Published on Rogers on November 20, 2024.

Program doubles our impact to help over 100,000 youth

Rogers supports youth to build a stronger Canada, and we are proud to announce new partnerships for our Rogers Youth Grants program – Big Brothers Big Sisters of Canada, BGC Canada, NPower Canada, and YMCAs across Canada.

Each of our new national partners will receive $450,000 combined cash and in-kind media to raise awareness of their work and deepen their impact. Over 50 regional organizations across Canada will also receive grants to support local programs. In total, Rogers is investing nearly $3 million in grants and in-kind media through the 2024 program, doubling our impact to reach 100,000 youth ages 12-29 through educational and employment programs.

“Investing in Canada’s youth is an investment in our country’s future,” said Navdeep Bains, Chief Corporate Affairs Officer, Rogers. “Our national partners were chosen for their longstanding commitment to making an indelible impact in the lives of young people facing barriers. All the grant recipients across Canada, no matter their size, will provide critical jobs and skills training, education, and mentorship programs to ensure young people can realize their dreams.”

Rogers has awarded nearly $10 million through youth granting programs since 2017, and it awards hundreds of Ted Rogers Scholarships to youth across Canada annually.

Learn more about Rogers Youth Grants and see list of 2024 regional recipients.

QUOTES – National Partners

“Our partners at Rogers understand that their generous investment in BBBS Teen Mentoring programs today delivers so much value to so many youth long-term. The single most common factor for children who do well is having the support of one stable and committed relationship with an adult. The Rogers Youth Grant means that over 350 mentee-mentor matches will be ignited across 24 local BBBS communities across Canada and inspire the growth of even more local Teen Mentoring programs. Together with Rogers, we are further tackling the problem of childhood adversities in rural, remote and urban communities.”
– Jill Zelmanovits, CEO, Big Brothers Big Sisters of Canada

“The Rogers Youth Grant for a national YMCA Achievers program will have a profoundly positive impact on the lives of young people including Indigenous youth in Manitoba, Black youth in Ontario, and newcomer youth in Quebec. In Toronto, it will help address systemic barriers by supporting the social and academic development of Black high school students through relationships with Black role models participating in our YMCA Black Achievers Mentorship Program.”
– Lesley Davidson, President and CEO, YMCA of Greater Toronto

“We’re grateful to Rogers for their investment in our work. This commitment will help more deserving jobseekers launch sustainable careers through our free workforce development program and contribute to creating a more equitable digital economy.”
– Julia Blackburn, CEO, NPower Canada

“We are grateful to partner with Rogers to deliver the Keystone Youth Leadership program. This partnership will allow us to positively impact the lives of almost 45,000 young people across the country. Keystone is designed to help young people develop valuable leadership skills, confidence, and build connections with peers and caring mentors. Together, Rogers and BGC Canada will develop new leaders, enhance community engagement and ultimately help young people to be prepared and ready to work.”
– Owen Charters, President and CEO of BGC Canada

Rogers annual donation of $1 million enabled eight-week Jays Care summer program for thousands of Canadian children and youth

For more than two decades, the Blue Jays and Jays Care have worked to create a level playing field for children and youth across Canada. This year, though, the playbook looked a little different. Though COVID-19 has impacted all Canadians, the pandemic disproportionately affected those already facing significant barriers in their everyday lives, particularly children and youth.

After surveying families about the needs of more than 600 children in its programs, Jays Care rapidly adapted its summer programs to address the challenge by launching virtual summer camps.  This online program, made possible in part by a $1 million donation from Rogers, welcomed nearly 10,000 virtual campers this summer in partnership with Toronto Community Housing and 49 BGC across the country.

“This year, it has been more important than ever for organizations to work together to support under-resourced communities,” said Robert Witchel, Executive Director, Jays Care Foundation. “Our longstanding relationships with Rogers, BGC Canada, and Toronto Community Housing allowed us to make the important pivot to a new virtual camp plan so we could continue to support families in need from coast to coast to coast.

For the last two months, campers between the ages of 4 and 15 joined engaging camp counsellors, trained by Jays Care using industry-leading best practices, for 1.5 hours of daily interactive fun, tapping into two-way video technology to play and connect with other youth.  From around-the-house scavenger hunts to talent shows, the virtual camps offered an opportunity for youth to connect with children their own age and spend time with two trusted counsellors – a daily moment of joy, caring, and continuity that means more than ever after a long period of isolation.

“This has been a summer that no parent could have planned for and no child could have imagined.  Through the help of our partners and terrific counsellors, we were pleased to be able to help provide fun, interesting and safe online live programming for 10,000 kids across Canada through these virtual camps,” said Sevaun Palvetzian who leads Communications and Corporate Social Responsibility for Rogers. “These camps helped fill an unusual summer, but also brought some important new connections to everyone involved.”

“This summer, thanks to the dedication and innovative approaches of Jays Care Foundation, our partners, and our employees, we were able to offer summer programs for children and youth, including virtual internships and summer jobs, while respecting the need for physical distancing” said Kevin Marshman, President and CEO, Toronto Community Housing.

The summer program provided part-time employment to 550 young adults as camp counsellors, enabling re-employment for many BGC staff who had lost positions during the COVID-19 shutdown.  This allowed BGC to continue their mandate of keeping kids active and building life skills, when so many other programs had been cancelled.

“Alleviating isolation for 10,000 kids is reason enough to celebrate the Jays Care virtual summer camps—but there’s an even greater good for many of our Club kids,” said Owen Charters, President & CEO, BGC Canada. “We know that increased isolation has meant increased risk of mental health issues among kids of all ages. Daily contact with trusted Club staff and councillors—even virtually—has been an important way we’ve been able to connect with children who need us the most. We are grateful to Jays Care and Rogers for their support.”

The 2020 virtual summer camps are part of a longstanding partnership with Rogers, which has provided more than $9 million in funding to Jays Care Foundation programs in the last 10 years alone. The partnership has supported the building or refurbishing of accessible baseball diamonds as part of Field Of Dreams, distribution of more than 1,000 adaptive home baseball kits for youth with disabilities enrolled in Challenger Baseball, almost 60 Ted Rogers Scholarships for Jays Care-nominated youth since 2017, and this summer’s Step Up to the Plate food hamper initiative which has provided 8 million meals for food banks across Canada.

Media Contact

Ben Sibley, Ben.Sibley@bluejays.com, 647.449.4605