Blake Boultee Youth Outreach Services

TFN Funding Report
for Tides Canada

On May 4th, 2006 I made a presentation to the Toronto Funding Network with the sponsorship of TFN member David Schatzky.  Having just six minutes to speak I chose to simply tell the story of my work with one client rather than giving a wide overview of the agency.  This tale would incorporate the entire essence of our philosophy, the scope our service, the complexity of the human issues we see on a daily basis and of course demonstrate a true success story.

To our good fortune the members of the audience were able to grasp the importance of our work and then generously pledged with tremendous support.  At the end of the evening we raised nearly $25,000, almost double what we had expected to earn. 

At Blake Boultbee Youth Outreach Service (BBYOS)  we work with high-risk young people and families from all over the City of Toronto. Our clients come to us with the hope of making major changes in their lives, changes that will enable them to overcome the debilitating effects of prolonged abuse, horribly dysfunctional inter-personal relationships with peers and family, dreadful life skills, and an overall sense of futility about the prospects for their futures.  We connect with each individual or family through intensive counseling and therapy, which may include life skills training, advocacy and in many cases crisis intervention.  BBYOS is unique in that we do not have time limited programming; WE do not terminate our service to clients, they decide when they no longer need or want to continue their work.  We know that in order to make sustainable and real change to destructive and negative patterns it takes a great deal of time.  It is this that BBYOS offers and provides to our clients.

The funds we received from the attendees at the TFN Funding Event have been used in a number of ways.  Those monies helped provide crucial staffing stability, contributed to the upgrading of our physical space and perhaps most importantly, and surprisingly, helped to leverage more significant long-term funding.  I am not exaggerating when I say that being part of that TFN event was perhaps the most special single fundraising activity in our 20 year history. I have since become a member of the TFN community and enthusiastically share the possibilities with friends and colleagues.

Thank you for allowing BBYOS to be a part of the TFN experience.

Rod Cohen
Executive Director/Therapist
Blake Boultbee Youth Outreach Service