Yonge Street Mission gets royal treatment
TORONTO, ON—Prince Charles dropped by Yonge Street Mission (YSM) on his recent Canadian tour to hear how charities and businesses are working together to create employment opportunities for young people.
He also presented Andrew Williams, mission program officer at YSM, with the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal—a special honour created to mark the 60th anniversary of the Queen's reign.
Members of the royal family have been visiting various parts of the Commonwealth as part of the Jubilee celebrations. A key theme of Prince Charles' and his wife Camilla's visit to Canada was celebrating community service.
Williams had been working as a marketing director at KPMG when he joined YSM's board of directors. Spurred by a grassroots Bible study he helped organize at a local pub, he started taking groups to Nairobi to see how one orphanage was making a difference in the lives of local children. He joined YSM staff in 2011 with a vision of building more opportunities for corporate and church groups to become involved serving marginalized people.
"The goal is connecting those who need help with those who need to help," Williams says. "Volunteering really is the new spiritual pilgrimage. They don't want to talk, they want to do."
Prince Charles told the Globe and Mail, "Many of the engagements during this tour are deliberately focused on highlighting individual cases of success which tell a wider story so that they might inspire others to become involved in similar ways."
His Royal Highness visited a panel discussion at YSM, where young people, charity representatives, and business leaders came together to discuss the difference being made to help marginalized youth find meaningful employment.
The meeting was part of the Prince's Charities Canada "Seeing is Believing" tour, which aims to bridge the gap between various sectors of society, by demonstrating the practical change which is possible. Prince's Charities Canada has launched a series of programs in Canada—including ones with YSM, and UforChange which was also represented at the event. It works in partnership with groups like Canadian Business for Social Responsibility and the Wellesley Institute.
Prince Charles said his charity work was born out becoming "so frustrated" from hearing people talk about social problems, without finding practical ways to impact change.
He said the goal of the Seeing is Believing tour was to get people "out from behind their desks to see what the challenges are." He added that when private, public and charitable organizations work together "you can achieve an extraordinary amount."
Several YSM young people were also on the panel, including Kadeem Reid who told the Prince, "I started suffering from wrong decision making at the age of 12."
Reid had been in trouble with the law for gang-related activity, including drugs and weapons charges. Surviving being shot eight times at close range spurred him to join YSM's anger management classes, and then their Connecting Youth to Work program.
Korey Griffiths was fresh out of jail when a YSM counsellor helped him find a job.
"Even something as simple as a conversation can point somebody in the right direction," he says. "Why more people aren't doing that, I don't know."
Williams told His Royal Highness, "We see a direct line between your decision not just to talk about change, but to put your time and reputation on the line to make it happen, for the young people in this room, and the many who stand behind them, and would have loved to be here…"
"And with great respect sir, allow me to say that from what I have seen, I choose to believe that, even if born into different circumstances, in a different place or country, to different means, you would still somehow find yourself working alongside us at a place like the Young Street Mission, investing yourself in the lives those in need."
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