kids.now

Invest in Canada's future: Support youth development in your community today

I recently learned about a free, in-school, afterschool youth leadership program for children in grades seven and eight, run by kids.now, Canada’s national charity for youth leadership. The program coaches kids to make positive choices by building youth self-confidence and teaching important life skills, such as goal-setting, conflict resolution and teamwork. I was struck by the fact that although these skills are fundamental to a person’s success in life, youth don’t often have easy access to this kind of programming.

In fact, according to a recent Ipsos-Reid poll, 50 percent of Canadian parents said that in spite of the fact that they would be more likely to enroll their children in a program that focuses on life skills than in one focused on sports, they had difficulty finding this type of program in their community.

Now more than ever, our country's young people need easy access to caring adult coaches who can help them develop the life skills they need to reach their full potential. Today's youth are facing more social pressures than any generation before them, and the stress is starting to impact their health and wellness. According to the recent UN Report Card on Child Well-Being, young Canadians rank in the bottom third of youth in 21 OECD countries for family and peer relationships, behaviour and risks, and subjective well-being (how kids feel about themselves). Mentoring programs that provide kids with access to caring role models and leadership and life skill training can help. Youth involvement in this type of programming has been show to lower school absenteeism, cut violent behaviour, and improve self-esteem.

The responsibility to develop leadership and life skills in our youth must be shared by caregivers, schools, government, corporate Canada, social development organizations and citizens. By investing in our youth today, we are investing in Canada's future. We need to equip our children with the life-success skills and self-confidence they need to be tomorrow's leaders, citizens and success stories.

I hope you will join me as a youth development advocate. I'll be talking to my friends in Ottawa, and I encourage you to spread the word as well. You can also help by donating your time or money to a local group that supports youth development, or encourage a school in your neighbourhood to offer leadership and life skills programming as a complement to the existing curriculum.

Together, we can build a stronger future for our children, and our country.