Wendy Kaye retired on Salt Spring Island 23 years ago, but has lived in Courtenay for the past three years to be closer to her daughter’s family. Now that her grandchildren are a bit older and have their own lives, she will move back to the island next month. Wendy was a donor before our organization changed its name from SWOVA to The Circle Education, but became more involved in 2020.  She supports The Circle with a yearly donation and has also made a small bequest as part of her estate planning.

Rory Holland, who is now retired, was an entrepreneur throughout his working life. He moved from Bowen Island to Salt Spring, has three adult sons, and has been working with youth as a volunteer since he was twenty, striving to be a trusted person to youth, someone whom they can talk to besides their parents. Rory has been a supporter of The Circle Education since 2024. 

What inspired you to donate to The Circle Education?   

Wendy: “I know there are many non-profit societies on Salt Spring Island, but The Circle Education stood out for me. I have a strong interest in children and youth, and their development, and I love to support young people. I believe that the ability of our young to communicate with each other, collaborate, make healthy choices, play fair and respect others can lead to a better world. For them, and for us!

Rory: “When I moved to Salt Spring Island, I heard people talking about the Pass it On program. I was curious and wanted to hear more about it, so I called executive director Janine Fernandes-Hayden. When she told me about the programs The Circle offers to the island, I wanted to support that. The idea that there is a proactive program that encourages kids to be themselves and that builds compassion and empathy and positively impacts the way young people choose to engage with themselves and with the world. What is a better thing to invest in?”

What matters most to you about our work?

Wendy: “To me, the most important aspect of the work starts with The Circle Education’s ability to attract and train excellent facilitators. That’s where it all begins, really. Their leadership and mentorship are the cornerstones of the program. I love the range of subject matter they provide in such an integrative way.”

Rory:  “I support two organizations on the island: IWAV and The Circle Education, and at first I didn’t know they were connected in the past. It was coincidental. When you talk about gender-based violence, we often think of what women can do to protect themselves, but it is important that we focus on boys as well. Telling them that they can’t be angry or violent won’t solve anything. Working with them on their own sense of self in connection to others, and talking about other ways to express themselves, ways that do not include harming others, or harming women, does work. I love the idea of the tomato fight the participants of Pass it On boys had at Bullock Lake farm, and them talking about anger afterwards. That just gives me the chills; it is so perfect.”

Why is the work The Circle Education does urgent and important right now?

Wendy: “We all know that online negative influences directed toward young people are growing exponentially. The news they absorb in the media makes the world seem a scary place. There are lots of questions for pre-teens and teens to grapple with. What better place for kids to have than a setting with their peers where they feel safe and where they can talk and practice new skills with trained facilitators?”

Rory: “Social-emotional education really should be at the forefront right now. Kids these days are facing much greater challenges than when I was young. Just the impact of mobile phones, social media and the influencers they find online. That is kind of scary. It is healthy to have positive real-life role models. I am so impressed with the facilitators of the boys’ program whom I met in the past years. They are hard-working good men who are young enough to connect and engage with the younger generation.”

Do you have a memory or a story about our organization that really stands out to you?

Rory: “I got invited to the Pass it On Boys intergenerational session, where older community members and parents came to talk with the participants and share perspectives. As a parent, you don’t often get the chance to hear the kids talk the way they did during that session. I was just listening as a random adult and I was learning things about myself as well. It was just a remarkable afternoon. When I got home, I just couldn’t stop talking about it. Not every kid slides through high school, and as a parent it is so comforting to know that your child has a place where they have people and peers to talk to.”

What would you say to others who might be considering a gift of their own?

Wendy: “These special times and stabilizing core values together will impact the lives of our youth in so many ways, enabling them to make their way in every aspect of their interpersonal relationships as they head out into the wider world. Especially with parents so busy in their work lives and teachers overburdened in the classroom, we are very fortunate that Circle Education Society provides such a well-rounded, experiential program in our community. I wish that my teenage grandchildren, living in other parts of British Columbia, could have access to a program like this.”

Rory: “I would tell them that this is a program that builds our community. It is not an add-on; it is not nice-to-have. It’s a need. We are talking about the social fabric, the social structure of our island, making sure kids are not falling through the cracks. We want them to have adequate support, and that they’re building positive networks as they’re making their way through school. I hated every day of school, from day one up to Grade 12. It can be a hard place to be if you do not fit in. And teachers already have way too much work, so we should be grateful for an organization that is willing to come in. It should be funded by the province, 100 percent, but as we know, that isn’t the fact; we should find ways as a community to support it.”

Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash

The post Youth: What is a Better Cause to Invest in? appeared first on The Circle Education.

Sparkfest originated in 2011 when Kate Nash, now program manager for The Circle Education, was in her first year working as a facilitator for SWOVA. In second semester, she was asked to lead Youth Team, a group of high school students who supported as facilitators with the organization’s in-school programs at the time.

“We didn’t have a lot of budget for our Pass it On program, and the Youth Team wanted to be of service,” Kate recalls. “They came up with the idea for the fundraiser, an event that showcased Pass it On, run for youth and by youth, and that would appeal to youth. Which was new, because a lot of the fundraisers, although raising funds for programs for youth, were not necessarily youth-centered.”

While Kate and the Youth Team were full of ideas, they lacked experience in organizing a festival, so she asked her friend and event organizer, James Cowan, to assist them.  “That first year, I said ‘yes’ mainly as a favour to Kate”, he says. “I didn’t know much about SWOVA, or Pass it On, but when I learned more, I realized the importance of the work they did, and the programs they were offering in school. My child had just turned six, and I thought: I need this to be around in another eight years when my child is old enough to be in Pass it On, so I’ll do anything I can to help.”

Together with the participants of the Youth Team and Pass it On, Kate and James organized eight Sparkfests. “The youth and I would come up with plans, and James would ask me: Have you thought about ‘this’, and have you done ‘that’? It cemented the way we communicated. We brought in the creative ideas, and James backed it with his organizational brain.”

The first Sparkfest happened in 2011 at the Farmers’ Institute. “In hindsight, that location was hilarious because it’s massive”, says Kate with a smile. “Way too big for the fifty people who showed up that first time, but it was super fun. We made waffles, we had a bike smoothie blender, door prizes and live music playing all afternoon. We ended the festival with sparklers that we lit, because the group wanted the festival to be called Sparkfest. We wanted to spark ideas and connections.”

A year later, Sparkfest took place at Harbour House and eventually the event moved to Barb’s Buns. “The Orchard Room at Harbour House had hands down the best acoustics on the island”, James continues. “It was a great location and we were lucky because Harbour House donated the space for many years in a row before we ultimately moved to the heart of Ganges at Barb’s Buns.”

Kate adds: “In the first years, I just called people and asked if they wanted to buy a ticket; it was all word of mouth. When we moved to Barb’s, the event became more visible. We opened the sliding doors when the weather was nice and people who passed by wondered: ‘What is this?’ It felt really special to turn a place that people love so much into a musical venue. It also gave me the opportunity to get on that soap box and tell everyone how important Pass it On was. It generated a lot of awareness for the program and what we did as an organization.”

With their different connections in the music scene, Kate and James managed to establish amazing line-ups over the years. Not only did local musicians support Sparkfest but established Canadian singer-songwriters like Kinnie Star, Mae Moore, Tara MacLean and Ashleigh Ball also performed at the event. “We hustled hotel rooms and meals for them, and artists that otherwise wouldn’t have come to the island, all performed here for free.”

What started as a way to fundraise for Pass it On, grew into a yearly highlight for youth on Salt Spring Island. “Sparkfest was initially a strategic move to secure my job and a way to make sure this program continued, but it became so much more”, Kate says. “We generated a couple of thousand dollars a year for Pass it On, but when the program became more established, more funds became available. That’s when we started using the Sparkfest money to set up a similar program for boys.  I thought Pass it On was only relevant if we had a program for both genders.”

Sparkfest concluded prior to the pandemic as part of a strategic shift in organizational priorities. Both Kate and James look back at the Sparkfest years with affection. “It was awesome. Throwing a show is a pretty fun thing to do,” James says. Kate adds: “Wouldn’t it be fun to bring it back one more time?”

The post Thirty Years in the Making: Sparkfest sparked connections appeared first on The Circle Education.

SWOVA started to focus on prevention and education in 1996. Birch joined the organization in 1999. Bringing his fifteen years of arts-informed social education, he worked alongside executive director Lynda Laushway, and co-facilitators, Kim Davidson and Ahava Shira (pictured with Robert Birch and Christina Antonick) to develop the first iteration of the Respectful Relationships Program for middle and high school students.

R&R was an in-school program that addressed gender-based violence. “Our approach was to do more than attempt to change an individual’s way of thinking. We knew we needed a structural approach if we were to address socially embedded, harmful norms toward encouraging youth, parents and educators to more actively participate in gender equality,” says Birch, who now works as a consultant and a writer on Salt Spring Island. “We wanted the program to have a more cultural influence.”

With the Respectful Relations Program, an award-winning model that eventually extended to other rural and remote communities in B.C. and other provinces, youth from grade 7 through grade 10 received 48 sessions of social-emotional programming in four years. “The Respectful Relationships Program was about understanding who we are within the context of social bias and how biases influence our behaviour towards others,” Birch continues.

“We began by looking at the nature of bullying, and by the end of those 48 sessions of sitting in a circle with two facilitators, students were able to identify patterns of healthy and unhealthy relationships, —understand how difficult, but necessary it is to leave one, and how to carefully support somebody who might be in one. One of the big indicators of the success of this program was that when young people felt safe in social learning models, the research revealed their scholastic outcomes also improved.”

Annually, students also spent two sessions in separate groups. “It created safety for girls and boys to speak their minds and hearts more freely. It wasn’t always easy, especially for the boys,” Birch remembers. “One question that almost always sparked meaningful conversations in the boys’ group was: ‘Who wants to be a father one day?’ Many said yes. They then shared what kind of father they wanted to be, who their role models were, and identified approaches to parenting they would rather not emulate. Often, this was the first time they had ever talked about this topic —exploring what it means to parent. It made them realize that boys and men can have values and roles that transcend gender; that they can choose how they show up in the world, what kind of family they want and what kind of relationships they will build.”

Birch was also involved with SWOVA’s Youth Team. The Youth Team consisted of bright, caring and socially engaged youth who came together once a week to participate in a deeper learning of the curriculum. “Eventually, they would join us in the younger classrooms as assistant facilitators. It was a critical part of the program's success to have older kids guiding their younger peers, as they were able to contextualize the learning through their own lived experiences. As an aside, it was also great for their resumés.”

Looking back, one of the highlights for Birch was the time when he was one of the provincial trainers for the Respectful Relationships Program in British Columbia. “Just seeing the light go on for many educators, the relief that they had finally found a program which the school system could benefit from. They were excited to bring R&R into their schools. Many teachers felt powerless around bullying. There wasn’t a strong educational framework at the time; while some schools had a no-tolerance policy on violence, most schools didn’t even have that as a baseline. R&R went right down to the roots of what education is and what it stands for: classroom cultures where every student is free to learn. It’s similar to being hungry, if you don’t feel seen and respected, it’s hard to focus.”

 While programs today may look different, the foundational work of Robert Birch and other early forerunners established core values, including safety, social-emotional competence, critical thinking, respect, equality, awareness of bias, and skills for healthy relationships, which remain strong in The Circle Education’s ongoing mission.

After his time with SWOVA, Birch built an international career as a facilitator and writer on sexuality and intimacy. His work for SWOVA in the schools was often challenging, but he remains convinced these social-emotional programs are vital. “Kids need a place to practice their innate intelligence, kindness, and care. These types of programs could make the difference between a life of connection or one of isolation, violence or even death. That sounds dramatic, but considering the times we are living in, it remains true.”

The post Thirty Years in the Making: ‘Kids need a place to practice their innate intelligence, kindness, and care’ appeared first on The Circle Education.

Photo: Sarah Belknap (second on the right) with boardmembers and other friends of The Circle Education during the AGM in October 2024.

It was a personal experience that drew Sarah Belknap to SWOVA (Saltspring Women Opposed to Violence and Abuse), now known as The Circle Education. She experienced sexual violence in her twenties and had some other experiences that left her with a firm conviction about the importance of the work the organization does.

Sarah’s professional and educational path deeply informed her commitment to SWOVA’s mission. Growing up in Dallas and studying in Memphis and Nashville, she earned a master’s degree in Social Work and Divinity.   Her work as a psychiatric social worker in Los Angeles, and later her ordination as a priest in the Episcopal Church (the Anglican Church in Canada), gave her a unique blend of compassion and leadership—qualities she brought to her role at SWOVA.  Years later, Sarah and her husband moved from Los Angeles to Victoria and eventually retired to Salt Spring Island in 2009. 

On Salt Spring Island, she attended the first International Women’s Day Dinner (IWD) at Harbour House in 2012, and that was when she first heard of SWOVA. The dinner was organized by Lynda Laushway, the founder of SWOVA, and the person who ran the office at the time. It was a lot of work between the two of them, so when they gathered a team for next year’s dinner, Sarah decided to be part of it.  She enjoyed organizing the dinners, which were well-attended fundraisers that also raised the profile of SWOVA and the work the agency did in the community.

Through the International Women’s Day Dinners, Sarah met program coordinator Kate Nash, who was the facilitator of SWOVA’s Pass It On program, a mentorship program for middle and high school students, at the time. Kate had invited women from the community to talk about their personal experiences with sexual violence and abuse, and Sarah decided to share her story because she felt that it happens to many women, but at that time, and this was before the ‘MeToo’ movement, no one talked about it.

Sarah was impressed with Kate’s leadership and the program itself. Participants were open and not afraid to be honest and to share deeply. It sparked her interest in the organization even more. 

It was the beginning of a lengthy involvement with SWOVA, which became The Circle Education in 2020. After the second IWD dinner, Sarah was recruited to the board, and a year later, she was asked to become board chair. When she was six months into her term, executive director Lynda Laushway retired. It was a huge shift, Sarah recalls, as Lynda had been there from the beginning and had developed the organization's programming.  

During her chairmanship, the organization faced leadership transitions, regulatory changes, and the loss of key programs, including the cessation of the Respectful Relationships Program in local high schools. These challenges prompted a period of reassessment, leading to new programs, updated bylaws, and ultimately a rearticulation of the mission and vision. A significant turning point came with the rebrand to The Circle Education, reflecting the organization’s evolving identity and program model based on circles.

In 2020, her term as a board chair ended, but it wasn’t hard for her to step away. It was time, she said, looking back on a challenging but also interesting time. The agency had come through a vulnerable time, but people had stepped up, recognizing that the work needed to be continued. There was a strong board and a competent director. She walked away knowing the organization was in good hands. The highlight of her time with SWOVA and The Circle Education was the great satisfaction of seeing the agency being reborn with the help of many people.

Five years after she left, Sarah is still following The Circle Education, quietly cheering from the sidelines. She is delighted to see the organization soar, as she knows that the work the agency does continues to be crucially important. Giving young people the life skills to succeed, to have a good life, and to avoid violence is fundamental.

Photo: Sarah Belknap (pictured on the right) in 2017.

The post Thirty Years in the Making: Personal experiences led Sarah Belknap to The Circle Education appeared first on The Circle Education.

It has been nine years since Lynda Laushway retired, and since then, she has been following The Circle Education from the sidelines. For this interview, we first go back to 1992, when SWOVA was founded (before it split into IWAV and SWOVA in 1996) after a horrific incident in which a woman on Salt Spring was severely injured by an intruder in her home.

“I was, like many other islanders, shocked by this incident”, says Lynda, who moved from Newfoundland to Salt Spring Island in 1984. “A candlelight vigil was held in the park, and a lot of women showed up, deeply concerned about what had happened.”

After the vigil, a small group of women stayed connected. “We were wondering what services were available for women who were impacted by violence, and it turned out that there was nothing. No safe house or transition house, no crisis line, so we decided as a group to form a non-profit society focusing on helping women and children who are impacted by gender-based violence.”

Lynda has a bachelor’s degree in fine art, with a minor in sociology and psychology, and a master's degree in applied criminology. “But first of all, I was a feminist with a deep concern for social justice”, she continues. “Before I moved to Salt Spring, I worked in Ottawa for the Solicitor General of Canada and as an assistant editor for a monthly publication on criminal justice. I'd travelled all across Canada and seen every major prison. It was very depressing, and I decided that if I was ever going to work in this area again, it had to be in prevention. I wanted to try to stop all this horrendous damage to people.”

SWOVA was, almost from the start, part of a new, Canada-wide, crime prevention strategy pilot project. “One of the first things we did with this federal funding was to set up an assessment of Salt Spring Island. It turned out that the number of incidents of violence against women on Salt Spring was pretty much on par with the national statistics. We might have the illusion that nothing happens in this quiet little community, but that’s not true. A small island can be isolating; it is harder to get away or disappear as you would be able to do in a big city.”    

The organization grew fast in the first years. “An anonymous donor donated a house, we operated a crisis line, and we were trying to focus on prevention at the same time. After a few years, we realized that we were moving in too many directions. And that’s when we decided to split into two societies. IWAV became the service provider for abuse survivors, and SWOVA was primarily set up for research and the development of prevention programs.”

Lynda became the first executive director of SWOVA.  “We focused on education and advocacy, and that is where my passion lies,” Lynda continues. There were a lot of challenges in the beginning, she recalls. “We had to regroup, making connections with people who’d fit within our mandate and find funding. It turned out that it is easier to find funding for women who need immediate help than for the prevention side. But we were lucky to get support and funds early on from the BC Ministry of Women's Equality.”

In her years as executive director, Lynda developed a violence prevention program for men and women, the Respectful Relationships Program for students in grades 4 to 12, and started a youth facilitator team, all to help adults, adolescents, and children build healthy relationships. “Every once in a while, I run into a young person who was in our programs, telling me that the program had changed their life. Which is so great to hear.”

The ride was sometimes bumpy, she says, which happens when you start something new. “Change does not always happen smoothly.  You move forward, you move back, and move forward again. A lot of people said that our plans would fail, we were sometimes threatened, but we did it, and we even received national recognition. I am proud of that. It is pretty unique what we have here. You could probably count communities as big as ours in our country that have a dedicated agency focusing on preventing violence and building healthy relationships, on two hands.”

Lynda retired in 2016. “It was time for me to turn over the reins to someone younger, and it is absolutely wonderful that The Circle Education is still going strong,” she says. “We need these programs now more than ever. We live in unpredictable times, and some very powerful people have narrow-minded ideas. It feels like we are going back fifty years in time or even more, and that concerns me greatly. My hope for the future is that The Circle Education continues to grow and flourish, and to be supported in the community to offer these valuable programs.”

The post Thirty Years in the Making: ‘We need these programs now more than ever’ appeared first on The Circle Education.

Olivia Hayne joined Pass it On, an after-school cross-peer mentorship program, in high school, which is a challenging time for many teens. “I hung out with friends in school who were two years older than me, and some of them were in Pass it On. They’d told me how awesome and unique the program was, which sparked my interest,” says Olivia.  

She loved how Pass it On provided a safe space and a close-knit group of peers during a pivotal time in her life. “There is so much coming at you, and from so many different directions, in high school,” she continues. “You don’t know where you fit in yet, and you’re comparing yourself to others. In Pass it On, I was suddenly sitting down with a group of young women from different friend groups, backgrounds, experiences and lifestyles; realizing that we are all going through the same stuff and that we were more similar than we thought.”

Olivia sometimes looks back and wishes she had a group like Pass it On now that she’s an adult. “I long for that connection every once in a while. It would be great to have a group like that during poignant or transitional times in your life. It’s sometimes easier to discuss sensitive things with someone who is just one step removed from you. Someone familiar, but who is not going to give you the answer you want to hear. Hearing other people’s perspectives and views on how they handle a situation broadens your mindset. Like: ‘oh, I’ve never thought of it that way, but that makes a lot of sense’.”

A Pass it On reunion in 2022, where forty former Pass it On participants were reunited with each other and longtime facilitator Kate Nash, brought Olivia back to The Circle Education. “It was so nice to be reconnected with everyone; it was like no time had passed. It made me realize how much I missed the program. Seeing all these former participants in the same setting, and hearing stories about how Pass it On had impacted them, made it clear how incredibly special it is. It’s a program that needs to remain in our community. If I am lucky enough to have kids in the future, I want them to be part of it.”

And so, she reached out to Kate Nash, who connected her with executive director Janine Fernandes-Hayden. “She asked me if I would be interested in joining The Circle Education’s Board of Directors. I hadn’t thought of it, but said ‘Yes. Absolutely. If that is a way I can help facilitate this program to continue to run, to become bigger and broader and reach more kids, I’m in.”

As a former Pass it On participant, she hopes to make a difference on the board. “The highlights for me these past years are the fundraisers we’ve put on, as it is an opportunity to connect with the community and to show everyone what we do. I always like to tell people about the program and how important it was for me, and still is for youth on the island.”

Olivia stresses the importance of real connections. “Every student in high school has a phone to communicate with, but it is good to put those down and actually talk about topics that are important in your life. To be able to sit in a circle surrounded by human beings and to have real conversations, instead of texting or chatting, is so important.”  

The post Thirty Years in the Making: The Power of Real Connections appeared first on The Circle Education.

Natalya Alonso was just seventeen when she created a mentorship program in high school to support middle school students. It was the start of our Pass it On program that is going into its 16th year in September. 

Natalya conceived the idea of a mentorship program during her Grade 11 year. “It could be the end of Grade 10 as well”, she recalls, trying to remember the details as best as she can. “I have a younger brother who was in middle school at that time, and one of his friends attempted suicide. That was so shocking to me, and it got me thinking that kids in middle school could use some extra guidance and support.” 

For Natalya, middle school wasn’t a great experience. “Nothing absolutely terrible happened to me, but it was not a time in my life that I was thriving, and most of my friends felt the same. You are transitioning from being a child to a young adult and have to figure out who you are. There is so much going on in that stage of life, on top of the evergreen issues that teenagers often face, like bullying or harassment.”

People you can trust

She started thinking of ways to make middle school a little bit easier, and envisioned a mentorship program, where middle schoolers are paired with a high school student, as a helpful additional source of guidance and support. “It's so much better when you have someone looking out for you that you can trust and help get you through that time.” 

Natalya took her idea to the high school principal, who connected her with the middle school counsellor, and from there, the ball started rolling. She reached out to friends to recruit mentors, put up flyers, made announcements at school, and launched the first year with seven mentors paired with seven middle school buddies.

“It was pretty unstructured that first year, to be honest”, she looks back. “I think we just connected the mentors with the mentees, and we gave them a lot of freedom in terms of what they wanted to pursue in their relationship. We had a couple of meet-ups with the entire group, but we mostly let the mentors facilitate the relationship with their little buddy.” 

Natalya took her buddy out regularly for ice cream, or a walk around the park. “We would just hang out and chat about everyday life. I let her guide the conversation. I was the person she could discuss things with, if she wanted to. It was hard to see the impact at the time, but I think it was a good experience for both of us and we stayed in touch for quite some time after I graduated and left for university.” 

Summer student

After two years, The Circle Education (then known as SWOVA) took over the program. “I remember that I worked as a summer student for SWOVA, helping map out what the program could look like before I left.” After that summer, Natalya, who now lives in Vancouver, wasn’t involved with the program anymore. “It wasn’t hard for me to leave the program behind at that point. I felt it was in good hands, and I was ready for my new life and had a million things going on. I have to say that I didn't have lofty ambitions for the program when I left, but I was happy to hear that Pass it On is now well-established, with a program for boys as well, and that it is expanding to Victoria in the fall.”   

Natalya thinks that Pass it On is as relevant now – if not more so- when she started the program in 2007. “A lot of the problems middle school and high school kids have to deal with now are still the same, but there are also new challenges. When I was in high school, most kids didn’t have a mobile phone, and TikTok and Snapchat didn’t exist yet. Social media brings on a whole set of different challenges for young people. The internet seems to be posing more risks than ever, with predatory online communities targeting young people. Everything is much more polarized as well, so yes, these kinds of programs are still needed.”   

Help from friends

Natalya graduated in 2008 and left Salt Spring Island to attend business school at Queens University in Kingston, Ontario. After finishing her PhD at the University of British Columbia, she started working as a professor at the SFU Beedie School of Business, where her research is aimed at solving problems on the work floor, related to diversity, equity, and inclusion. 

Looking back at her time as a high school student and setting up a program to help younger kids to navigate school life, she is most proud of “the willingness of both the mentors and the mentees to come together and do this.” She adds, “It was really neat to see participants putting themselves out there in a vulnerable way. That is what stayed with me the most. This program is not there just because of me, other students thought the same way and wanted to support the initiative. Maybe it’s because Salt Spring is such a small island that we care about each other.”

The post 30 Years in the Making: How a 17-year-old started Pass it On appeared first on The Circle Education.