Prince’s Trust Canada

Prince’s Trust Canada is one of the recipients of the 2021 Bell True Patriot Love Fund. Below they’ve answered some questions to help us learn a little more about their program, what they hope to achieve, and what they aim to do with the funding provided. 

1. Tell me a little bit about your organization and its mission.  

Founded by His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, Prince’s Trust Canada is a national charity committed to a sustainable future for Canada. We believe a sustainable future depends on our social, economic and environmental strength. Our work focuses on creating opportunities for young people and members of the military and Veteran community through programs designed to prepare them for the changing world of work. Our award-winning Operation Entrepreneur program has helped over 4,000 people explore entrepreneurship.  

2. Can you describe your program in 3-4 sentences, including outlined objectives the program aims to achieve?  

Operation Entrepreneur provides a support ecosystem that bridges the gap between military service and civilian life. Our breadth of experience with the military community has helped us to understand the challenges transitioning members and Veterans face, on either side of their release date.  With a focus on second career options, our suite of programming focuses on building confidence, creating new communities of support and developing a sense of agency, control and optimism for what the future can hold for military members and their families.         

 3. What is the desired outcome of your program and its impact on the Veteran and military community?  

We want to help as many Veterans and members of the military community as possible while increasing the impact of our programs. For this funding in particular from the Bell True Patriot Love Fund, we want to further equip our mentorship participants with insightful, practical skills and tools to improve their mental well-being, which will increase their ability to start and grow a business through challenging times.   

 We also aim to build awareness and capacity within our organization and our collaborative partnerships to better equip us all to serve the military community, some of which face significant mental and physical health challenges resulting from both military service and military culture.   

 4. What does this grant from the Bell True Patriot Love Fund mean to you?  

This funding is so important to us. Since 2017 we have been focusing our mental health workshops on boot camp volunteers only. Overwhelmingly the feedback is that the workshops are informative, helpful, and the volunteers feel more prepared for the week. This funding will allow us to extend this mental health training to all Operation Entrepreneur program volunteers, the military and Veteran support community, and add participant-focused modules that are tailored to support the unique needs of the mentor, mentees, and of people identifying as women. This support will have a deep and lasting impact on our program and the military and Veteran-serving community. We are very grateful.