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The Young Fund

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Beating the odds, students in Pathways to Education programs in Hamilton – and across Canada – are highly likely to graduate from high school, thanks to support from The Young Fund at HCF.

A Transformative Gift to the Community

In April 2000, Hamiltonians Bill and Joyce Young made a landmark gift of $40 million to Hamilton Community Foundation. One of the largest charitable donations in Canada’s history, it transformed HCF’s potential to meet Hamilton’s greatest needs.

This year marks the tenth anniversary of that extraordinary gift which has enabled grants totaling more than $11 million to innovative programs in Hamilton, across Canada and internationally. These grants have touched areas including education, health, the arts and the environment.

Perhaps one of the best examples of the impact is Pathways to Education, a trailblazing program that has proven to reduce high school dropout rates dramatically among disadvantaged youth and help them go on to post-secondary education. Pioneered in Toronto’s Regent Park, The Young Fund has supported its expansion to 11 Canadian communities including Hamilton, where it is addressing the critical issue of low high school completion in challenged neighbourhoods.

Their gift has also improved the life prospects of countless Hamilton young people through the creation of NYA:WEH, an Aboriginal stay-in-school initiative, and a model that is having an influence across the country.

Transformative to the Foundation and to Hamilton, the Young gift in 2000 virtually doubled the granting capacity of HCF’s Community Fund, which is directed to the city’s highest needs. It continues to contribute to this fund annually. At the same time, it enabled the Foundation to pilot its Growing Roots…Strengthening Neighbourhoods program. Together, these components have come together to inform and enable HCF’s neighbourhood-based poverty-reduction work.

“ There are many remarkable aspects about this gift,” says President & CEO Terry Cooke, “and perhaps most humbling is the trust placed in the Foundation and the confidence the Youngs have in Hamilton and its future.”

The Young gift continues a family tradition of giving back to their community. Their roots in the community are deep and their ccommitment to its welfare is profound. Joyce’s great-great grandfather, Colin Ferrie, became the first mayor of Hamilton in 1847. Bill’s ancestors established theHamilton Cotton Company and his father, James Young, was one of the founding board members of Hamilton Community Foundation in 1954.

The Young Fund is a legacy that will continue to transform this community for generations to come.

Read more about the Young Fund