Giving back through Youth Amplified

Big Brothers Big Sisters of Peel creates individual and group mentoring relationships between children and youth and adults. The mentorships target children and youth who face adversities in their lives. Mentorship can help these young people build resiliency in the face of adversity – and realize their full potential.

Sheridan launched its first virtual BIGS On Campus Group Mentoring Program in Fall 2020, pairing up volunteer Sheridan student mentors with a group of youth from the Brampton community. This program runs annually.

Eclypse Youth Centre has been operating since 1999 as a multi-service youth drop-in centre for 12–24 year olds living in Brampton and Mississauga. Eclypse provides direct services to youth who have difficulty accessing services through the more traditional approaches in the social services, education, employment and health sectors.

Sheridan has teamed up with Eclypse to run a Postsecondary Readiness Series, engaging youth in interactive, virtual sessions to talk about career and education pathways, financial aid, the postsecondary application process and thriving in college or university.

Black Boys Code is a national organization that introduces Black boys (ages 8–17) to the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) fields with a focus on computer science. Their vision is to help Black boys identify and grow their own skills and talents, expand their knowledge, and provide them with crucial training, skills, and tools to thrive in a digital world. The goal of Black Boys Code is to increase the technology pipeline for Black boys who would like to have careers in the technology industry.

Black Boys Code hosts digital literacy workshops in universities and colleges across North America to help Black boys become comfortable in these higher learning educational settings at an early age. Their initiatives include exposure workshops, hackathons, after school programs, and summer technology camps.

ArtHouse serves the Halton community and provides free arts-based programs for vulnerable children and youth aged 7–17 who could not otherwise access such programming. Sheridan works with ArtHouse to engage young people with our world-renowned artists from the Faculty of Animation, Arts & Design.

ArtHouse believes there has never been a greater need for arts-based programs than there is today, as it enhances creativity, resilience, self-discovery, confidence and skills-building capacity for the new economy.

Home Suite Hope provides a network of vital wrap-around support services for homeless or precariously housed single parent families in Halton Region. Home Suite Hope helps women transition out of poverty and into prosperity.

Part of this support is creating access to a postsecondary education at Sheridan. With targeted, meaningful resources, including mentorship, Home Suite Hope and Sheridan give these women the skills to secure a job and move forward through higher education and onto self-sustainability.