50 Years of Impact!

Youth Assisting Youth will celebrate 50 years of youth to youth peer mentorship this coming July.

This is such a meaningful milestone for our organization, and an important moment to pause, reflect and reconnect with the people who helped YAY get here.

Since 1976, thousands of youth volunteers have stepped forward to mentor, support and encourage children and youth across Toronto. Their commitment has driven our program, shaped our impact and helped create thousands of success stories.

YAY would not be here without them.

We also would not be here without the families who trusted us, the staff and board members who carried the mission forward, the funders and donors who invested in our work and the community partners who believed in the power of youth to youth peer mentorship.

Over the coming year, we will be sharing stories from YAY’s history, celebrating and highlighting the young people, youth volunteers and relationships that have been part of this journey.

We also want to reconnect with the people who helped build YAY over the past five decades. Former youth mentors, mentees, staff, board members, volunteers, donors, funders, partners and friends of YAY all played a part in this story.

If YAY has been part of your life, we would love to hear from you.

Your story is part of Youth Assisting Youth and our history.

As we prepare to celebrate 50 years, we invite you to reconnect with us to be a part of the celebration, share your story and help us shape what comes next. 

For 50 years, YAY has empowered youth volunteers to mentor the next generation. Young people helping each other succeed. 

And our story is still being written…