SHLF announces four new Canadian partnerships

As SHLF continues to grow, we are proud to announce new partnerships with 4 Canadian organizations. Over the past year, SHLF has been working tirelessly behind the scenes to inaugurate our Board of Directors and to implement structures to ensure that we simultaneously honour our donors and achieve our goal of making a difference in the most effective and lasting way possible.

As of July 2009 we are proud to announce partnerships with four local organizations. Each of these outstanding programs is actively working with youth to help them achieve their full potential through sports and education. Located in Vancouver and Montréal, each responds to the needs of their communities and provides invaluable opportunities for youth in need.

Most of us involved with SHLF have had the good fortunes of benefiting from sports and educational programs throughout our lives. Whether we see it or not, there are countless youth who are denied these same opportunities both locally and abroad. SHLF is proud have established long-term partnerships with four organizations who address these needs everyday:

Westhaven Community Centre

Located in the West-end of Montréal’s Notre-Dame-de-Grace neighbourhood, the Westhaven Community Centre is a not-for-profit organization that has been offering its services to the community since 1971. The community is made up of mostly low-income, economically disadvantaged, single-parent families and seniors. The area is predominately English speaking, with a large Caribbean and Asian population. The community is diverse and multicultural. Conception for the community centre came from parents in the area who needed a safe place for their children could get together and play, and where parents could meet other parents and share mutual interests and concerns.

Forty years later, the organization serves hundreds of community members through children’s and teen’s programming, including a summer day camp and an after-school recreational/educational program. Community members have expressed a growing demand for sports prgorams for both the youth and adult population. A 2008 questionnaire revealed that most youth involved in the centre have never benefited from organized sports. Besides the centre, there are no accessible sports facilities within the community and participation in sports programs is expensive and time consuming for parents and families. Furthermore, youth and teens in this area are vulnerable to crime and gang-related violence

In partnership with the outstanding staff at the Community Centre, SHLF is committed to bringing organized sports to the youth in the Westhaven Community. Beginning in Fall 2009, over 100 school children, pre-teens (tweens) and teens will be able to participate in basketball and soccer programs that include qualified coaches, organized practice and game schedules. Prgorams will collaborate closely with after-school homework and education programs, focus on participation and skill-building and will invite youth of all ages and skill levels to cultivate their passion and energy for sports. In addition to the sports programs, Westhaven will offer monthly health workshops to educate participants about issues including nutrition, training, stretching and more. Additionally, the prgoram will focus its hiring within the community and thereby generate part-time jobs for local community members and young people.

SHLF is proud to partnering with the Westhaven Community Centre on this new initiative and bringing more sports and education to youth who need it most in their own community.

Bouncing Boys Back to School

Bouncing Boys Back to School is a summer camp intending to improve both literacy abilities and cooperative interactions of inner city elementary school age boys defined as ‘at risk.’ The program uses basketball as a vehicle to teach invaluable skills to boys who come from the Little Burgundy, Point St. Charles, St. Henri, Ville Emard and the downtown areas of Montréal.

Teachers within the Westmount public school system have identified an increasing number of young male students whose social and academic needs are not being fully met within the classroom setting. Without an intervention, they felt strongly that many students could wind up dropping out of the school system. The Bouncing Boys Back to School summer camp provides a means of improving their chances of success in learning.

The summer program consists of 20 boys from kindergarten through grade five who have been struggling with academics and/or behavior. It combines basketball, team-building activities, technology, educational fieldtrips, male role models as guest readers, high-interest student literacy activities, and community-based events to focus on building bonds between multi-aged groups of boys. The leaders of this program have created a model that nurtures the students’ sense of self-esteem through the identification and use of their strengths, and fortifies their accountability so that they will stand a better chance of succeeding throughout their school years.

Furthermore, teachers, youth leaders and students involved in Bouncing Boys Back to School all participate in follow-up meetings and continue their relationships throughout the subsequent school years to ensure that what was learned in the summer camp is reinforced. While the program is a summer camp that will specifically cater to the needs of boys ‘at risk’, emphasis is placed on developing a peer mentorship model such that youth leaders, ‘older’ boys and ‘younger’ boys are provided a lasting opportunity to build a network of support with their peers in order to thrive throughout the school year.

Once again SHLF is humbled by the efforts of these fantastic leaders and proud to be involved in providing this invaluable life-changing opportunity to youth.

Streetfront

Streetfront is an active-based program designed to offer a different educational experience to disadvantaged kids from the inner-city of Vancouver’s East End. Founded in 1977 by two outdoor enthusiasts who felt that for certain kids, a traditional classroom setting was not the perfect learning environment; they designed a program around a 60/40 model - 60% in the classroom and 40% sports. The goal is to use fitness and outdoor activity as a catalyst for positive change in all facets of the youths’ lives.

Streetfront is a Grade 8 to 10 program serving 22 kids each year. The youth involved have all been removed from the school system due to chronic absenteeism and behavioural issues that result from mental health, psycho-social issues, abuse, neglect or poverty, amongst other factors.

The cornerstone of the school-year program is the mandatory running program. Three days every week, the students run a 5 km route. Over time, some become regular 5 km runners, some will only make 2 km and others increase their weekly amount, including several who complete marathons! Since 2004, over 45 Streetfront students have completed marathons. More than half of the marathoners have been aboriginal and more than half have been 15 years old or younger. 6 kids have run the marathon as 13 year olds. Almost every time, members of the program are the youngest person in the Marathon Event.

Streetfront leaders feel very strongly that the requisite skills needed to be a long distance runner – goal-setting, perseverance, dedication and commitment - are the very skills that these kids need to become successful in life. They come a world where physical fitness is a luxury. Their lives are consumed with trying to fulfill life's basic needs. The program offer the students an opportunity to achieve something truly outstanding, once they have tasted and felt physical success - they are eager to see what else they can accomplish. Participant can draw upon the experiences they've had through the program and apply them elsewhere in life.

In addition to the running program, students participate in at least three annual outdoor education activities including canoeing, snowboarding, skiing, snowshoeing, backcountry camping and hiking trips.

SHLF marvels at the dedication of the leaders involved with the effects that this program has on those involved – 95% of students involved in the Marathon program graduate highschool! We are proud to be supporting their efforts and look forward to many more success stories.

Take a Hike

Take a Hike is an alternative education program that engages at-risk youth through a unique combination of adventure-based learning, academics, counseling, and community involvement. Based in Vancouver’s East End, the youth enrolled in Take a Hike struggle with personal issues such as drug and alcohol addiction, physical and mental abuse, low self-esteem, depression, unstable homes, poverty and/or trauma, which inhibits their success in the mainstream school system.

Involvement in the program includes adventure-based learning; where trained leaders guide the students through weekly outdoor day trips and multi-day expeditions. The multi-day and weekly trips provide youth with the life skills to succeed in and out of the classroom. Adventure-based learning uses physical activities to help youth develop self-directed goals, trust, communication, teamwork and problem-solving skills. Environmental education is also integral to all these activities.

In order to bolster the trips, the program includes therapy, academic counseling and community service as required components. The ultimate result of the Take a Hike approach is that barriers to learning are minimized, personal issues are addressed, and students achieve a greater level of personal, academic and social success. Students involved consistently demonstrate measurable improvement in self-esteem, communication, conflict resolution and social skills, connection to school and ability to manage stress.

Once again, SHLF is proud to be partnering with an organization with such outstanding commitment, vision and impact and participate in making a difference in the lives of the youth involved.