Who We Serve

We work with adolescents aged 12 to 16 who meet our economic qualifications. These are some of the most formative years of young people’s lives and our programs are tailored to make a lasting impact.

Our participants are discovering who they are. They’re facing pressure from friends, challenges from school, and changes from growing up. They’re also forming patterns that will guide how they think, feel about themselves, and relate to others. They are deciding who they are—and the young adults they want to be.

At this stage, programs that are geared towards social and emotional development and resiliency can change patterns in behaviour and set young people up for health and wellbeing in adulthood. In fact, camp programs that have this focus and offer opportunities to build relationships with supportive and caring young adult leaders are even better.

We are committed to serving youth from every Tim Hortons community in Canada and the US. Tim Hortons Restaurant Owners in these communities – in partnership with local organizations, and the public – play a critical role in selecting youth from disadvantaged circumstances who would benefit from our multi-year youth development Summer Program.

Fall: Applications are sent to returning campers to apply for the following year of camp. The Tims Camps Registration Department then processes all of these applications.
Winter: Campers are notified of their acceptance in February. Through the winter months, we reach out to our Tim Hortons Restaurant Owners to help locate and select youth to enter the program. We then begin working with community-based organizations to fill any remaining first year spots.
Spring: Applications for first year campers are typically due in March/April and acceptance letters are sent in the months following this.
Summer: Open spots continue to be filled right up until the first day of camp, for all sessions throughout the summer. 

Waitlist: Any applications that come in from the general public are accepted beginning in January and go onto a waitlist. Once we have a spot available, we will work directly with the family.  Spaces often become available throughout the Spring and Summer months.

By partnering with local schools from low-income neighbourhoods, we serve youth in grades 6-8 through our School Program. This program allows us to reach larger numbers of youth with similar needs as our Summer Program campers.

In non-summer months, schools come to our sites and engage in similar camp programming and activities, with the aim of developing social-emotional skills, personal wellbeing, and forming community connections.

In 2021 we began intentionally partnering with various organizations that have a similar vision and mission, and who also serve youth from communities that could benefit from intentional youth development programming. We partner with these groups to collaboratively create program content and discuss delivery models. Typically, partnership programs are delivered at one of our Tims Camps and include leaders from both organizations.