Background
From a concept paper developed with R&D funding from Employment and Social Development Canada’s (ESDC) Youth Employment and Skills Strategy (YESS), CORDS has become a national, cross-sectoral initiative building and maintaining shared infrastructure for smart service navigation.
CORDS grew out of conversations between like minded stakeholders, all of whom acknowledged significant challenges in the delivery of programs and services for youth.
While youth could rely on search engines like Google, such tools offer no function for recommending additional services based on an initial search. In contrast, an experienced frontline worker could direct a client looking for job opportunities to additional programs related to mentorship, resume support, and even financial aid.
Vulnerable users don’t have the awareness of the range of available services beyond their immediate needs. By offering appropriate recommendations, we can point users to additional useful services and drive greater uptake of important programs.
Connecting Canada’s Youth Services Sector
Various levels of government have made significant investments in programs and services to support social and economic advancement for youth. These programs are administered by thousands of different organizations, including those that serve specific regions and groups.
Several different organizations also curate separate data sets and repositories of opportunities and resources in different fields.
- Mentor Canada provides a database of mentoring opportunities for youth
- Magnet offers a database of job records from across Canada, including those targeted specifically at youth
- Findhelp | 211 Central represents the network of 211-service providing agencies that collect and maintain a nation-wide database of government and community-based, mental and non-clinical health and social services
- Prosper Canada offers resources related to financial security
- VolunteerConnector maintains a national database of volunteer opportunities
CORDS connects these organizations and datasets within one digital network. The result is a tool that points users to vetted results no matter what type of supports they search for.
CORDS will continue to seek partnerships that can offer users more robust recommendations that recognize the multifaceted needs of Canadian youth, including those related to housing, mental health, education, disability services, support for newcomers, food security, judicial services, financial support and literacy, etc.
