Building Stronger Communities Before Crisis Strikes: Why Helix Supports Boost Child & Youth Advocacy Centre

When a crisis affects children and youth, the impact extends far beyond the immediate event. Whether responding to allegations of abuse, incidents of violence, sudden loss, or community-wide trauma, schools and child-serving organizations are often asked to provide support in moments when young people need safety, stability, and connection most.

Yet many organizations face these challenges without access to consistent, trauma-informed guidance.

That’s why The Helix Foundation is proud to support Boost Child & Youth Advocacy Centre (Boost CYAC) in developing a Community Crisis Response Practice Guide—a resource that will help organizations across Ontario and Canada respond to crises with confidence, compassion, and care.

Supporting Children Through Community Trauma

For more than 40 years, Boost Child & Youth Advocacy Centre has worked to prevent child abuse and violence while supporting children, youth, and families affected by trauma. Through its Community Crisis Response (CCR) program, Boost has developed deep expertise helping schools, organizations, and communities navigate some of the most challenging situations imaginable.

The new Practice Guide will capture those lessons and translate them into practical tools that can be used by child-serving organizations across the country.

From communication protocols and planning templates to trauma-informed recovery strategies, the guide will provide clear, actionable resources for responding to crises involving abuse, violence, and community trauma.

Resilience Doesn’t Begin After a Crisis

At Helix, we believe resilience is not simply the ability to recover from adversity—it is the capacity to prepare for challenges, adapt to change, and emerge stronger together.

That is what makes this project so important.

The organizations that support children every day—schools, community agencies, recreation programs, and youth-serving organizations—are often the first to respond when a crisis occurs. Equipping these organizations with evidence-informed tools strengthens their ability to act quickly, coordinate effectively, and support healing over the long term.

When adults are prepared, children are better protected.

By building organizational readiness before a crisis occurs, this project helps create safer environments where young people can regain a sense of trust, belonging, and stability when difficult events arise.

Strengthening Systems of Support

One of the most exciting aspects of this initiative is its potential reach.

While Boost’s Community Crisis Response program has already supported hundreds of organizations, this guide will make that knowledge accessible to communities far beyond the GTA. Through consultations, pilot testing, training sessions, webinars, and partnerships with Child & Youth Advocacy Centres across Canada, the project will help establish more consistent, trauma-informed approaches to crisis response nationwide.

The result is not only stronger individual organizations, but stronger systems of support for children and families.

When schools, community agencies, caregivers, and mental health professionals share a common understanding of how to respond to trauma, communities are better equipped to heal together.

Investing in Prevention, Healing, and Hope

Helix’s mission is to help children, youth, and families thrive by investing in initiatives that build resilience and create lasting positive change.

Boost CYAC’s Community Crisis Response Practice Guide reflects those values. It recognizes that children deserve thoughtful, coordinated support during times of crisis and that the adults and organizations who care for them deserve access to the tools and knowledge needed to provide that support effectively.

We are proud to support this work and look forward to seeing its impact extend to communities across Ontario and Canada.

Because when we strengthen the people and organizations that support children, we strengthen the resilience of entire communities.