Pearson’s community investments are focused and strategic to ensure maximum impact. Through the Uplift Fund, we support projects that:
- Create meaningful job and career growth opportunities.
- Facilitate effective employment supports and services for local residents.
- Enhance the capacity and sustainability of community partners.
- Support training and programming that addresses systemic barriers contributing to inequalities in the regional economy.
Funding is available under two streams:
- Growing the Construction Skilled Trades, for projects that remove barriers and help individuals succeed at every stage of their career journey in construction trades.
- Breaking Down Barriers to Meaningful Employment, aligning with projects that support individuals facing barriers to employment, particularly for underrepresented and marginalized groups, such as: newcomers, racialized people and youth.
In 2026, Toronto Pearson has awarded $1.65 million to the following local organizations across our two funding streams:
Growing the Construction Skilled Trades
ACCES Employment: Connecting to Careers in Construction
Connecting to Careers in Construction responds to labour shortages in the construction industry by connecting refugee and newcomer youth to skilled trades opportunities. Through ACCES Employment's mobile employment services and Test the Trade campaign, the program brings apprenticeship pathways and employment supports directly to communities across Peel Region and Etobicoke.
Afro Canadian Contractors Association: Project Ascend – Advancing Pathways to Success in Skilled Trades
Project Ascend is an initiative designed to address specific challenges faced by BIPOC contractors in the construction industry, with a focus on skill-building in estimating and bidding, a critical area that directly impacts their ability to compete for and win contracts. The initiative combines skills development with mentorship, networking and post-program support.
Blue Door Support Services: Creating Pathways with Construct – Breaking Down Barriers to Employment
This project expands Blue Door’s Construct model into Peel Region to support residents facing housing instability and poverty to transition into skilled trades employment. The program focuses on employment development support and transportation assistance to ensure participants can consistently access training, interviews and job placements.
Building Up: Building Up a Network of Holistic Supports for Long-term Construction Careers
Building Up's project supports marginalized individuals in pursuing and advancing careers in the skilled trades through apprenticeship pathways. Participants receive personalized career support, financial coaching, mentorship and access to emergency assistance, while expanded employer partnerships help connect them to meaningful employment and long-term career opportunities.
Lady Ballers Centre (LBC): LBC Eco Power Electrical Apprenticeship Training Program
Supporting Black youth, particularly young women, in pursuing careers in the electrical trade through a paid apprenticeship program, LBC's program combines technical training with wrap-around supports. Participants complete their first level of apprenticeship training and are matched with employer sponsors, helping build a more inclusive skilled trades workforce.
Play Forever: Youth STEP to Construction: Building Futures Through Skilled Trades
This project prepares Peel Region youth for careers in the skilled trades through hands-on construction experiences, industry-recognized safety certifications and connections to employers and unions. Using Play Forever's sports-based engagement model, the program helps participants explore and access pathways to careers in the construction industry.
Relay Education: Solar Installation Training – Peel
Solar Installation Training delivers hands-on solar installation and maintenance training through small, cohort-based modules that combine safety certification with applied technical learning. Participants construct and install functional solar systems, gaining practical experience in renewable energy infrastructure. The program prepares residents from equity-deserving communities for emerging careers in clean energy and helps build local capacity in green technologies.
Breaking Down Barriers to Meaningful Employment
CNIB: CNIB Come to Work
Come to Work supports jobseekers who are blind, deafblind or have low vision in securing sustainable employment through accessible skills training, assistive technology support and employer connections. In this expansion into Peel Region, the program will also work with employers to strengthen inclusive hiring practices and create more accessible pathways to employment.
Hospitality Workers Training Centre (HWTC): Building Equity and Championing Opportunities Now (BEACON): Uplifiting Women’s Careers
The BEACON program works directly with employers to empower racialized women in hospitality by advancing them from entry-level roles to supervisory and managerial positions. Paid, job-specific and leadership training will help participants gain the skills, coaching and support needed for career mobility and build pathways for racialized women to thrive in leadership positions.
Windmill Microlending: Elevate to Employment: Removing Barriers for Skilled Immigrants
For newcomers in Brampton, Mississauga and Etobicoke, Elevate to Employment supports participants in completing credential recognition or reskilling pathways required to work in their original professions in Canada. Affordable loans, financial literacy training, mentorship and career coaching, will enable them to move into career-aligned roles.
Humber College: Financial Services: Career Connect Program (FSCC)
Financial Services Career Connect (FSCC) fast-track program is designed to help newcomers and underemployed jobseekers launch careers in Canada's financial sector. Through industry-recognized certifications, micro-credentials, career coaching, mentorship and employer connections, participants gain the skills, experience and networks needed to access employment opportunities in the field.