Eva’s and Home Depot are on a journey together.

In 2012, the Home Depot Canada Foundation committed to preventing and ending youth homelessness in Canada. Since then, it’s invested $50 million in housing, employment and life skills, prevention, and research. It plans to dedicate $125 million to the cause by 2030.

“We support over 200 organizations annually and Eva’s has been a strategic partner since the beginning because they’ve been a leader in this space for many years. As they’ve evolved and grown, so has the way we support what they do,” said Amy Bilodeau, senior manager of community investment at Home Depot Canada.

Most recently, the foundation supported our diversity, equity and inclusion (EDI) framework. Over the years, it has funded job readiness programming, provided renovation work in our shelters, and supported events and initiatives for youth.

Eva’s also partners with Home Depot stores in the GTA as part of the foundation’s Orange Door campaign. “Eva’s has great relationships with their local stores. They’ve put the work into making those connections and demonstrated the great work they do so that they have increased community support,” said Amy.

She believes Eva’s will continue to be an important partner as the foundation works to achieve its goals. “We want to support long-term solutions that help provide youth with mentorship and life skills. Eva’s is a pioneer, bringing expertise and wraparound community support that is so important as youth transition out of emergency shelters,” said Amy.

“Eva’s also has a long history of supporting Black youth specifically, which is important to us because we prioritize funding for marginalized or underserved youth. Our partnership allows us to understand the needs of Black youth and new Canadians so we can further our work and facilitate learnings across organizations.”