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Together For Our Youth program

Encouraging our youth has always been a priority for us. Through this program, we support hundreds of thousands of young people across Canada.

Program facts and figures

3,000 initiatives

to support youth

1 million young people

helped

$50 million

invested per year 1

Together For Our Youth program

Supporting the well-being of our youth and helping them achieve their dreams is important to us. That's why we've created the Together For Our Youth program, an important initiative that supports young people as they pursue their goals, regardless of their socioeconomic status.

We've joined forces with our partners to offer young people resources and tools in the areas of education, employment and entrepreneurship, health and healthy lifestyles and community involvement.

Description Transcript
Letting youth speak for themselves

1 min 16 s | Added on August 25, 2023

The Together For Our Youth program helps young people achieve their dreams. Learn more about how we invest in our youth.
Letting youth speak for themselves (1 min 16 s)

Added on August 25, 2023 | Desjardins Group

Note: The information in brackets describes the audio and visual content of the video that is not dialogue or narration.

[Background music]

[A diverse group of children, teenagers and young adults stand in a spacious concrete room with high ceilings and large, sunny windows. They raise their hands in the air, wiggle their fingers and stand together in four rows, facing forward and smiling.]

[On-screen text: "Because we care about our youth, we let their hopes and challenges speak for themselves."]

Boy 1: "My dream is to get better grades so I can go to the high school of my choice."

[A boy with blonde hair smiles while putting on a black graduation cap.]

Girl 1: "I'm scared of a lot of things so I'm taking it step by step to succeed."

[A girl with blonde French braids touches a translucent curtain and smiles slightly.]

Young woman 1: "I want to go to med school so that I can make a difference."

[A young woman with long red hair and glasses looks over her shoulder thoughtfully.]

Young woman 2: "My challenge is to live my life for myself, not for others."

[A young woman with long brown hair, glasses and a septum piercing takes a deep breath and opens her eyes.]

Young woman 3: "My dream is to create art and make a living from it."

[A young woman with brown braids and a line tattooed down the middle of her chin smiles. She's wearing earrings made of rectangular pieces of fur.]

Young man 1: "I'd like to learn how to save up so I can buy an apartment block for my whole family."

[A young man with an afro sits in a patch of sun. He smiles while writing in a notebook.]

Young man 2; "I just want to be myself so I can feel free."

[A young man with glasses and gold earrings dances energetically. The others stand around him in a circle, smiling and clapping.]

Boy 2: "I'm trying to figure out which sport I like best."

[A boy with brown hair plays with a basketball while gazing out a window.]

Young woman 4: "I'm not giving up. I want to finally finish Grade 9."

[A young woman with a red bob, glasses and a septum piercing smiles and looks up.]

Young man 3: "I dream of becoming an environmental leader."

[A young man with glasses walks forward and smiles.]

Girl 2: "When I get involved, I do it to help others but it helps me too."

[A girl with long black cornrows lies on the floor. She does an arm wave and laughs.]

Narrator: "With the Together For Our Youth program, Desjardins invests more than 50 million per year to help young people reach their full potential."

[The young man with gold earrings dances with a young woman. The boy with brown hair bounces his basketball. The young woman wearing fur earrings smiles broadly. The girl with cornrows and four other children lie on the floor with their heads together. They lower their arms and laugh. The young woman with brown hair smiles. The young man with an afro writes in his notebook. Everyone gathers in four rows, faces forward and smiles. A boy and girl playfully bump each other with their hips.]

[ On-screen text: "Together For Our Youth program"]

[On-screen text: "We thank the young people who took part in this project and shared their stories."]

[On-screen logo: Desjardins logo]

[On-screen text: desjardins.com/supporting-youth]

[Background music: Desjardins jingle]

End of transcript

Program beneficiaries

  • Young Canadians ages 5 to 30

Desjardins Foundation

  • Desjardins Foundation
  • Community Development Fund
  • Educational programs
  • Partnerships, donations and sponsorships

Program goals

To support young people's plans and ambitions

To promote young people's development and potential

To improve young people's lives and communities

We have a responsibility to put our kids in a position where they can grow and realize their dreams. I don't think it's possible to overinvest in their future.

Guy Cormier

President and CEO of Desjardins Group

Discover resources and tools

Our actions have a real impact on the lives of young people. The success we've had is thanks to our collaboration with our partners, who work in 4 main areas.

Education

With the support of our partners, we can offer an array of resources and tools to support and motivate young people through their studies.

Unforeseen: The decision-making game

Desjardins initiative

This game is a fun and creative way to gain financial knowledge.

Learn more about Unforeseen.

Health and healthy lifestyles

With the support of our partners, we offer resources and tools that help young people maintain their health and well-being.

Kids Help Phone

The Kids Help Phone offers 24/7 anonymous counselling to young people online, by phone or by text.

Learn more about Kids Help Phone.

Become a partner

Join us to make a difference in the lives of young people.

To learn more about our investments to support youth, see our  Social and Cooperative Responsibility Report.