officials announced<\/a> the launch of the Youth Community Academy during a news conference at Seneca Polytechnic\u2019s Newnham campus.<\/p>\nThe program will run this summer for two months and will train 40 high school students in policing and fire services techniques. They\u2019ll also earn education credits and will be compensated.<\/p>\n
Training will take place at Seneca\u2019s Newnham campus, near Highway 404 and Finch Avenue East, as well as at Toronto Police Service and Toronto Fire Services training facilities, police divisions, and fire stations.<\/p>\n
\u201cToronto is proud to work alongside Seneca Polytechnic, Toronto Fire Services, Toronto Police Service and our community partners to create new opportunities for young people,\u201d Mayor Olivia Chow said during the launch event.<\/p>\n
\u201cPrograms like the Youth Community Academy help students build skills, gain experience and see a future where they can contribute to their communities.\u201d<\/p>\n
Funding for the program will be provided by the City of Toronto. <\/p>\n
In Mayor Chow\u2019s 2025 budget, $5 million was allocated toward youth safety initiatives, and this funding commitment was renewed in the City\u2019s 2026 budget.<\/p>\n
Funds for this initative also come from the Toronto Police Association, Toronto Fire Services, Toronto Professional Fire Fighters\u2019 Association, and Cadillac Fairview with contributions from the TTC and Seneca.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Youth Community Academy is an investment in Toronto\u2019s future,\u201d Demkiw said at the event.<\/p>\n
\u201cBy giving young people the opportunity to experience policing firsthand, we\u2019re helping them build valuable leadership, teamwork and problem-solving skills while fostering a greater understanding of public service.\u201d<\/p>\n
Toronto fire Chief Jim Jessop was also in attendance to lend his support.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A new pilot program gives students a chance to experience police and firefighting professions through a paid learning…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":791625,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194291],"tags":[712,49,48,3302],"class_list":["post-791624","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-toronto","tag-apple-news","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-toronto"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/791624","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=791624"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/791624\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/791625"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=791624"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=791624"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=791624"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}