Practical, community-designed initiatives that respond to the real needs of families, youth, and newcomers across the Greater Toronto Area.
Each program is developed in consultation with the people it serves, evaluated against clear outcomes, and continually refined based on what we learn.
We pair young people aged 10 to 18 with trained volunteer mentors who commit to a full school year of consistent, caring support. Mentors help with homework, share career insights, and — most importantly — show up. Weekly group sessions add peer learning, leadership development, and life-skills workshops on topics chosen by the youth themselves.
Outcomes we track: school engagement, self-reported confidence, and a young person's sense of belonging.
Arriving in a new country brings both hope and hardship. Our newcomer program offers orientation to Canadian life, help navigating schools and healthcare, informal English conversation circles, and warm introductions to local services. Families walk in as strangers and leave as neighbours.
Delivered in partnership with settlement agencies, libraries, and faith communities.
Through shared meals, art evenings, elder-led storytelling, and heritage celebrations, we create spaces where cultures meet with curiosity rather than caution. These events strengthen intergenerational ties within communities and build bridges between them.
Past events have included Lunar New Year gatherings, Ramadan iftar dinners, Diwali celebrations, and Canadian multicultural festivals — always open to all.
From after-school homework clubs to digital-literacy workshops for seniors, our education initiatives meet learners where they are. We run reading groups for children, ESL conversation circles for adults, and skills workshops that help newcomers navigate Canadian workplaces.
All programs are free and open to community members.
Health and belonging are inseparable. Our wellbeing programming includes seasonal community gatherings, wellness workshops on mental and physical health, safe spaces for women's and elders' groups, and connections to local health services.
We work with public-health partners to make sure information is culturally relevant, translated, and trusted.
Great volunteers make great programs. We invest in our volunteers with training in cultural humility, safeguarding, mentoring practice, and community facilitation. Volunteers gain skills they carry into their careers and their own communities.
Every program at ABAW Foundation begins with listening — through community conversations, focus groups, and one-to-one interviews. We then co-design solutions with participants, deliver them with well-trained volunteers, and measure outcomes honestly. What works, we grow. What does not, we change.
This community-led cycle keeps our work grounded, relevant, and effective. It also builds trust — because the community is not the audience of our programs; it is the author.
We partner with schools, faith communities, libraries, and other charities to bring our programming to new neighbourhoods. If you see a need in your community, we would love to talk.
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