The YES Shelter For Youth and Families, formerly known as the Youth Emergency Shelter (YES), is located in the city of Peterborough, Ontario, Canada. It is a homeless shelter that provides three meals a day to clients and offers food boxes to those in need.
After over 40 years of planning, YES opened its doors on 20 December 2002. The official opening of the shelter occurred in February 2003 and was attended by both local and federal politicians including the Honourable Jane Stewart. While YES is a shelter for homeless youth and families, it is also an umbrella organization for other programs concerning this group of at-risk youth.
Services
=== Emergency shelter for youth ===<!-- Unsourced image removed: thumb|right|200px|Youth Emergency Shelter| -->
YES is open and staffed 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. The shelter provides homeless youth and families with shelter, food, and support with accessing community resources in order to break the cycle of homelessness.
The length of stay is determined on a case-by-case basis, but the facility is not designed to provide permanent or long-term housing. Youth who stay at the shelter are expected to develop and follow a personal service plan with concrete goals concerning housing, schooling, and employment. They are also encouraged to develop strategies to work on personal challenges, ranging from past abuse or traumatic experiences to various addictions.
Transition facilities
In 2003, YES started operating a second-stage youth housing facility in Peterborough, Ontario, known as Abbott House, which it formally opened the following year. It started as a 10-bed 'rooming house' style home available to youth in need, providing them with an opportunity to learn to become good tenants.