About

From 2007 to 2025, New Leaf Foundation supported the mental, emotional, and physical health of young people by addressing both the negative impacts of stress and its root causes.

History

New Leaf Foundation was a Toronto-based registered charitable organization that operated from 2007 until 2025, offering mindfulness-based programs, education, and resources to address the causes and impacts of chronic stress on youth and the adults that care for them.
Co-founded in 2007 by Laura Sygrove and Jessica Robertson, the organization was born out of a shared passion that more accessible opportunities to foster wellness be shared with more young people, free from barriers.

New Leaf solidified its foundations within the first five years with the support of a strong collective of individuals that contributed significantly to the organization’s commitments, values and foundational work. These contributors include founding Board Directors and staff: Julia Gibran, Shaka Licorish, Nicole Madison, Felicia Ross, jamilah malika abu-bakare, and Kate Love.

Most importantly, every young person we engaged over the years and each facilitator that led our frontline programs helped us continuously clarify and refine our relational, trauma-informed and anti-oppressive model.

Please check out our annual reports to learn more about all the amazing people who carried out our work over close to two decades.

Program Origins

New Leaf’s first program was launched in a provincially-operated youth custody facility for young men in 2007 with sessions offered to both residents and staff.

As a result of the success of the pilot program, several other Ministry-run facilities in London, Brampton, Simcoe, and Kitchener/Waterloo reached out to New Leaf Foundation requesting to implement initiatives at their sites. New Leaf partnered with a total of eight custody facilities for youth in Ontario.

Expanding our Scope

Starting in 2009, New Leaf expanded the scope of our work to include an additional focus on prevention, forming partnerships with gang-exit initiative Breaking the Cycle at both their Etobicoke and Scarborough locations.

This work expanded further in 2012 through a formal partnership with the Toronto District School Board, Free Up drop-ins in Scarborough and Rexdale, and long-term collaborations with youth-serving organizations such as Youth Without Shelter, MLSE LaunchPad, Pathways to Education, Peacebuilders Canada, and others.

Closure

New Leaf Foundation has often been lovingly described as “the little engine that could”. For more than 18 years, the organization produced highly respected and sought-out programming and resources with modest funding and a small but amazing staff team.

Due to increasing challenges around sustainability in a changed post-pandemic philanthropic landscape, in November 2024, New Leaf’s Board of Directors and co-founders decided to formally close the organization’s “doors”, effective March 2025.

We are especially grateful for the incredible leadership of Interim Executive Director and long-time staff member, Amanda Nicholls, during this difficult time, as well as the dedication and work of Communications and Partnerships Coordinator, Faith Jones, our Board of Directors (Dione Clarke, Imesia Ewan, Jessica Robertson and Felicia Ross) and our friends at illustr8 and EPIC Leadership for their on-going support.

Anchored in New Leaf’s guiding principle of accessibility, the organization’s final mission was to close mindfully, transparently, and with a commitment to confirming new pathways for much of our work to live on.

Please visit our Resources page to learn more about where you can access free resources and connect with community partners who are stewarding aspects of our work.

Approach

New Leaf Foundation offered multi-session frontline programs in partnership with community partners including schools, youth service organizations, and youth justice facilities. Our priority was engaging young people aged 12-20 who faced unequal access to resources and a high potential for stress due to experiences of oppression, violence, neglect, stigmatization, and poverty.

Through a relational model that prioritized trauma-informed and anti-oppression frameworks, New Leaf Foundation shared tools that supported youth to increase a sense of emotional governance and reduce the negative impacts that acute and chronic stress had on their bodies, minds and emotions.

We also worked to disrupt potential sources of harm by educating service providers, educators, parents and the public about how chronic and traumatic stress is produced, how it might manifest as behaviours labeled as “acting out,” and how to support youth in strengths-based ways.

Method

New Leaf’s methodology applied the philosophy of mindfulness to three main practices: movement, breathing, and awareness, which we referred to as MBA. Using all three practices to help regulate the nervous system and build front-brain capacities like perspective, reasoning, decision-making, and communication, our goal was to provide tools that supported moving out of survival mode and into a greater sense of agency and empowerment.

Our program model created a strong internal framework for how our sessions are offered. It included activities to build connection within the group, life skills themes, introductory meditation, mindful movement, and strategies for transferring topics and practices to everyday life.

Our core teachings provided a roadmap for youth to develop a stronger connection with themselves and their communities. It created the opportunity to increase mindful awareness, build the capacity to work skillfully with emotions, increase self-esteem, and cultivate wellness on mental, emotional, and physical levels.

You can learn about our methodology and approach in detail by taking our FREE online training, available until August 2025.