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...
I have advocated for consent for over a decade, but if I am going to be honest, I only began to practise consent within the last three years. I am not talking about sexual consent. However, I am going to assume that when I said “consent,” you thought I meant “sexual...
Social–Emotional Learning and Violence Prevention: What’s the Connection? Here at The Circle, our focus is to deliver innovative, evidence-based social–emotional educational programs. Our motivation? We want to encourage youths to develop empathy, respect,...
COVID-19 Impact on Social–Emotional Learning The COVID-19 pandemic has not only affected students’ academic performance, but it has also significantly impacted their social–emotional learning. Research shows that students are experiencing an increased lack of...
I recently heard about a fascinating study in which researchers were investigating human perception of challenge. One of their findings was that when a person stands at the base of a hill that they are about to climb, they perceive the hill to be 10 to 20% larger than...
We welcome to Alex and Albert to our facilitation team! We're thrilled to have Alex King-Harris and Albert Strasser join the team of facilitators here at The Circle. Each of them brings an incredible skill set to their work in the Pass It On Boys program, for boys...
We were thrilled to see that SWOVA was featured in the current issue of Victoria's Vital Signs! Thank you to The Victoria Foundation for your support! And a huge thank you to Kate Nash and family for making the photo shoot happen over the summer! Read Full Report We...
A blog post by Kate Nash . SWOVA’s Girls Pass-It-On program started in 2010 as an after-school program that provided structured and individual mentorship between high school youth and Grade 8 students throughout the academic year. Kate Nash was hired as the program...
We are delighted to announce that #Lobstick Foundation has contributed $6,000 towards the Pass it On Girls Program! Our sincere gratitude to Lobstick for their generous support of the Pass It On Girls #MentorshipProgram. In this program, high school young women...
Pssst! We’ve received $5,000 in funding from @Coast_Capital ...Pass It On Girls! Our sincere gratitude to #CoastCapitalSavings for their generous support of the Pass It On Girls #MentorshipProgram. In this program, high school young women provide structured group and...
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...
Ivanna Darmokhid was thirteen when she moved from Ukraine to Salt Spring Island. The teenage years can be a difficult time to leave your friends and family behind, but Ivanna was excited for this new adventure in her life. She’s grateful that her parents took the leap...
Keshua, Levi and Zyah Welch have a Grenadian dad and a Canadian mom with Dutch roots. They had a Canadian upbringing on Salt Spring Island, with the Grenadian humour of their dad and a touch of Dutch from their great-grandparents. Last year they had the chance to get...
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...