Strategic Plan 2023 - 2028

Co-developed by youth, staff, our Board of Directors, and key external stakeholders, the Choices for Youth (CFY) 2023-2028 Strategic Plan sets the roadmap for our collective work in supporting youth and young families in our province, all with the goal of ending child and youth homelessness in Newfoundland and Labrador while supporting youth in meeting their self-defined goals.

WHO WE HEARD FROM

80 staff members
14 stakeholders
90 young people

Executive Director &
Board Chair

It is with great pleasure that we release CFY’s 2023-2028 strategic plan. Although delayed due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the commitment to develop and implement this plan was not diminished. Our organization’s key responsibility is to understand the needs of youth – and to continue to challenge ourselves to meet those needs. At the same time, as a long-standing leader in the community, CFY staff and Board must ensure we have the organizational capacity to deliver on our obligations to youth in a sustainable way.

Our plan charts a path to meet the needs of youth in our ever-changing community for the next five years. With the even more critical need to focus on meeting the rise in housing, mental health and food security needs for youth, we have chosen a five-year plan for the first time. This has allowed us to map out detailed commitments for the next three years while taking an aspirational approach to the full five years. This is incredibly important for key elements such as our commitments to Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) for our programming, staff, and our Board.

Investing in our staff continues to be a top priority and core to our future vision as an organization. Our staff do amazing work every day to support youth and provide opportunities for their growth and success. For that reason, we are recommitting to a strong focus on staff well-being and organizational culture as key investments to drive strong, innovative programming that meets the needs of youth and young families in our province.

A message from the

Headshot of Executive Director of CFY
Headshot of Board Chair

Sheldon Pollett
Executive Director

Geoff Davis
Board Chair

Overview of the Strategic Planning Process

Line with arrows representing a timeline

Winter 2022:
 Initiate strategic planning process

April-August 2022:
Launch engagement sessions with staff, youth and other stakeholders 

Winter 2023:
Conduct final consultations and finalize strategic plan

March 2022:
Conduct engagement session with Board and management team 

August 2022:
Develop milestones with program leadership

  • We engaged with 80 staff members through 10 in-person sessions facilitated by Jennifer Kelly, Instructor with the Gardiner Centre. Staff members also submitted approximately 30 survey responses.

    > Read more <

  • We employed external facilitation for all engagements as we wanted to create a safe space for open conversations. All staff sessions, hosted by Jennifer Kelly, focused on five key thematic areas. Managers and Directors were not a part of these sessions.

    > Read more <

  • The strategic plan needs to be adaptable – just like the process that created it. We developed this plan through a COVID-19 lockdown, a strike, and an increasing affordability crisis.


    > Read More <

  • One major change that we hear from youth and staff is to better define our expanding age mandate. Based on what we heard, we are happy to be officially expanding our mandate from 16-29 to youth ages 0-29.

    > Read More <

Strategic plan themes

Stabilize, Communicate, & Sustain Core Program Delivery

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icon of a hand displaying a heart
icon of of an arrow and lightbulb to display innovation and growth

Invest in our Staff & Culture

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Prioritize Equity, Diversity & Inclusion across CFY

Each theme contains a number of goals and key actions.

Invest in Program & Service Innovation to meet Youth Needs

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Stabilize, Communicate, & Sustain Core Program Delivery

We are committed to investing in our foundation and grounding the work ahead in our highly effective programs that span housing, outreach, family and natural supports, education and employment. This investment includes enhancing external communications, growing our fund development, increasing our advocacy and implementing capital management strategies that support program enhancement and sustainability.

icon of a hand displaying a heart

Invest in our STAFF and Culture

At the centre of all that we do are skilled, hard-working and dedicated staff. Over the next five years, we will be investing in key actions that continue to attract a skilled workforce and improve the staff experience at CFY through a renewed compensation and benefits strategy, investment in learning and development, and enhanced internal communications and staff engagement.

Picture of a man and a child. The man is giving they symbol of peace.
icon of of an arrow and lightbulb to display innovation and growth

Invest in Program & Service Innovation to meet Youth Needs

Meeting the evolving needs of youth requires a commitment to innovation. In the next five years, we will expand service hours to meet the growing needs of youth, grow our services outside the St. John’s metro region, and invest in the development of a strong data-driven culture at CFY.

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Prioritize Equity, Diversity & Inclusion across CFY

Prioritizing EDI means investing in programs and partnerships that meet the needs of diverse youth accessing CFY services. We are committed to breaking down barriers for youth, staff, and volunteers through purpose-built programs and partnerships, investment in education and training, and a review of our hiring practices with the goal of building a diverse workforce that upholds the principles of EDI.

Image of a group of people gathering for the Pride Parade holding a CFY banner.

Our Commitment to Accountability

As we embark on our 2023-2028 strategic plan, we are excited to begin work on commitments, goals and milestones outlined throughout this plan.

When it comes to delivering on this plan, we are accountable to youth, staff, and the broader community. Accountability for this strategic plan ultimately lies with the leadership team. However, the strategic plan is so robust because of the direct input from our staff, youth and community members. For it to be successful, it must be rooted in the work that we all do.

The strategic plan will help guide Choices for Youth’s direction over the next five (5) years, and we will keep it front and centre as we go about our work. The leadership team will provide updates to staff and the Board on the strategic plan twice annually. This will ensure our teams know about the progress or delays in the completion of goals we are collectively working toward.

As we know, this plan needs to maintain fluidity to meet the changing needs of our youth and young families. As things evolve within our organization, our community, and our province, there will be ample opportunities to share knowledge and make changes to ensure we continue to focus on what’s the most important.

We are privileged to have such incredible feedback from so many individuals who informed our priorities as an organization over the next five years. We anticipate an exciting journey as we begin implementing our strategic plan, which will ultimately guide us all toward our collective goal: positive outcomes and success for youth.