Hope 4 the future

Youth Education Program

Our Youth Education Program is designed to teach kids about healthy relationships to help eliminate violence in our community. It is a preventative program that uses self-esteem building activities to highlight the importance of having a positive personal self-image. The desired program outcome is that young women and men who receive the curriculum will have improved self-esteem, better resiliency and coping skills, and overall healthier relationships which in turn will act as a significant protective factor for them from experiencing or perpetrating domestic violence.

“I AM” is a FREE eight-week program available to all schools and community centres within Waterloo Region. The program curriculum meets the Ontario Ministry of Education guidelines and includes various forms of media to address all learning styles and engage students’ cognitive, behavioural and emotional learning processes. Pre and post evaluation tools are used to measure the success of the program.

Healthy relationship research shows that having healthy relationships builds self-esteem, improves mental and emotional health, and helps people live a fuller life. These interactive and engaging programs strive to teach youth the importance of healthy, respectful relationships that are free of violence.

Impact of the Program

Findings show that youth who have been a part of the program…

• Have higher self esteem
• Are better able to resolve conflict non violently
• Have more empathy for one another
• Find that the relationship with their peers improve
• Have high caring and cooperative behaviours

The “I AM” program module that we use was developed by Family Transition Place in Orangeville as a part of their youth education program. It has been seeing success for over 10 years and has reached over 50,000 youth in their community. Overall, when youth attend the program and have improved self-esteem they are less vulnerable to unhealthy relationships and demonstrate improved boundaries. Further, when youth have enhanced levels of hope they demonstrate improved coping skills, and are less prone to low mood and feelings of despair.

Learn More

For inquiries about the program, please contact:

Angela Stahlbaum
Outreach Worker (Youth Education Program Contact)
angela.stahlbaum@wcswr.org

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Register for the Program

We are currently running the “I AM” module of our Youth Education Program at schools and community centres throughout Waterloo Region. Please see the list below to register for a program near you.