Health Effects program of Health Canada, the Ministry of Natural
Resources, Wee Wonder Day Care Inc., the Ontario Healthy Communities
Coalition, and utilized free tents from CFB Trenton. This event was
chosen so that we could reach some of the local residents who spend a
majority of their time on the farm. We had over 500 people through on
the weekend.
"
We initially set up an
Internet Web Page (www.kawartha.net/~nvhcc) and have been asked by
various local groups to search for information for them. Our next step
with this project is to update the page, join with the local CAP site
and to encourage other local groups to put information online. This
page has not been updated but will be this spring / summer.
"
The NVHCC was also a pilot
community site and a presenter in the "Mapping Ontario Community
Health Promotion Programs" project. This project is a joint effort of
the Ontario Prevention Clearinghouse, Health Canada, and the Centre
for Health Promotion at the University of Toronto (www.web.net/~stirling).
"
To provide some input of the
needs of the local community, the NVHCC was also represented on the
Haliburton, Kawartha, Pine Ridge District Health Council on the
Rural Task Force.
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The Student’s Commission
In 2000, Youth Aflame sponsored two youth to participate in the national
conference on child poverty held near Ottawa. They have continued to be
involved in a number of poverty related issues in the community and at their
High School.
S.E.R.V.E.
S.E.R.V.E is a five year old committee which brings together members
of the Christian community in order to assist the local schools and youth.
Some of the initial activities have included a community meeting with the
Principal and representatives from the Fenelon Falls Secondary School, a
recreation evening for the local youth, and the development of a support
network for the school, youth, & community and recently, leadership
development.
We have provided administrative support and assistance with liability for
the operation of the sports nights. Otherwise, this group is autonomous.
Hens & Chics
This is an outreach in Coboconk that has operated for three summers and one
full year as of July/02. It is a local ‘meeting place for creativity’ and drop
in where local artisans can sell their products and offer low cost or free
craft training to adults and children. We have various health information and
resource assistance, a lending library and are a host site for a children’s
play group. The fundraising component which is the gift shop out front assists
us with the overhead expenses of the drop in and the funds raised are also
used in the local programs. It also provides education for students around
community development.
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Memberships and Associations
Youth Aflame Ministries and/or its programs and/or its members are/or have
been associated with
- Ontario Association of Food Banks
- Ontario Healthy Communities Coalition - Health Canada (Northern Connections)
- Haliburton Highlands Community Mapping Project
- Ontario Child Nutrition Program - Coalition for Student Nutrition
- Voices for Children / Sparrow Lake
Alliance - National Addictions Awareness
Week (Nechi Institute)
-Haliburton Mental Health
Planning Group -The Student’s Commission - Family Resources - Victoria
County
- Children’s Services - Victoria
County - FourInfo - 4 County Information
Network - Rural Abuse Network
- Spiral Gardens - Child
Education Project - Canadian Society of Nutrition
Management - Ontario Public Health
Association
- Coboconk Economic Committee - Canadian Association of Suicide
Prevention
- 4 County Rural Task Force /
Suicide Task Force - Ontario Prevention
Clearinghouse/CHP Mapping project
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