The Circle Education works with children and youth to remove dividers that separate us and make us feel different from each other, when in fact we are inherently the same. Our executive director Janine Fernandes-Hayden learned an important lesson about...
Ask yourself this: Do you feel nervous if your phone is not in your hand or within sight? Do you find yourself wishing you were more creative or had more time in the day to spend on your passions or connecting with friends and...
As a parent of a participant in The Circle’s programs, and as a local educator, Shelly Johnson has a unique perspective on social-emotional education. Our Education Outreach Program Coordinator Adele Mark, sat down with Shelly to hear her take on the benefits of...
The Circle Salt Spring Education Society is offering a new ‘Methods and Tools for Deeper Connections with youth’ course at the end of January 2022. This offering is ideal for individuals who work with youth in a variety of contexts, whether it be formal educational...
Adele Mark, Education Outreach Program Coordinator, at The Circle interviewed Gail Bryn-Jones, a dedicated advocate of social-emotional education and teacher of over 30 years on Salt Spring Island. Gail has a master’s degree in Education and has served as a board...
When Adele Mark was fifteen, she moved with her parents from Los Angeles, a city of 13 million people where she had lived all of her life, to Salt Spring Island, Canada. A place she thought of at the time as a remote island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean with more...
Kate Nash has been our Programs and Development Coordinator and the facilitator of the Pass It On and Respect programs for more than ten years. Adele Mark, our Marketing and Communications assistant at The Circle interviewed Kate to hear her reflections on her work...
Do you want to know what our Pass it On Boys program is all about? Participants of last year’s program tell in this video about what Pass it On Boys did for them. “I am able to express myself here, where I can’t always at school or at home,” says Liam Walsh. “I can be...
Adele Mark, our Education Outreach Program Coordinator at The Circle, interviewed Kai Nash and Ewan Holmes, two Grade 9 students who have been a part of the Pass It On Boys program since September 2020, to hear about their experience in the program. Why did...
Every year The Circle awards a bursary of $250 each, to one male and one female student who have participated in The Circle’s Pass-It-On Program as a mentor and have demonstrated a strong commitment to leadership and fostering healthy relationships. This years'...
August is the month of our annual membership drive. You can support our organization and our mission to encourage young people to challenge assumptions and learn skills that foster healthy, equal relationships. Kim Dalton became a member in 2020, here is why she...
Adele Mark, our Marketing and Communications Assistant at The Circle and former Pass It on Girl, spoke with Emma Phillips to hear about her experiences the past five years in the Pass It On Girls program. Emma has been a part of the Pass It On Girls program since...
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....
The Circle Education has been providing social-emotional learning programs in schools for over more than twenty years. Why is it important to have those programs in a school environment? We’ve asked three educators about their experiences with social-emotional...
This is the last interview in the Connecting the Dots series to celebrate World Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development. In the weeks that bookend this important day, The Circle Education talks with young people to celebrate different backgrounds....
We don’t always know what impact our programs have on people’s lives until later, sometimes much later. We found out on a spring evening in a beautiful barn at Stone Bridge Farm where thirty former participants joined a reunion of our Pass it On Girls program. Kate...
Rachel Xie had just turned fourteen when she moved from Beijing, a city with more than 21 million people, to Salt Spring Island. All by herself. After four years at GISS as an international student, she reflects on the cultural differences she has experienced while...
Zoe and Sashi Sanchez-Wickland were born in Canada, have a Mexican father and a Canadian mother, and live on Salt Spring Island. Every year, the two sisters go to Puerto Escondido, the place where their dad grew up, to live there for a few months and connect with...
Today is World Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development; a day to celebrate different backgrounds. In the weeks that bookend this important day, The Circle Education is connecting the dots between similarities that blend us together in a shared humanity...