YMCA’s program for Black youth is expanding!

YMCA’s program for Black youth is expanding!

The YMCA Black Achievers Mentorship Program is dedicated to empowering Black youth by fostering personal, social, and leadership development while instilling cultural pride. Our mission is to support their educational journeys, encouraging them to pursue post-secondary education and achieve academic success.

Through mentorship, workshops, scholarships, campus and workplace visits, and much more, our Black Achievers are overcoming systematic barriers as they discover, pursue, and achieve their educational and career dreams! Since the program began in 2021, 45 youth have graduated high school in good standing and successfully transitioned into their first, second, and third years of post-secondary education.

The program has supported applications for over $100,000 in post-secondary awards to our students through our donors and community partners. And we’re only getting started.

Here we grow!

The Black Achievers program was initially launched in four key Scarborough communities where systemic and societal barriers have contributed to disproportionately high high school dropout rates and lower post-secondary admission rates among Black youth. The program has proudly expanded and today serves all communities across Scarborough.

In October 2024, after three successful years running the Black Achievers in Scarborough, we expanded again! Thanks to the generous support of our donors, we now have two new locations in Brampton and Etobicoke. This expansion allowed us to meet the growing demand for the program, reach more youth, and gradually increase our team from one to seven dedicated staff.

Black Achievers is growing in other ways, too. Initially, the program offered six career fields: business & communication, law & government, engineering, social work, education, and health & medical. Today, we offer nine career fields, with mentors supporting our youth in additional areas like computer science & technology, marketing & television, and arts & entertainment.

Our donors make all of this possible

Thanks to The Barrett Family Foundation, Ontario Trillium Foundation, CIBC Foundation, Rogers, Peter Gilgan Foundation, Donette Chin-Loy Chang, and others for making the incredible growth of Black Achievers possible.