Friends & Loved Ones

What is the Friends & Loved Ones program?

This initiative covers expenses so that 16+ youth involved with the Catholic Children’s Aid Society of Toronto (CCAS) can visit and connect with loved ones. This is especially meaningful at Christmas and other holidays, when displaced teens can feel acutely lonely.

How it helps:

CCAF and CCAS facilitate healing through connection

Young people who receive child protection services have often led stressful, disrupted lives, putting them at a higher risk than their peers for mental health challenges. Supportive relationships are vitally important, but travel costs and incidental expenses to maintain visits and connection aren’t covered by provincial child welfare funding.

The Friends & Loved Ones program fills this gap with financial assistance to help young people visit and spend time with family members, former foster parents or close friends to boost their sense of self-worth and belonging. This program is funded by donors to the Catholic Children’s Aid Foundation and supplemented by a grant from the Children’s Aid Foundation of Canada.

Your impact:

Your donations help remind youth in care that they’re loved

Thoughtful donors like you can help us ensure that young people in care have the means to stay connected to the people who love them, from parents and other family members to mentors and beloved friends. Instead of spending holidays, birthdays or other milestones alone or apart from stable role models, they can receive financial assistance to visit them in person.