"Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow is yet to come. We have only today. Let us begin." Mother Theresa During the month of October and November Christina Antonick and I were in the classes of primarily grade 3, 4 and 5 students delivering the Peace Kids program....
"Together we can face any challenges as deep as the ocean and as high as the sky." - Sonia Gandhi- In early October, I was blessed to travel to Calgary for a national meeting of Canadian Women's Foundation's 17 Teen Healthy Relationships Grantees - of which our...
Consent is a big topic in the news these days. What constitutes consent to sexual activity? When and how is consent given? How do we misinterpret consent? These are some of the topics in the news and on many peoples’ minds. This is particularly true for...
There is a lot of violence in our world and it takes many forms- men’s violence towards other men, violence perpetrated on children, violence directed at seniors, violence against lesbian, gay and transgendered people, and violence against women, to name some of the...
Canada is spending billions of dollars each year on police, courts and corrections. In the past 10 years these costs have increased by 50 percent. These costs do not include the human suffering to individuals and families. Investment in preventing crime is a wiser use...
The New Yorker magazine’s recent cover photo is of thirty-five women who allege that they were sexually assaulted by actor Bill Cosby over a period of decades. Some of the alleged victims have come forth on their own for years but their claims were hushed up, silenced...
I find that definitions can be limiting and problematic, and I’d like to see if I can encourage you to think for yourselves about what this word, or movement, or ideology might mean to you. Instead I’ll start by providing a few different definitions I’ve come across...
“They are a generation whose whole education has been under the diabolical design of the racists to poison the minds and brainwash our children into docile subjects of apartheid rule.” -Nelson Mandela Thirty-nine years ago and yesterday, South African...
On May 25th girls from the Salish Sea Girls' Leadership Project and recruits from grade 12 at GISS (Gulf Islands Secondary School) entered the high school to talk to the grade 11 students about sexual health and consent. In my own experience, and in speaking with...
Sparkfest is the annual SWOVA fundraiser that the youth from Pass It On organize. This year on April 30, they really outdid themselves: Music by Ashleigh Ball from Hey Ocean, Tara Maclean & Suzanne Little, spoken word from Morgan Klassen, and the GISS imrov team....
As the last months of Pass it On pass by, I am confronted with the word commitment. We all practice commitment in our lives, more often unconsciously. We are the most committed to our lovers, children, friends and habits, following through in our support without...
Good News! Sparkfest is weeks away, and we are all getting very excited for our 5th annual Pass It On benefit. Sparkfest will be held on April 30th at the Harbour House Hotel. This year’s generous performers are Ashleigh Ball from Hey Ocean; the Brony documentary;...
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...