I hope you are all doing well! My name is Maja and I work with the Toronto Foundation for Student Success. As we approach the end of 2022, I wanted to touch base, say hi, and give the Youth and Education Fund a fall update. The past three months have brought both challenges and successes and given your investment in us, I thought you’d want to hear about both!
First of all, Beyond 3:30, kicked off the school year in-person and on time! From the first day, our attendance has been up and at some school sites, we’ve nearly doubled in size. Between our increased academic and tutoring supports, a focus on mental health (thanks to our partnership with CAMH), a healthy supper, and space to be loud and run around, more students are signing up. Since September, we’ve been working to bring back more of our pre-pandemic specialty programming like field trips, targeted workshops, and our famous talent show. We started the year with a baseball program thanks to the support of Jays Care. This month, students are learning to code with Canada Learning Code. After that it’s science workshops with Visions of Science, a site-wide B330 basketball tournament at Metropolitan University, and rugby coaching with TIRF rugby. And then more.
We’re extremely glad to share that our Gift of Sight and Sound program has officially launched for the first time since the pandemic hit. Schools are incredibly eager to get the program to their students. We spent the summer hiring and training a new team of international medical graduates to reanimate the program and since then, we’ve been in schools, checking the hearing/vision of students, and providing free prescription glasses that they so need. The demand is very high and while we’re working hard to reach every child across the city who needs us, we know that it may take us more than this year to be completely back to normal.

Student Nutrition Programs are up and running, serving meals and snacks to students across the city. With the staggering price of food, many students are relying on their schools’ nutri- tion program to get them through the day. To keep up with the costs and increased demand, we’ve been working extra-hard to ensure that students have access to a healthy meal/snack at their school. In part, we’re doing that through our Nutrition Pantry Program, which has been providing additional food to schools who need extra support.
One last highlight, we’re excited to share that TFSS has made the Top 10 Canadian Youth Im- pact Charities list again this year (as well as the Top 5 Charities in Toronto and the Top 100 Rated Charities)! Of course, we couldn’t have made such a significant impact without our sol- id supporters. The Youth and Education Fund’s generosity has helped us get through some pretty tricky times, and we wanted you to know how grateful we are. On behalf of everyone at TFSS, thank you!
If you have any questions, I’d be happy to arrange a call or meet for a coffee. It would be great to thank you in real-time.

Maja Shannon,

Development Officer,

maja.shannon@tfss.ca,

(437) 227-8515.