What a year.
As I’m sure you’ve all felt in some shape or form, this has been one like no other, and we’ve each been called upon to adapt, sit with the unknown, and tap into our inner reserves of patience and fortitude.
Within New Leaf, we have faced pandemic-related challenges that include a significant decrease in the funding we’d come to rely on from impacted family foundations and hard-hit small businesses, a reduction in staffing, and the inability to hold any of our close to 30 in-person programs—the heart of our work for the past 13 years.
This year, however, also presented an opportunity for us as an organization to lean into the creative and resourceful spirit of New Leaf and our amazing team, and to transform the challenges we faced into pathways for exciting organizational evolution.
As always, our priority remains to support young people and those who care for them. Firmly rooted in this focus, we spent the first half of our fiscal year running 29 frontline programs at 10 sites, reaching approximately 900 youth and 100 caregivers.
Since pandemic-related closures in March 2020, we quickly adapted and created a library of digital mindfulness-based resources to support continued home practice, hosted virtual workshops on stress & mindfulness to more than 270 youth service providers & educators, and began offering weekly phone and/or virtual sessions where possible to youth who were incarcerated.
Additionally, we forged some inspiring new partnerships with organizations like Manifesto, LayUp Basketball, RexPride, Rexdale Community Health Center and The Forgiveness Project, hosting a spectrum of virtual offerings.
New Leaf also carried out an important survey that reached approximately 100 young people in the Toronto area which helped us learn about the toll the pandemic was having on their mental, emotional and physical health and what resources felt would be most beneficial for them.
I want to extend an extra huge thank you to our staff, facilitators, Board, and supporters for navigating the past year with thoughtfulness, flexibility and creativity. Thank you to donors who were able to stand by us during these challenging times and who understood the need to re-imagine our work. I believe that what we began developing this year will not only support youth during the remainder of the pandemic but throughout the coming years.
Thank you for reading on to learn more details about what we accomplished together.
Wishing you health and happiness,
Laura Sygrove
Executive Director