UforChange provides young people, ages 16-29, with a combination of creative, practical and soft skills that will help them develop career paths as well as a supportive and collaborative environment. We achieve this through our Core Arts program, which offers Fashion Design, Fashion Illustration, Photography, DJ, Graphic Design and Web Development to 50 young people every year.
Along with a series of industry partnerships that lead to workshops and mentorships, we empower another 350 youth every year. In the page below you will be able to see UforChange’s impact through our annual reports, financial statements and FAQ section.
Total number of youth served, September 2022
Total graduates, September 2022
Number of sector professionals engaged in UforChange, 2022
Number of young people who enrolled in postsecondary education training program, September 2022
Internships, September 2022
Number of young people who found volunteer experiences in the arts community, March 2019
UforChange is a registered charity based in Toronto that provides young people, ages 16-29, with a supportive and collaborative environment where they learn a combination of creative, practical and soft skills that will help them obtain confidence and develop career paths.
UforChange serves youth, ages 16-29, from the Greater Toronto Area. The vast majority of the young people we serve are from visible minority groups as well as racialized, underserved and newcomer communities. Unfortunately, visible minorities face multiple challenges such as poverty, exposure to violence and crime, high risk of substance abuse, family breakdown, social isolation, culture shock and language barriers. These issues are coupled with limited economic and educational opportunities, intercultural tensions, limited social support, and racism/discrimination. UforChange works to avoid these barriers from stopping young people achieve their goals and build a career.
UforChange’s Core Arts Program offers young people, ages 16-29, 4 key aspects:
Overall, our Core Arts Program offers youth with skills in the subject area they select, basic entrepreneurial and business knowledge, a mentor-mentee relationship that leads to a variety of opportunities and a sense of community.
Besides our Core Arts Program, we offer a variety of workshops throughout the year (U Atelier) in order not only to impact a larger community but also to teach us how to improve our Core Arts Program. These workshops are open to all young people, ages 16-29, and are focused on a variety of subjects such as business in the arts, theatre, dance, marketing, social media branding, and graphic design, among others. For further inquiries on these opportunities email us at info@uforchange.org.
Although UforChange does not have an employment, internship or co-op program, as our organization seeks to provide young people with opportunities we offer volunteer, internship and employment opportunities to our program participants based on what is available through our community and industry networks.
We quantify our impact by counting the number of young people served annually, in the categories below, and comparing these numbers to our annual targets:
To see our yearly actual numbers please download our Annual Reports located in the ‘Impact’ section.
We measure our success based on the number of youth we serve a year, in comparison to our internal targets, and the impact our programs have on them. According to our third party evaluators, Veritas Foundation, UforChange is extremely successful at providing youth with professionally applicable skills and in fostering mentor-mentee relations as well as fostering personal and professional growth through both our Core Arts Programs and workshops. For more information on our achievements, please download our Annual Reports located on the ‘Impact page’.
Our intake process is unique in that unlike many programs in the GTA, we do not enroll young people based on their experience, raw talent or skills, but on their determination to be active, contributing, and healthy – mentally, socially, financially – young people who want to change the world. In this way, young people who have circumstances that may hinder their success but want to progress have an opportunity to obtain skills, mentorships, volunteer and work opportunities.
You may join UforChange by applying to our Core Arts Program, participating in our workshops or volunteering. Applications for our Core Arts Program are open once a year during the summer and you may apply through our website under the ‘Apply Now’ section. Workshops and volunteer opportunities are posted on our social media sites as they arise. If interested please check @UforChange on Instagram and www.facebook.com/UforChange.Toronto/ on Facebook. For further inquiries on how to join UforChange, email us at info@uforchange.org.
UforChange does not charge tuition. Our organization provides participants with skill building workshops, mentorship, volunteer and internship opportunities, network connections, among other benefits on a pay it forward basis. This means that in order to obtain access to these resources participants have to contribute back to UforChange by volunteering 20 hours during the 2 – 8 month cycle. We have chosen this system as a means to integrate youth not only to our UforChange family, as it provides a support system for youth, but also to the Greater Toronto Area community in order to achieve greater community development.
Year round, we have multiple events not only open to our youth but also the Regent Park community where you may volunteer. However, we would like to invite people to engage and volunteer at our largest event, Vivacity, which is our annual multimedia showcase where our youth have the opportunity to show the artistic skills they have acquired during the 8-month cycle to an audience of 200 people. This event is held at the end of the Cycle in the month of May. Additionally, UforChange is transitioning towards becoming an organization ran by volunteers. That being said, you may volunteer at our organization in a variety of roles such as: administrative support, event planning, graphic design, etc. If you are interested in volunteering at our space or in any of our events please email us at info@uforchange.org.