About Pathways for Youth Employment
Building on the success of the first Communities Building Youth Futures cohort in learning and advancing strategies together, Tamarack has collaborated with communities to create a new, more focused cohort. Starting in 2025, six communities – including Yellowknife, Grande Prairie, Sudbury, Chatham-Kent, Moncton, and the Yukon Territory – embarked on a journey together to understand and address the issue of youth employment. For three years, these communities will respond to new and emerging systemic challenges within the youth employment sector through strategic, cross-sector partnerships, by using research and development approaches, and centring youth voice.
The goal for the communities is to develop and test innovative solutions to complex problems related to youth employment, ensuring they are scalable and sustainable. Tamarack will share these innovations across the membership and broader learning network to build organizational and sectoral capacity to improve outcomes for youth. Through the innovations, communities will help youth develop skills and gain the experience they need to successfully transition into the labour market. This will be done by supporting the needs of all youth – especially youth facing systemic barriers to success – to develop skills, knowledge, and networks through education, skills development, and meaningful work experience.
Supporting Youth Innovation in Canada's North
This case study explores how youth in Northern and Indigenous communities are responding to systemic barriers in education and employment with community-led, strengths-based solutions.
The Hidden Work of Community Innovation: Building Readiness
This case study shows that innovation does not begin with solutions, but with strengthening the underlying conditions that make collaboration possible such as trust, shared understanding, and strong relationships.
Rethinking Youth Workforce Development: When “Job Readiness” Meets an Imperfect Labour Market
This case study explores how communities across Canada are shifting from placing responsibility solely on young people to become “job-ready” toward creating more inclusive and supportive workplaces.
A Hidden Asset: The Power of Emerging Youth Leadership in Community Innovation
This case study explores how youth leaders are reshaping community innovation by bringing lived experience, intergenerational collaboration, and new forms of engagement to leadership tables across Canada.
-EN.png?width=725&height=202&name=Funded%20in%20part%20by_Canada_Wordmark(YESS)-EN.png)