Winter Prep & Holiday Planning

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Winter Prep & Holiday Planning

Lauren Riihimaki Shares Holiday Tips and Discusses Her New Podcast We chatted with Canadian YouTuber, Television & Podcast Host and DIY expert Lauren Riihimaki about her favourite holiday activities, dealing with holiday stress, her new podcast, and more.

What’s your favorite part about the winter months and holiday season?

I absolutely love the holidays. Living in LA, it’s my favourite time to come back home to Canada. The energy around the holidays feels different in the best way and my time spent here is always focused on family and catching up with loved ones. Canadian winters used to be my worst nightmare, but snow becomes much more exciting and magical when you have the privilege of hopping back on a plane to the sun a few weeks later. With that said, I hope and wish with every fibre of my being for snow at Christmas.

How have you spent the holidays differently living in LA versus Canada?

I think we’ll always try to make it home to Canada for Christmas! Between my boyfriend and me, our families are in the Niagara Region, Ontario, and Chicago, so we do a bit of a holiday loop to see everyone. We had our first LA Christmas last year, not by choice. It was incredibly difficult to be separated from family and I think it really confirmed that we prefer to be in the colder climates with our families to really feel the true holiday spirit.

Do you have advice for anyone dealing with holiday stress during these times?

“

Holiday stress is real. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve embraced the gift of quality time more than anything. It’s easy to get excited about the physical gifting element of the holidays, especially when you’re younger, but more than anything I just want to spend time with loved ones. Try to focus on being present instead of literal presents. There can be a lot of pressure around holiday gatherings and family drama, but I think it’s so important to cherish family

traditions and connection. Being away from home in a different country for the majority of the year has grown my perspective immensely.

What are some of your favourite holiday activities to do with your family and friends?

As a family we typically visit a Christmas tree farm and hand select and cut down our own tree. We usually stop at Tim Hortons on the way home and spend the next day or so decorating the tree and laughing at the eclectic collection of DIY ornaments I’ve made throughout the years. There are a few baby photo ornaments of me that are particularly unflattering that we love to joke about.

Christmas Eve is shared with my parents’ anniversary, so we usually celebrate with steak and lobster, champagne, and a nostalgic Christmas movie.

As I’ve gotten older, I’ve embraced the gift of quality time more than anything.

How do you include your mini Bull Terrier, Moose, in the holiday activities?

Being raised in sunny LA, Moose does not enjoy the cold — to the point that we have to shovel out a little area in the frozen grass for

him to use the bathroom, because he wants to touch the snow as little as possible and shivers even with the warmest doggy coat. He really enjoys the indoor holiday festivities, though.

He has his own stocking at our house and my parents’ house, gets his own presents under the tree to unwrap, and is on high alert for dog-friendly Christmas table food that might fall from the counter. He’s the only dog in our family, so is deservingly spoiled and receiving love nonstop.

Can you tell us more about your podcast series Wild ‘Til 9?

Wild ‘Til 9 is the podcast that I co-host alongside my boyfriend Jeremy. We tackle topics that most 20-somethings experience at some point —everything from being ghosted by your love interest, pop culture, and mental health to dating and surviving the holidays under different dynamics of family stress. It’s been great having a long-format platform to host our honest and raw conversations around relatable and entertaining moments for our audience.

Is there anything that we should be on the lookout for from LaurDIY during the holidays?

Watch out for Season 2 of Craftopia holiday episodes, streaming on HBO Max in the U.S. and on Crave in Canada. We’ve got four holiday-themed episodes that you’ll binge in a single sitting. Each episode has three adult expert crafters going head-to-head in timed challenges to compete for $10,000. Our judges are full of holiday sass and aren’t always bringing the holiday cheer in their honest opinions.

It’s so much fun, guaranteed to impress everyone at home, and a great holiday show to share with your family.

Check out Wild ‘Til 9 at youtube.com/ c/WildTil9 and Watch Craftopia on Crave at crave.ca

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YMCA of Greater Toronto Helping to Ignite the Potential of Youth From emergency shelter to mental health support to employment counselling, the YMCA of Greater Toronto provides critical on-theground programs for vulnerable youth.

S

Anne Papmehl

Jennifer White General Manager of Youth Outreach and Intervention, YMCA of Greater Toronto

ince the mid-1980s, the YMCA of Greater Toronto has been supporting vulnerable youth.

Between 1,700 to 7,000 youth in Toronto experience homelessness at any given time. “About 80% of young people that end up in our services come from some type of family breakdown, whether it’s violence, substance use issues, or mental health issues in the home, or 2SLGBTQ+ youth coming out and being asked to leave,” says Jennifer White, General Manager of Youth Outreach and Intervention at the YMCA of Greater Toronto. Sixty-six percent of these individuals don’t have a high school diploma and 77% are unemployed. Through dozens of programs at its 400 plus locations across the GTA, the Y provides critical supports to help young people build a brighter future for themselves.

Winter and COVID restrictions make youth homelessness more complex The onset of winter, plus the impact of the pandemic, makes the issue of youth homelessness even more urgent. “One of the things that COVID-19 has brought out of the shadows is the many inequities, reminding us that different people have different chances of living a good life in the GTA,” says White. With the physical distancing needed to prevent the spread of the virus many homeless shelters have had to reduce their numbers and work with the City of Toronto and other partners to find alternate safe accommodations. “This has really highlighted that we don’t have enough places and spaces, not just for people in general, but especially for our young people to live,” says White. “With the colder months quickly approaching, it’s more important than ever that young people have access not just to shelter, but to affordable housing.”

Wagner Green YMCA offers sheltering, free drop-in programs and more In 2015, the Wagner Green YMCA opened a 11,400 square-foot facility in Toronto’s Queen Street West and Spadina Avenue community – an underserved area – to do just that. “The goal of this program is to support young people in securing and maintaining permanent and affordable accommodation,” says White.

Located at 7 Vanauley Street, the Wagner Green YMCA is a diverse and 2SLGBTQ+ positive space, offering 40 shelter beds to young men ages 16 – 24, where gender is self-identified. Aside from providing emergency shelter and free drop-in services, Wagner Green offers a range of support services around employment counselling, substance abuse counselling, and auxiliary housing, along with access to medical support, mental health support, identification clinics, and legal services.

Many of these services are offered oneon-one. As for success rates, White explains: “Ninety-five percent of the 70 to 80 young people that come through the program each year have a positive outcome, whether it’s getting back into employment, education, or a job training program or into mental health supports. From April to September 2021, we’ve supported 1,484 youth and housed 43 youth in that same period.”

As our communities recover and rebuild from the pandemic, the Y relies on public donations to ensure young people have access to these critical services. “The wraparound supports we provide to our youth are really important and can have a significant impact on our community,” says White. “It’s only with support from donors that we can continue providing these programs and in turn give more people opportunities to better their lives.

I think everyone deserves a chance to shine and the YMCA works to promote equity and boost well being in the GTA,” says White.

70 - 80 young people come through the program each year.

95%

have a positive outcome.

whether it’s getting back into employment, education, or a job training program or into mental health supports.

1,484

youth supported from April to September 2021.

You can give homeless youth in Toronto a chance to shine by donating to the YMCA: ymcagta.org/ LightThePath.

This article was sponsored by YMCA of Greater Toronto.