What’s Your Path’s History

In 2018, we received a SEED Grant from the Ontario Trillium Foundation* to explore a “What’s Your Path” Hub.  By meaningfully engaging youth, the What’s Your Path Youth Hub Project identified the challenges Flamborough youth faced collectively and determined how we could provide the resources needed to build pathways to success in their community. 

Building upon this concept, the “What’s Your Path” Program took shape.

*At the time, HYN was not incorporated as a not-for-profit and therefore required a partner for the application. For this application, we partnered with Flamborough Connects.

What We Learned

Working with our youth, we learned that the “Hub” term did not resonate with them and so the logo was adjusted to reflect the new vision.

Utilizing existing youth spaces (YMCA, Library, Youth Centre, etc.) and meeting youth where they already were (school, work, volunteering, programs/clubs, sports organizations), meant we did not need to create another “Hub”. Instead we would collaborate with these partners to form a network that would seek to improve outcomes for youth.

Next Steps

We are currently working with our partners to develop a guided and interactive approach where teens have the opportunity to:

• Learn more about themselves, their strengths and passions
• Develop an online portfolio
• Understand more about career clusters and the opportunities available within each
• Find volunteering and other opportunities that help them experience a career they may be interested in
• Get the chance to talk to professionals and mentors
• Learn skills
• Build confidence
• Have a better understanding of the job market
• Feel supported and motivated