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Meet the young faces behind YSB Foundation’s new volunteer leadership

Young Professionals Network unveiled during after-work reception

August 16, 2024

YSB Foundation executive director Patti Murphy (bottom left) with YPN members, top left, Josh Wex (Accenture), Patrick Twagirayezu (Emond Harnden LLP), Tom McComb (BMO Nesbitt Burns), Devin Brazeau (Twenty Seven + Five), (front row) Leah Jamieson (Department of Justice, legal counsel), Jesika Arseneau (TAG HR) and Maddy Eisenberg (Blackbird Strategies) at the launch event for YPN, held at Charlotte on Thursday, Aug. 15, 2024. Absent are YPN members Kebbie Brown and Samuel Brazeau. Photo by Caroline Phillips — Youth Services Bureau Foundation executive director Patti Murphy (bottom left) with YPN members, top left, Josh Wex (Accenture), Patrick Twagirayezu (Emond Harnden LLP), Tom McComb (BMO Nesbitt Burns), Devin Brazeau (Twenty Seven + Five), (front row) Leah Jamieson (Department of Justice, legal counsel), Jesika Arseneau (TAG HR) and Maddy Eisenberg (Blackbird Strategies) at the launch event for YPN, held at Charlotte on Thursday, Aug. 15, 2024. Absent are YPN members Kebbie Brown and Samuel Brazeau. Photo by Caroline Phillips

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It’s been more than a decade since Patrick Twagirayezu, along with hundreds of others, slept outside in the bitter cold to raise money and awareness for the YSB.

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It’s been more than a decade since Patrick Twagirayezu, along with hundreds of others, slept outside in the bitter cold to raise money and awareness for the Youth Services Bureau. All these years later, the community champion continues to support the non-profit organization in a big way. He’s taken on the role of chair of its new Young Professionals Network (YPN), which hosted an after-work launch event Thursday involving some 50 attendees. The nine-member volunteer group held the gathering at the Charlotte, a second-storey cocktail and wine lounge on Elgin Street. They and their invited guests spent a couple of hours enjoying food, drinks, conversation and silent auction bidding while also learning more about the work YSB does in the community to help youth in the areas of mental health, employment, youth justice, and emergency shelter and housing services. YPN is laying the foundation for a younger cohort of professionals to eventually take on key volunteer leadership roles at the non-profit organization. “It’s about making sure our generation – when it’s our time to step up – is ready, and we know everything there is to know about YSB,” said Twagirayezu, a lawyer at employment and labour law firm Emond Harnden LLP.

YSB Foundation's YPN (Young Professionals Network) chair Patrick Twagirayezu, YSB Foundation executive director Patti Murphy and YSB Foundation's events and community engagement specialist Rachel Lessard at YPN's Launch Event, held at Charlotte on Thursday, Aug. 15, 2024. Photo by Caroline Phillips

Twagirayezu recognized it can be hard for young professionals to find the time to volunteer for charitable causes. “It’s not easy, and it gets increasingly more difficult every year, because we all gain more responsibilities with our work and obligations with family. It fundamentally comes down to what you’re in it for.” Twagirayezu also sits on the TELUS Ottawa and Eastern Ontario Community Board and volunteers with AFP Ottawa, which honoured him in 2014 with a youth philanthropy award. He finds community involvement fulfilling — especially when he can see a project or initiative through to its completion. “Nothing compares to that," he continued. "That’s something very, very tangible, when you can say ‘I helped make that for my community’.” Emond Harnden LLP was a sponsor of the event with staffing and recruiting agency TAG HR, represented by CEO Priya Bhaloo and its director of marketing and culture, Jesika Arseneau, who's a leader with YPN. Arseneau agreed to join after finding herself deeply moved by the keynote speaker at the YSB Foundation’s Rise & Thrive Breakfast last October. “I left thinking about how I could get more involved,” said Arseneau. She said YPN has been touring YSB facilities to gain a better understanding of the positive impact it has on the community. “It really helps us speak better to the services when we can truly understand.”

From left, Jesika Arseneau, a member of YSB's YPN (Young Professionals Network) and director of marketing and culture at TAG HR, with CEO Priya Bhaloo at YPN's Launch Event, held at Charlotte on Thursday, Aug. 15, 2024. Photo by Caroline Phillips.

Emond Harnden LLP associates Marianne Abou-Hamad and Patrick Twagirayezu, chair of YSB's Young Professionals Network, as well as Emond Harnden's IT operations specialist, Corey Holmes, at YPN's Launch Event, held at Charlotte on Thursday, Aug. 15, 2024. Photo by Caroline Phillips.

Devin Brazeau, founder and CEO of digital marketing agency Twenty Seven + Five, got connected to the non-profit organization in 2022 after attending Aaron McFarlane's business networking event, RÄNDĀ VO͞O. There, he met YSB’s former fundraising coordinator, Oliver Saner. The event was also raising some money for YSB at the time. “I was really, really excited to jump at the opportunity to make an impact,” Brazeau said of becoming part of YPN. Particularly important to him is helping young people realize the support that's available through YSB. Nobody should ever perceive themselves as helpless, he added. “There’s always something that can be done, whether it feels that way or not.” YPN consists of an “interesting and dynamic” group of people, Twagirayezu told OBJ.social. “We’re creating a diverse pipeline for the future; people who come from different industries, different professions, and also represent our city and what our city looks like.”

From left, Andrew DiCapua, senior economist with the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, and Alex Nasrallah, president of Goldstan Accounting, attended the launch event of the new Young Professionals Network for the YSB Foundation, held at Charlotte on Thursday, Aug. 15, 2024. Photo by Caroline Phillips

The launch event for YSB Foundation's new Young Professionals Network was held at Charlotte, located on Elgin Street, on Thursday, Aug. 15, 2024. Photo by Caroline Phillips

From left, Bryan Detchou, senior director of natural resources, environment and sustainability at the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, Gowling WLG associate Phedely Ariste and Greenshield's Rob Rosenfeld attended the launch of YSB Foundation's new Young Professionals Network, held at Charlotte on Elgin Street. Photo by Caroline Phillips

From left, YSB Foundation's events and community engagement specialist Rachel Lessard with Outer Health wardrobe consultant Michelle LeBlanc, who donated a colour consultation to the silent auction in support of YSB Foundation, which held its launch event for its new Young Professionals Network. Photo by Caroline Phillips

The services offered by YSB were “a large part” of how YPN member Maddy Eisenberg was able to navigate her life as a young adult. The communications professional, diagnosed as a teenager with Generalized Anxiety Disorder, took advantage of the organization’s free counselling. “That’s absolutely what got me through the majority of high school in a fairly safe fashion, enough that I went on to post secondary and found a good career,” said Eisenberg, who started out in radio, working for Bell Media, before becoming a consultant with Blackbird Strategies in 2022.

Patrick Twagirayezu, an associate at Emond Harnden LLP, is the chair of the new Young Professionals Network for the YSB Foundation. Photo by Caroline Phillips

Twagirayezu touched on his 2013 SleepOut experience (the fundraiser more recently evolved into Stay Up Ottawa), and joked about how the event, which involved tents, sleeping bags and warm clothing, was a test of his buddy bond with Bryan Detchou, who's now a senior director with the Canadian Chamber of Commerce. Detchou — who attended last night's launch event — agreed to bundle up and bear it in support of youth homelessness. “We survived that night, and our friendship also survived,” said Twagirayezu. Twagirayezu also spoke about the important role YSB plays with local youth, as well as with their families. It helps about 3,000 young people each month. “We want to communicate this, get the word out, get people involved and, most importantly, get the next generation involved. That way — if ever there is another version of the event where you have to sleep outside again – people like Bryan will be more willing to say ‘Yes’ right away. That’s the dream, that’s the hope.”