Social Enterprise Article in the Toronto Star
Social Enterprise Supports Marginalized Youth
August 27, 2011
By David LePage and Tony Dean
The following is an excerpt from an article in the Opinion section of the Toronto Star. For the full article, click here.
If you're in Edmonton you can enjoy lunch at the City Hall Café, Kids in the Hall, where young people receive job readiness training and food service skills. Traditionally at odds, the business community in downtown Vancouver and homeless youth in the area are now business partners through Street Youth Job Action, keeping alleys clean and streets swept. Toronto's Eva Phoenix Print Shop offers its corporate customers, like KPMG, quality printed products at a competitive price; and the income provides former street youth an opportunity for housing, counselling, and job training and placement.
In the past, most youth had at least a fair chance to find employment options when manufacturing offered entry-level work, and these jobs could lead to further training and success in the labour market. But where do young people — and especially those at risk — go now as the economy slows, unemployment increases, tuition rises, government funds constrict, and non-profits are stretched? And without a future for some of our youth, we can expect increased addiction, soaring health costs, family breakdown, perpetual poverty and more crime and prison time.
Globally and across Canada, in urban and rural areas, social enterprise is stepping in to offer some appealing opportunities and solutions to the challenges of youth connecting to the labour force. Social enterprises, businesses operated with a blend of financial and social goals, are a preventive measure that interrupts or redirects the track to unemployment and social exclusion. ..."
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