5 - Rideau Street Youth Enterprises
Rideau Street Youth Enterprises (RSYE) was formed in 1992 in response to a physical redevelopment of Rideau Street – one of the main commercial areas in downtown Ottawa. At that time a group of social agencies, businesses and a local politician came together and decided to start an initiative with the intention of ensuring street-involved youth were included, rather than excluded, from the redevelopment.
Mission:
To help marginalized youth to make a successful transition to employment or education, and to make a contribution back to the community.
RSYE functions as a social enterprise and a training program. The social enterprise part of RSYE takes on contracts to perform a variety of jobs requiring general labour. This arrangement provides street-involved youth with a flexible and legal way of earning money as an alternative to some of the illegal ways such as prostitution or dealing drugs. This is important for the youth because most have a very strong value that they do not want to be on social assistance. Some of the biggest clients for RSYE’s services are the City of Ottawa (for a variety of maintenance, cleaning and general labour) and Eucan (for cleaning, installation and maintenance of the seating/advertising/garbage/recycling boxes at bus stops.
Through its training programs, RSYE provides an opportunity for youth who are ready to engage in training for types of work for which there is significant demand in Ottawa. RSYE runs two pre-apprenticeship training initiatives – construction work and automotive work. The six-month training model that RSYE has developed includes a lifeskills component, a skill-based component (introduction to the trade), work on a specific community-based project, and a placement in a workplace. The community-based project for construction work is the conversion of a former firehall to supportive housing for John Howard Society (in partnership with the construction unions), while the project for the automotive program involves the construction of a Shelby Cobra kit car (in partnership with Canadian Tire) which is being raffled as a fundraiser for a local charity. The model for the training programs were inspired by YouthBuild USA.
The frustrations in the development of the training programs are that HRSDC (the main funder) is very restrictive in the model that it supports, which is not the best fit for the participants. One specific gap is that they will not permit the integration of an educational component, which is one of the most important things many of the youth are looking for.
Approximately 100 youth/year participate in RSYE programs – either working on labour contracts or participating in the training. The general labour component of RSYE’s work is self funded through the contract work. The training programs are partly funded through HRSDC and partly through fundraising. RSYE also receives a small annual grant through the Trillium Foundation.
For more information, contact:
Jan Sistek
Manager, Rideau Street Youth Enterprises
Phone: (613) 562-3864
Email: rideaustreetyouth@bellnet.ca
