Dear Funders, Partners and Colleagues,

We are pleased to share the 2021-2022 Annual Report for Skills for Change. The 2021-2022 year was the second of much uncertainty, as the pandemic continued to impact the lives of not only Canadians but the entire world. And despite this uncertainty, our Agency and our people thrived, and we are pleased to announce that with good financial management, we are in a surplus state for this fiscal year.

COVID-19 left a legacy of rising poverty, increased mental health issues and widening inequality gap. Skills for Change focused much of 2021-2022 to create and deliver programming in response to this long-term impact.

In addition to the Pandemic, Skills for Change entered our last year of our 5-year strategic plan, advancing the goals of our 4 pillars.

1) Enhanced Organizational Capacity

In 2021-2022, in preparation for returning to office, we invested in our facilities management with both staffing resources and enhancing our building standards. Through funding from Employment and Social Development Canada, we were granted funding to support our facilities upgrade to improve our building accessibility – this work will be completed by 2023. We continued to respond to the needs of our clients, offering virtual programming via multiple channels during the height of the various pandemic waves; we provided additional technology supports to our clients to ensure equitable access to digital technologies and invested in the right tools to produce innovative employment and mental health workshops.

2) Review and Expansion of Programs

Skills for Change made great strides in 2021-2022 with our investment in developing programming in response to the shifting labour market and social needs. Our Program Design team submitted over 70 proposals and developed comprehensive labour market analyses to determine the industries where our clients could establish long term career pathways. One such example is the Data Analytics – a program that launched in 2021, funded by TD Ready Commitment. In addition, our Federal and City government funders continued to support the growth of our programs with investments in women and newcomer programming, employment pathways programming, and added new programming going from including our Seniors and WRAP grants (to name a few), with a total increase in funding by $200,000 and the Provincial government support in technical skills programming, awarding Skills for Change six pre-apprenticeship programs (launches in the 2022-2023 fiscal year), with a total increase in funding by $1.8 million. Finally, through our research funded by GTAA, we were able to shift our focus of employer engagement services to build a full workforce development strategy, by equipping job seekers with training and employment and better understand employers’ needs as we created talent pipelines.

3) Funding Diversification

Through the creation of a partnership development strategy, we were able to expand our program offerings in a collaborative setting and expand in areas including offering crisis counselling to women experiencing Gender Based Violence (funded by Canadian Women’s Foundation & WAGE), with the support of 10 community partners delivering women’s programming, across the GTA. We developed opportunities with a diverse group of corporate funders and other foundations, including the launch our Black Community Access Programming department with our Black Leadership Institute on Social Action for Change (funded by the Catherine Donnelly Foundation and Accenture) and our Black Entrepreneurship Program (funded by CASA Foundation), along with foundations including the United Way, Laidlaw Foundation, and Ontario Trillum Foundation, with a total increase in funding of $250,000. Finally, we continued built community engagement in partnering with organizations and corporations including HotDocs, Toronto Workforce Funder Collaborative, CGI, BMO, Hyundai Canada and more.

4) People Management

2021-2022 was certainly a year of investing in our people. We are extremely proud of our team for delivering above target on so many of our programs. Recognizing the toll that two years in a remote work setting can take on many individuals, we implemented year two of our staff engagement plan, offering weekly wellness sessions, staff engagement events, workshops and health and wellness initiatives including a step challenge and virtual yoga and cooking demonstrations. We implemented a strong onboarding plan and continue to support the growth of our employees.

We would like to thank our management team for leading the continued growth of the Agency. We’d like to thank our Board of Directors for their oversight and engagement in ensuring we are delivering our strategic plan effectively. We would like to thank our staff for their commitment to the work and to our clients and delivering programming in response to this turbulent time. In addition, we’d like to thank our funders, donors, sponsors and community partners for their incredible support and trust in our organization to deliver. We’d also like to thank our many volunteers and mentors for supporting the journey of our clients. Together, we are one step closer to building welcoming and equitable communities.