New investments prioritize underserved youth
populations and focuses on homelessness prevention
TORONTO, April 27,
2022 /CNW/ - The Home Depot Canada Foundation
announced today it's increasing its investment to prevent and end
youth homelessness to $125 million by
2030. The foundation recently surpassed its initial $50 million pledge with more than $5 million disbursed across Canadian communities
through The Orange Door Project Campaign, TradeWorx and innovation
grants for its 15 Regional Partners over the last several
months.
Youth homelessness continues to be on the rise in Canada, where homeless youth make up
approximately 20 percent of the homeless population and evidence
suggests over 50 percent of adults experiencing homelessness have
their first instance before the age of 25*. The Home Depot Canada
Foundation's renewed commitment focuses on enabling systemic change
through investments in three strategic pillars: expanding stable
housing for youth, providing quality wrap around community
supports, and increasing youth employment readiness.
"We have been fortunate to partner with some of the country's
leading experts on homelessness, helping to inform how we increase
support to youth, expand our prevention work, and stay core to our
mandate – to prevent and end youth homelessness in Canada," said Pamela
O'Rourke, vice president of merchandising, The Home Depot
Canada and chair of The Home Depot Canada Foundation. "We've seen
the impact of this work in action and are thrilled with this next
phase and how much more we can do to support youth in our
communities."
Focusing on innovative programming models, fostering sector-wide
collaboration, and research that identifies the root causes of the
barriers youth face, this funding will be granted annually through:
Community Development Grants, Youth Opportunity Grants, Strategic
Partnerships, TradeWorx and The Orange Door Project Campaign. The
funding will be executed through an equity framework, significantly
increasing support for organizations that support underrepresented
youth, including Black, Indigenous, female-identified and gender
diverse, LGBTQ2SIA+, and new Canadian youth.
"The youth we serve face racism, discrimination, violence and
exploitation and obtaining supports to deal with these issues is
uniquely hard for them," said Kayla
Stubbs, Director of Operations, Ndinawe. "In our partnership
with The Home Depot Canada Foundation, we feel heard and they look
at us as the experts in our community when it comes to working with
youth. This makes this one of our most effective partnerships."
Last year, the foundation introduced TradeWorx, a targeted
investment to combat youth homelessness by creating opportunities
for career education and skilled trades training. As part of
today's announcement, The Home Depot Canada Foundation will
increase its commitment to $2 million
by the end of 2022 to provide 200 youth across Canada with the skills and certifications
needed to help them build a career and attain permanent
housing.
Since 2013, The Home Depot Canada Foundation has supported more
than 850 community partners across the country, investing more than
$50 million towards preventing and
ending youth homelessness.
*Gaetz, S., Schwan, K., Redman, M., French, D., & Dej, E.
(2018). The Roadmap for the Prevention of Youth Homelessness. A.
Buchnea (Ed.). Toronto, ON:
Canadian Observatory on Homelessness Press.
About The Home Depot Canada
Foundation:
The Home Depot Canada Foundation is a Canadian registered
charity that is committed to preventing and ending youth
homelessness in Canada. Since
2013, the Foundation has invested more than $50 million and worked together with community
partners across the country, to remove barriers, break cycles of
inequity, and enable youth at-risk of or experiencing homelessness
to achieve positive development outcomes and build brighter
futures. For more information, visit:
www.homedepot.ca/foundation.
About The Home
Depot
The Home Depot is the world's largest home improvement specialty
retailer. At the end of fiscal year 2021, the Company operated a
total of 2,317 retail stores in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, 10 Canadian provinces and Mexico. The company employs approximately
500,000 associates. The Home Depot's stock is traded on the New
York Stock Exchange (NYSE: HD) and is included in the Dow Jones
industrial average and Standard & Poor's 500 index.
SOURCE The Home Depot of Canada Inc.