‘A life-or-death program’: non-profit’s successful at-risk youth training awaits Ottawa funding decision

An inner-city non-profit that helps at-risk youth in Winnipeg has warned it will be forced to end an employment and training program March 31 unless government funding comes through.

A year of federal funding is set to run out for Resource Assistance for Youth’s Level Up! program, which has educated and secured work experience for more than 350 young people since 2020.

“We’re in that moment where no level of government has said, ‘We want to continue to support this going forward,’” said Kate Sjoberg, RaY’s executive director.

The paid training program involves six weeks of in-class learning and 12 weeks of work experience with a local employer. Participants also receive housing and mental-health and other supports.

Case workers help graduates secure regular employment after the program, which has multiple cohorts per year.

Three staff members — an instructor and two case managers — are at risk of being laid off if funding isn’t renewed, Sjoberg said.

West Broadway-based RaY approached the federal and provincial governments months ago to begin discussions about funding for the 2026-27 fiscal year, which begins April 1.

Initially funded through a multi-year agreement with the federal Liberal government, Level Up! was forced to temporarily close and give up its dedicated location on King Street after that support ended in 2024.

Sjoberg said the program returned with just under $600,000 in federal funding in the current fiscal year, following advocacy and help from Liberal MP Ben Carr (Winnipeg South Centre) and NDP MP Leah Gazan (Winnipeg Centre).

RaY then partnered with The Link, formerly Macdonald Youth Services, which provided classroom and office space, although the program’s capacity was reduced to 12 people per cohort.

Level Up! had 63 participants in 2025-26. Since its inception, the program received almost three times as many applicants than it had available spaces.

The aim is to help young people who face barriers to training or employment. Some joined Level Up! after being in the child-welfare system or incarcerated. Some participants are neurodiverse.

Sjoberg said the program helps to prevent homelessness, reduce the reliance on employment and income assistance, and curb youth unemployment.

Manitoba’s youth unemployment rate (among people aged 15 to 24) was 12.4 per cent in February, which was unchanged from the same month in 2025 and below the national rate of 14.1 per cent.

The Manitoba government’s strategy to end chronic homelessness found that “pipelines” to homelessness include experience as a youth in care or having been incarcerated, Sjoberg said.

“This is a very concretely preventative program that works,” she said of Level Up!

She described it as a “Winnipeg success story,” with hundreds of businesses and organizations providing work experience.

Recent work experience has ranged from inner-city street outreach and transitional housing services to warehouses and grocery stores.

The Free Press sought an explanation from Employment and Social Development Canada on Thursday afternoon as to whether Ottawa will renew the program’s funding. The department had not yet commented as of 7 p.m. Friday.

Carr said he can’t speak to the internal decision-making process at the department level because it’s arm’s length.

“I’m fully supportive of the initiative, was proud to have successfully advocated for it in the past and have continued bringing the work RaY undertakes to the attention of my colleagues in Ottawa,” he said.

Gazan said she spoke to Sjoberg on Wednesday and sent letters to federal ministers and local Liberal MPs Thursday to call on Ottawa to fund a program with proven results.

“It’s a life-and-death program. It’s working with many young people who have fallen through the cracks,” Gazan said. ”We talk about youth unemployment in the country, we talk about mental health, we talk about addictions, and then the (federal) government callously has cut these kinds of programs.”

RaY is based in Gazan’s constituency, which had the highest child-poverty rate (41.1 per cent) of any urban centre in Canada in 2022, based on tax filings.

Jamie Moses, the provincial NDP government’s minister responsible for job creation, noted RaY’s work to help young people build skills and find stability.

“Ending federal funding for a program that is delivering real results is deeply disappointing,” he said in a statement. “This decision creates uncertainty for young people who are doing everything right and for the organizations supporting them.”

chris.kitching@freepress.mb.ca