The Rotary Club of Peterborough has donated an additional $50,000 to the YES Shelter for Youth and Families.
The donation brings the total contribution to YES by both the Peterborough Rotary Club and the Rotary Club of Peterborough Kawartha to $100,000 since 2022. Each club previously donated $25,000 to YES in 2022. The $100,000 commitment was made to YES as part of Rotary’s centennial celebrations in 2021.
The funds will support YES’s RISE Youth Housing Program to help teens stay off the streets. RISE is a transitional housing program that provides youth with a safe and secure place to live. By helping to end youth homelessness, the program also reduces the adult homeless population.
Rotary Club of Peterborough president Betty Halman-Plumley and Rotary Club of Peterborough Kawartha president Paul Landau presented the $50,000 cheque to YES executive director Aimee Le Lagadéc on Monday (August 14) at the organization’s location at 196 Brock Street in Peterborough.
“This amazing contribution is an incredible investment in this community,” Le Lagadéc said in a media release. “This gift will help decrease homelessness in Peterborough significantly over time by supporting more youth to stabilize and avoid chronic homelessness as adults.”
Through the funding, YES will be able to open three new permanent spaces in the RISE program.
“I am pleased to be presenting this cheque for the YES RISE Youth Housing Program to fund a place and program where youth are supported with skills to transition from homelessness and living in a shelter towards living on their own often finishing high school, a college program or into employment,” said Halman-Plumley.
“The Rotary Club of Peterborough Kawartha is very pleased to partner with the Peterborough Rotary Club in providing funding for YES’s RISE Youth Housing Program,” Landau added. “This program ensures that youth in the community have a safe place to live and also learn strategies to support their recovery.”
YES has been providing emergency shelter and transitional housing to youth and families in the city and county of Peterborough City since 2000. Along with the RISE Youth Housing Program, services include a youth and family emergency shelter, hmelessness prevention programming, the Carriage House alternative classroom, a food and clothing cupboard, and housing supports.
