When Amy Gibson returned to the youth justice sector last summer after more than a decade away, she came back to a landscape that had shifted in striking ways. Fewer young people were moving through the system overall, but those who arrived were carrying heavier burdens than before: more complex mental health needs, more serious charges, and the lingering effects of a pandemic that had cut many of them off from the services and connections they needed most.

The aftermath of the pandemic on youth is still unfolding, and we continue to see the impact, on youth "It's almost like a well-being crisis," said Gibson, the Executive Director of St. Lawrence Youth Association (SLYA). "There were barriers to accessing services. And if you're a youth who is unhoused, the chances of being able to click on a virtual link to join your mental health counsellor online were probably pretty slim."

SLYA has served the Kingston region for more than 50 years, operating two custody facilities for justice-involved youth: Sundance, a secure custody setting, and Beacon Harbor, an open custody facility that reopened this past February. Together they provide 16 beds for female youth drawn from a catchment area stretching across South Eastern Ontario. Beyond custody, SLYA's Community Services division supports hundreds of young people through probation services, intensive support and supervision programming, youth justice family worker, and specialized programming for all genders. They also have a Bailiff program, where on a quiet month staff transport youth over 10,000 kms.

"The youth are doing the work. We're just giving them the tools and the programs to do it in a safe space." -- Amy Gibson, St. Lawrence Youth Association

The mission, as Gibson puts it simply, is to reduce recidivism and change trajectories. It is work whose outcomes may not be visible for a decade or more.

Now, with support from the Community Foundation, SLYA is launching SOAR, a new eight-session therapeutic group program designed specifically for justice-involved and justice-vulnerable female youth aged 12 to 18. Grounded in trauma-informed practice, SOAR draws on Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, self-compassion work, and narrative identity approaches to build self-awareness, emotional regulation, healthy relationships, and future-oriented goal setting. Youth Diversion will support delivery through volunteer involvement and post-program mentoring, while Family and Children's Services of Frontenac, Lennox and Addington will provide referral support. The pilot is projected to reach 50 young people.

"The youth are doing the work," Gibson said. "We're just equipping them the tools, insight and support to do it in a safe space."

That philosophy runs through everything SLYA does. The stories that sustain the work arrive quietly: a parent's email, an invitation to a graduation, a young person who stayed in contact years later.

For Gibson, now 28 years into a career in community and social services, the drive has not dimmed. Programs like SOAR represent exactly the kind of purposeful, evidence-based investment she believes can shift a young person's story for good.

"We're changing youth trajectories by the programs and services that we're offering," she said. "And that's what's important."

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