Identifying and questioning stereotypes, bias, and prejudice has been part of our educational programs since we started to develop our social-emotional learning framework for kids and youth twenty-five years ago. It turns out that stereotypes start to take form in our...
Olivia Sugden is this year’s recipient of The Circle Education Pass It On Mentorship Award. Olivia has been part of the Pass it On Girls program for the past three years. She was wholeheartedly committed to the program and its participants, and with her warm, open and...
May 7th is National Child & Youth Mental Health Day. Willie MacPherson was impacted by mental health problems throughout his youth. He was addicted to sugar, video games, and drugs, but found healing. He shares the lessons he learned on the way. Talk Talking about...
Grade 11 students of the Gulf Island Secondary School are attending a P.A.R.T.Y. this week. No, it is not what you think, this is a different party. This party is to Prevent Alcohol and Risk-related Trauma in Youth. It’s about raising awareness and learning through...
Adele Mark arrived as a newcomer in this community at age 15. She had never been to a high school party before, but it didn’t take long for that to change. For this blog she sat down with Ruby and Sam, two recent graduates of Gulf Island Secondary School to hear their...
The Circle Education’s Pass it On Girls Program has been running for more than ten years. Facilitator Kate Nash has created a safe space where young girls talk about topics like identity, body image, relationships and consent. The program helped Mia Oliveira (now 19)...
One of our former Pass it On participants was sexually assaulted when she was nineteen. It was an experience that caused significant mental and physical suffering. Many things helped her find herself again after this event. However, the most powerful remedy came from...
In high school, Natasha Wilson, was a participant in the Pass It On program from The Circle Education. Once a week, she gathered in a circle with other high school girls to engage in open and vulnerable dialogue about their life experiences. Before joining the group,...
Did you make new year’s resolutions for 2023? Most new year’s resolutions are meant to improve your life or lifestyle. These resolutions, based on the social-emotional learning principles that ground the programs we facilitate in schools, are less conventional. And...
Today is the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women. With a vigil in Centennial Park, we remember the 14 young women who were killed in an act of violent misogyny at Polytechnique Montréal on December 1989 and all the other women who have...
Bullock Lake Farm is going into its second year as a host location for the Pass it On Boys program. Zack Hemstreet and Eland Bronstein, the facilitators of the program, look back on their first year at the farm and talk about the (social-emotional) learning...
Monday marked World Mental Health Day, a day to raise awareness of mental health issues around the world and to mobilize efforts in support of mental wellness. Although more and more people are opening up, there is still a lot of stigma surrounding mental health....
School is almost out, and students will have a well-deserved break from class. However, learning doesn’t have to stop completely as soon as school is out for the year. The holidays are the perfect time to practice kindness and generosity. We've curated five tips to...
On December 6th, 1989, the day that fourteen young women at l’École Polytechnique in Montreal were killed by a gunman as a deliberate act of violence against women, Quinn Mulherin (21, she/they*) wasn’t born yet. She learned about the tragedy years later when she...
Salt Spring Island does not have a lot of facilities to accommodate young people, but we do have The Core (Inn) on McPhilipps Avenue. It is a safe place where island youth can come together to hang out, play music and games, and where snacks and healthy food are...
Valeskca San Martin, a French immersion teacher at Salt Spring Elementary, has had the Respect Program – former Respectful Relationships - in her classroom for almost a decade. She sees social-emotional learning as an essential addition to the academics that are...
Identifying and questioning stereotypes, bias, and prejudice has been part of our educational programs since we started to develop our social-emotional learning framework for kids and youth twenty-five years ago. It turns out that stereotypes start to take form in our...
Olivia Sugden is this year’s recipient of The Circle Education Pass It On Mentorship Award. Olivia has been part of the Pass it On Girls program for the past three years. She was wholeheartedly committed to the program and its participants, and with her warm, open and...
May 7th is National Child & Youth Mental Health Day. Willie MacPherson was impacted by mental health problems throughout his youth. He was addicted to sugar, video games, and drugs, but found healing. He shares the lessons he learned on the way. Talk Talking about...
Grade 11 students of the Gulf Island Secondary School are attending a P.A.R.T.Y. this week. No, it is not what you think, this is a different party. This party is to Prevent Alcohol and Risk-related Trauma in Youth. It’s about raising awareness and learning through...