Find Your Path
Find Your Path
Our Mission
HAY Center exists to support Afro-descendant and other marginalized young adults who have experienced care by providing housing, community, and opportunities to grow.
Our mission is to build an ecosystem of support that helps young people move from isolation to belonging, and from insecurity to strength. We do this through housing, skill development, mentorship, and urban agriculture, while centring holistic health and healing.
We believe young people are not defined by deficit or hardship. Our approach is rooted in strength-based practice, trauma-informed care, human-centred engagement, and values similar to Ubuntu — the understanding that our well-being is tied to one another.
At the heart of our work is a For Us By Us approach. We are committed to developing the leadership, capacity, and independence of young adults who have experienced care, so they can take on meaningful roles, shape solutions, and build fulfilling futures.
Our ultimate goal is to ensure that no young person leaving care does so without housing, support, community, and the tools to thrive.
Here’s a slightly shorter, more punchy version too:
Our Initiatives
Empowering Change
Housing
Safe Shelters
We provide guidance in navigating the transition to adulthood preventing housing insecurity, by working with partners in youth via wraparound services and providing housing
Food
Nutrition Access
We provide the opportunity to develop a healthy relationship with food, through cooking classes, growing food and learning how to serve food all in the setting of community
Health
Mental Support
Working with practitioners, mental health, experts, and community healers to foster healthy minds and hearts for youth from care.