Dear YouthLine Community,
The Board of Directors would like to reiterate our appreciation for the support our community has continued to show us as we work to support 2SLGBTQ+ youth across Ontario. We also want to share a leadership and staffing update with our community.
On October 27, 2022, the Executive Committee of the Board of Directors received a letter of resignation from Philip Wong, YouthLine’s Interim Executive Director. Philip shared with the Board that he needed to take a step back from his role due to caregiving responsibilities.
Philip joined the organization in the summer as our Interim Executive Director to help provide leadership and guidance on three key priorities. The Board would like to thank Phillip for his meaningful contribution to YouthLine over the last few months. We wish Phillip and his family our best.
The Board also wants to acknowledge and share our appreciation for management, staff, and volunteers who have demonstrated incredible initiative, dedication, commitment, and passion for the work, ensuring continued service delivery of our programs during this transition period.
The Board will be taking immediate steps to ensure that adequate leadership and support is provided to the organization, especially on the following three priorities: (1) mentorship and management of LGBT YouthLine’s staff team on programming deliverables, (2) oversight and management of the organization’s finances, grant deliverables, and fundraising goals, and (3) oversight of an organizational review.
We are grateful to the team of volunteers, staff, management, and the community, including vendors and partners, who are currently supporting these priorities. In the short term, the Board has started to provide direct assistance on these key priorities and is having conversations about resources and leadership decisions going forward. Our focus is to support staff to ensure that YouthLine’s programming will continue.
We are looking forward to the process and results of the organizational review to provide insight and guidance for longer-term decision-making on leadership and structure, rooted in continued alignment with our values.
We appreciate the continued support from our community as we move through this transition and will provide our community with updates on all significant decisions going forward.
For further information, please contact the Board of Directors at board@youthline.ca.
On behalf of the Board of Directors,
Juan Luis Garrido and Tamara Sylvester, Co-Chairs
