Speaker:

David Quinn – Program Coordinator, The Career Foundation

Scott and a Scot:A Fireside Story of ResilienceWorking with young people who face multiple challenges can be difficult at the best of times, but over the past few months our own resilience and the resilience of the people we work with, has been stretched and tested to the limit. Life can be tough, but we do not act as if this is true, we moan and groan as if the hardships visited upon us are unique. But it is during these very experiences and challenges in which we grow and become more resilient. This session will present you with four truths that shows you how to accept, deal with and learn from the tough times.Scott Sackaney is a young man who experienced more life challenges by the time he was 19, than most people experience in a lifetime. Where some would have given up, he did not. He learned how to snap back from disaster and finally grew from his experiences. Grab a hot drink, and sit and in on this fireside interview, listen to his story and learn Scott’s secrets to resilience.

Speaker:

David Cronin

The Ministry of Labour Training and Skills Development will provide an overview of the COJG program, emphasizing how to: maximize COJG for agencies and clients, integrate innovative programming to create lasting values for job seekers, workers and regional employers/industries.

Learning Outcomes:

• Overview of the program including requirements and areas of flexibility in the program.
• Answers to the more challenging but frequently asked questions.
• Available programming resources often underutilized.

The Ministry of Labour Training and Skills Development will provide an overview of the YJC program, including how to: best maximize YJC for job seekers and employers, including opportunities for flexibility and innovation.

Learning Outcomes:

• Overview of the program including must dos as well as flexibility in program delivery.
• Answer the more challenging but frequently asked questions.
• Highlighting resources that are available but not often utilized.

Speakers:

Grant Collins – President, FedCap Inc.

Shanthi Rajanaratnam – Director, Workforce Development, Muskoka-Kawarthas Employment Hub (Fleming College)

Michael Dunphy – VP Operations, WCG

As Ontario undergoes an employment services transformation, the government has implemented Service System Managers (SSMs) in three prototype regions across Ontario.

This panel will include the three PHASE 1 SSMs; FedCap, WCG and Fleming College. The session will provide an overview of each of the SSM’s transition plans, funding approaches and their outlook on COVID and its effect on the current landscape in their regions.

Learning Outcomes:

• Overview of each SSM’s funding model and the transitional planning for their prototype area
• SSM insight into the landscape during and post-COVID
• Outline best practices according to each SSM in supporting C-stream clients

This session is sponsored by:

Speaker:

Denis Gravelle

We knew rapid advancements in technology would disrupt many sectors of Canada’s economy; however, labour market trends have now also been affected by COVID. This presentation will provide crucial insights on in-demand jobs, specific skills employers need, and the career pathways that offer the highest potential for workers.

Denis Gravelle will present real-time strategic intelligence on the changing workforce landscape in the post-COVID world.

Learning Outcomes:

• Describe in-demand job-skills and competencies employers need in the Post COVID world
• Provide crucial insights for in-demand jobs using real-time strategic intelligence
• Discuss how education and training must adapt to this new world order

Speakers:

Kim Crowther – Youth Job Consultant, St. Leonard’s

Christina Cunningham – Job Developer, St. Leonard’s

In this session St. Leonard’s will discuss their approach and specific tools to building resilience with clients. Through educating ourselves on strategies to build resilience—the ability to cope in the face of adversity, stress, or fear—we encourage autonomy and a sense of personal responsibility in our clients. These skills enable our clients to meet personal challenges with confidence in and help to develop a better understanding of emotions. By sharing the tools to build resilience, we promote and strengthen supportive relationships, rather than dependent relationships, with clients we serve.

Learning Outcomes:

• The importance of building resilience for ourselves and our client
• Tools for Service Providers to support resilience with their clientele
• Build awareness on a common challenge many job-seekers face in today’s labour market

Speaker:

Kamilla Sultanova – Motivational Speaker, ConnectUz

Kamilla Sultanova often asks, “How can you be a changemaker in your community?”, a global speaker, daring others to live their life fully and step into their greatness both as leaders and as aspiring professionals. The future of the work culture is in compassion and connecting through community. Through this session, Kamilla will discuss some strategies through workforce development adopted in Finland that is applicable on a global scale which promotes new working cultures and collaboration, engaging with community and youth to create innovation and growth. She has done a number of cross-sectoral events and workshops via Global Dignity Finland NGO as well as Sitra lab, Finland’s future laboratory that brings various experts to solve societal wicked challenges. From dignity-themed storytelling events, to cross-sectoral experiments, Kamilla highlights significant gaps to the employment, the need to fundamentally rethink empowerment in policy making light of digitalization and the rising inequality in Finland exacerbated by the COVID pandemic.

Learning Outcomes:

• Learn about 5 experiments to tackle youth inequality which carried out by participants across public, private and organizational sectors at the Finnish innovation fund’s Sitra lab
• Get a dive in on latest approaches to workforce development: co-creating youth employment services uniting broader audiences including immigrants and international talents.
• Turn your pride into passion: transform, inspire and lead through social capital exchange, networking, inclusion and equality.
• Practical examples on effective employer and diverse quality talent in partnership with schools, colleges, universities in Finland.
• Learn the most powerful word in Finnish that drives progressive policies and the nation forward: SISU

Speaker:

Tony Bonen – Labour Market Information Council

COVID-19 created a sudden disruption to the economy, which has resulted in many workers losing their jobs, businesses closing and others experiencing higher demand and growth.

In this session, Tony Bonen will provide an overview of what available Labour Market Information tells us, focusing on what recovery looks like and navigating the disruption caused by the pandemic.

Learning Outcomes:

• Explore the occupations projected to grow or decline in Canada in the next 10 years
• How to access LMI data essential for local economic recovery.
• Understand what experts think about the future of employment in Canada.
• Considerations on how the future of employment could be impacted by disruption

Speaker:

Frazier Fathers – Director, Continuous Improvement and Advocacy United Way/Centraide Windsor Essex County

ProsperUs is a first in Canada, place-based Cradle to Career Strategy being deployed in a Collective Impact model in Windsor-Essex County. With over 50 system leading organizations involved, these partners have agreed to take on a common data driven approach to tackle the challenges in our region.This session will focus on the data driven processes and the emerging career success development of our strategy. We will briefly cover the impetus for the formation of ProsperUs, then dig into some of our data processes, plans and visions. Finally we will focus in on “What is career success in Windsor-Essex County?” and how we hope to get there.

Learning Outcomes:

• How ProsperUs has used data to understand the problem and scope their approach.
• How the project has designed and adopted a collective impact approach across the community
• How the project has engaged and empowered community members in research and solution design.

Speaker:

Adriana Beemans – Inclusive Local Economies Program Director, Metcalf Foundation

What are the best ways to prepare people for in-demand jobs?Danielle Olsen and John MacLaughlin will provide a summary of the key learning from their recent report, When Training Works: Promising Workforce Development Practices, published by the Metcalf Foundation. The authors, joined by Adriana Beemans from the Metcalf Foundation, will provide insights related to enabling factors that support the development and evolution of promising workforce development practices that seek to create sustainable solutions to address labour market barriers for vulnerable people and meet the local talent needs of employers.

In the wake of COVID, like most organizations NPOWER Canada adjusted to quickly transition the delivery of their applied occupation specific training to an online delivery method.

In this session, Andrew Reddin from NPower Canada will discuss how participant recruitment, training and case management pivoted online as well as new programming that was developed in response to market changes informed by COVID-19 and new approaches to serving vulnerable youth using online virtual platforms.

Learning Outcomes:

• Learn how to engage youth online
• Learn how to equip young adults facing barriers to employment with the agility, resiliency and other essential skills needed to navigate a constantly changing labour market.
• Hear directly from youth about the strengths-based strategies and tools that they have used to overcome obstacles to securing and succeeding at work.

In this session, Palette Skills and Elevate Plus Manufacturing will discuss their approaches in designing and delivering workforce solutions that serve job seekers, workers transitioning careers, and incumbent workers, based on the skills and talent needs of growing industries.

For an organization to embrace a trauma-informed care completely, it must adopt a trauma-informed organizational practices and commit resources to support it. This entails implementing an agency-wide strategy for workforce development that is in alignment with the values and principles of the organization’s mission statement. Maintaining an environment of care for the health, well-being, and safety of, as well as respect for, an organization’s staff will enhance the ability of practitioners to provide the best possible trauma-informed services to their clients. This culture of care must permeate the organization from top to bottom, while understanding the cause and effect of trauma can be diverse and complex. We must all be aware of the impact of trauma and the benefits that a trauma-informed culture informs not only an organization’s staff but also the people they serve.

Learning Outcomes:

• Understanding the cause and effect of trauma
• Learn how to apply trauma informed practices to youth programs
• To identify ways to build trauma-informed spaced within ones organization

Speakers:

Ray Rauth – Job Skills – Manager, Employment Services & Program

Katie O’Brien-Michaud – Job Skills, Business Liaison Specialist

Participants will learn useful approaches to support clients who have experienced conflict with the law, find and keep employment. Facilitators will share stories and examples from successful outcomes while identifying and developing meaningful patterns to help breakdown myths and misconceptions amongst ourselves, clients, and society in general around people who have experienced conflict with the law. Participants will come away energized and hopeful with specific tools and outlook to experience an enlivening, engaging workshop and exercises that participants can utilize themselves in future.

Speakers:

Haris Blentic – Executive Director, Project Work

Kim Patel – Director, Employment Services – The Neighbourhood Group

Evelyn Akselrod – Director, Strategic Development, Community and Corporate Relations – The Career Foundation

COVID, SSM, labour market uncertainty, remote work, the accelerated future of work – these transformative occurrences are shaking up our sector and the world around us. While our world is shapeshifting, the one thing that stays true is our shared mission – to support youth’s access to decent and meaningful work. The session will explore the theme of this year’s conference: building unity in transformation, and why collaboration is the only way to truly achieve our mission to create lasting impact for youth. Join Project Work, The Neighbourhood Group – St. Stephen’s Community House, and The Career Foundation as they lay out the case for mission-driven collaboration.

Learning Outcomes:

• Gain insights on the mindset and leadership approach required for successful collaboration
• Learn tactical strategies for operationalizing collaboration both internally and externally
• Discuss what gets in the way of partnerships and ways to challenge and overcome obstacles to effective and mutually beneficial collaboration.

Speakers:

Wali Shah – Artist

Artist Wali Shah will be opening the Aspire Youth Summit, using his gift of spoken word poetry as a tool for social change. His work sparks dialogue on issues such as mental health, diversity and inclusion, and toxic masculinity. Wali will also speak about his journey as a young artist and share his narrative of being an immigrant, being a Muslim, and finding his voice.

Speaker:

Amina Dibe – Policy & Programs Analyst, RESCON

Join trades industry professionals as they share their unique insight on their own career pathways and opportunities that exist in the construction space outside of your first job. The panelists will provide their perspective on the current and future state of the construction trades industry. They will also provide insights on the impacts of COVID-19, what future opportunities may be and how job seekers should prepare for success in this new employment landscape.

Learning Outcomes:

• How can new job seekers penetrate the trades industry?
• The current and future state of the trades industry
• Sector’s recovery response to COVID-19
• Highlighting opportunities in the trades industry

This session is sponsored by:

Have your voice heard! Share your experience and ideas to help shape research and policy.

Join us for a one hour focus group conversation on one of the below topics.

Sessions will be facilitated by a member of First Work’s Youth Council.

Focus group sessions will be recorded and summaries will be shared with attendees and used to inform future research and policy recommendations.

Sessions will start at the hour.

Sessions:

1. From First Job to Building a Career — Navigating Career Development in 2020
2. You Want Me to Move Where?! Employment Opportunities and Challenges in Rural, Remote and Northern Ontario
3. From School to Work: How can the path be smoother?
4. The Robots Are Coming. Will Technology Kill Jobs or will it Create Opportunity?
5. Young and racialized looking for work: what is it like looking for work for young people of colour?

Speaker:

Stacey Dakins – Managing Director, MENTOR Canada

MENTOR Canada is committed to expanding access to mentoring for youth in Canada. Through this session, youth will learn through the 5 W’s on mentoring 1:1, launching their journey to create their own mentoring partnerships. They will also get an understanding of the roadblocks they often face when approaching the search for a mentor/mentee partnership.

Mentor Canada will also provide a free trial for their free online platform which links volunteer mentors and youth to mentoring programs across the country. The Connector is a robust searchable database of mentoring programs designed to help volunteers and youth alike connect to the right mentoring opportunities, both virtually and in their communities.

Learning Outcomes:

• How to network and the etiquette of networking
• How to grow and maintain a meaningful relationship with a mentor
• Where to find a relatable, genuine mentor
• What mentors are looking for in a mentee
• What roadblocks can occur on the road to a successful mentor/mentee relationship

Speaker:

Cristine Sousa – Customer Success Manager, Hearsay Solutions

In this session you will hear from a panel of speakers on the importance of volunteering and networking. Understanding the bridge between the two worlds and how you can utilize volunteering into a field of your passions.

Learning Outcomes:

• Bridging volunteerism into real world connections and experience
• Capturing and capitalizing on the soft skills development of volunteerism
• Where to find a relatable, genuine mentor
• How to grow your network and career opportunities
• Valuing your volunteer experience as a path to self-empowerment

Speaker:

Tamer Ibrahim – Youth Collective Impact Manager, Laidlaw Foundation

For non-profits and youth who are looking to start out on your own, learning to grant write and apply for grants is an important skill set, even more is understanding how to navigate the grant world. In this session youth will learn about the shift in perspectives amongst young people on what they want to be vs what they want to change, and through this session, how to navigate to get opportunities for funding and where to start.

Learning Outcomes:

• Youth will gain an understanding the grant making process
• Learn of sample grant making through the Laidlaw Foundation

Join Industry professionals as they share unique perspectives regarding career pathways and opportunities in the automotive industry for new job seekers. Additionally, these individuals will provide their perspective on the current and future state of the automotive industry. Join the discussion on the current and future state of this industry and what processes and tools can help youth build a career in trade in the post COVID pandemic era.

Learning Outcomes:

• How can new job seekers penetrate the automotive industry?
• The current and future state of the automotive industry, including career path options
• Sector’s recovery response to COVID-19
• Initiatives for youth and women in the automotive industry
• Apprenticeship & the Automotive sector

What began as a solution for social distancing during a time of a pandemic, will change the future of work as we know it. As leading businesses are taking this opportunity to arm themselves with the knowledge, they need to re-imagine the way they work, and where. Similarly, youth have taken this opportunity to re-imagine the way they learn and what their future career paths may look to be. In a panel of tech experts, such as IBM, LinkedIn and the Learning code, we get insight into micro-credentialing and the opportunities that exist for expanding on your learning.

Learning Outcomes:

• What digital tools are there to help youth navigate through the different stages of their career pathway
• Digital certifications as a means of increasing employability
• Platforms to empower youth to improve their tech-adeptness
• Putting your micro-credentials to work for you

From celebrities opening up publicly about their mental illness to the rise in popularity of conversations on social media about self-care, mental health has been one of the biggest discussions of the past decade. COVID-19 has made this discussion increasingly critical. This session discusses the importance of acknowledging and normalizing the conversation around mental health issues at the workplace and how employers and colleagues can create a safe environment for employees to seek help regarding mental health issues.

Learning Outcomes:

• Importance of resiliency in career navigation in the COVID-19 era
• Normalizing stigma around mental health issues
• Role of colleagues/peers in promoting the importance of mental health at the workplace
• Empowering youth to advocate for mental health friendly spaces and value-based leadership
• Initiating workplace mental health discussions and socializing mental health discussions as part of the norm
• Maintaining mental health during the job search

Speaker:

Meccana Ali – National Programs Manager, Boys and Girls Club of Canada

Resilience is an individual’s ability to ‘bounce back’ when encountering the challenges that are an inevitable part of life. Any situation in a job that leaves a person feeling overwhelmed can affect their ability to work and cope. This can include recognizing mistakes, failures that occur along the path to employment and being able to learn and grow from them. Resilience is a skill and with practice, it can be learned. Building resilience in the workforce is key to adapting to some of the challenges laid out by the pandemic.

In this session, speaker(s) from Boys and Girls Clubs of Canada share the importance of building resilience in staying motivated in the face of chronic negative stress and constantly increasing demands, complexity and change.

Learning Outcomes:

• Ways to build resilience and manage job stress
• How to own your mistakes and turn them into learning opportunities with your employer
• The role of the organization in developing resilience within its workforce and why resilience is a workplace issue
• Preparing employees for potentially stressful work situation to build their resilience
• The importance of ‘peer support’ in building resilience

Speaker:

Regan Johnson – President, Jane Addams Resource Corporation (JARC)

An aging workforce, emerging new technologies, and continuing decline of trades in high schools and community colleges will result in millions of unfulfilled jobs in the coming decades. This paints a grim picture since on the supply side of labor, unemployment is on the rise as more people find it challenging to secure a living wage and support their families. Adopting a dual customer approach creates a bridge between the demand and supply of labor by training jobseekers on skills demanded by employers. Providing high quality skills training and support services to unemployed workers help them achieve self-sufficiency and fill the labor void as well as provide wrap around supports they require.

In this session, representatives from Jane Addams Resource Corporation (JARC) share how demand-based skills training can have a lasting and sustainable impact on jobseekers’ careers and how this approach helps employers gain a competitive edge.

Learning Outcomes:

• Understanding the cause and effect of trauma
• Learn how to apply trauma informed practices to youth programs
• To identify ways to build trauma-informed spaced within ones organization

Speaker:

Hawa Y. Mire – Principal Consultant, HYM Consulting

This 2-part session (each 60 minutes) on Anti-racism Anti-Oppression (ARAO) framework will help participants deepen their understanding of how oppression and racism occur at a personal and structural level and how they are maintained. The course will also assist organizations with the change process toward equity. The focus is on looking inward, starting with the self, and the organizational change process.

Note:

• You must be prompt and present for the course. Any time missed will result in certificates not being issued.
• A certificate of attendance will be provided upon successful completion of both parts of this session.

Learning Outcomes:

• The participants will develop a critical approach to addressing racism and other forms of oppression.
• The participants will develop a critical approach to addressing racism and other forms of oppression.
• The participants will deepen their analysis of how racism and oppression play out in society and within their organization.

Practice to Policy Session 1: Building motivation and engaging vulnerable youth in program enrollment and employment retention

In this session we will work in groups and discuss the opportunities, challenges and best practices related to building motivation and engaging vulnerable youth in program enrollment and employment retention.

Session participants will discuss and map their practices, ideas and opportunities to implement and strengthen these practices.

Feedback from the session will be documented and used to highlight best practices from the field and support future initiatives.

Learning Outcomes:

• Current practices in the field related to building motivation and engaging vulnerable youth in program enrollment and retention.
• Shared challenges related to building motivation and engaging vulnerable youth in program enrollment and retention.
• A discussion of ideas and opportunities to build motivation and engaging vulnerable youth in program enrollment and retention.
• A summary of practices from the field and the research related to building motivation and engaging vulnerable youth in program enrollment and retention.

Mapping Opportunities Session 2:

Working with regional employers to prepare youth for sustainable in-demand jobs and career pathways.

In this session we will discuss the opportunities, challenges and best practices to working with regional employers to prepare youth for sustainable in-demand jobs and career pathways.

Session participants will discuss and map their practices, ideas and opportunities to implement and strengthen these practices.

Mapping Opportunities Session 3:

Delivering Trauma Informed Services to support clients to support success

In this session we will discuss the opportunities, challenges and best practices to delivering trauma informed services to support clients to support success

Session participants will discuss and map their practices, ideas and opportunities to implement and strengthen these practices.

For an organization to embrace a trauma-informed care completely, it must adopt a trauma-informed organizational practices and commit resources to support it. This entails implementing an agency-wide strategy for workforce development that is in alignment with the values and principles of the organization’s mission statement. Maintaining an environment of care for the health, well-being, and safety of, as well as respect for, an organization’s staff will enhance the ability of practitioners to provide the best possible trauma-informed services to their clients. This culture of care must permeate the organization from top to bottom, while understanding the cause and effect of trauma can be diverse and complex. We must all be aware of the impact of trauma and the benefits that a trauma-informed culture informs not only an organization’s staff but also the people they serve.

Learning Outcomes:

• Understanding the cause and effect of trauma
• Learn how to apply trauma informed practices to youth programs
• To identify ways to build trauma-informed spaced within ones organization

Values-based leadership is a holistic approach addressing three dimensions: the characteristics of the individual leader, the interpersonal relationships and group dynamics of those working with the leader, and the specific organizational context in which they exist. By adopting a values-based approach, leaders establish an environment of mutual respect, fairness, and trust, at a minimum, which serves as the guiding force to create a healthy workplace culture.

In this session, Janet Morris Reade from Aspect BC will shed light on the importance of self-awareness in displaying effective leadership and will explore the concept of “leading from within.” This session will also explore ways in which individuals can enhance their confidence, and clarify, articulate, and commit to their core values and personal vision.

Learning Outcomes:

• The meaning of a values-based leadership approach
• The importance of the concept of “leading from within”
• The role of self-awareness and confidence in leadership
• What does it mean to have a personal vision?

Speaker:

Hawa Y. Mire – Principal Consultant, HYM Consulting

This 2-part session (each 60 minutes) on Anti-racism Anti-Oppression (ARAO) framework will help participants deepen their understanding of how oppression and racism occur at a personal and structural level and how they are maintained. The course will also assist organizations with the change process toward equity. The focus is on looking inward, starting with the self, and the organizational change process.

Note:

• You must be prompt and present for the course. Any time missed will result in certificates not being issued.
• A certificate of attendance will be provided upon successful completion of both parts of this session.

Learning Outcomes:

• The participants will develop a critical approach to addressing racism and other forms of oppression.
• The participants will develop a critical approach to addressing racism and other forms of oppression.
• The participants will deepen their analysis of how racism and oppression play out in society and within their organization.