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Save the Children Canada
Address: 4141 Yonge Street, Suite 300, Toronto, Ontario KIN 7Z2
Tel: +416 221 5501
Fax: +416 221 8214
Website: www.savethechildren.ca
Contact: Erin Smith
Organisation
“Our activities began in June 1994. Activities mostly take place through the Boys and Girls clubs of Canada, as well as with local partner organisations serving youth. Funding is provided by SCF, but we also have outside sources of funding such as Levi Strauss and Co Ltd, and Health Canada. The Boys and Girls clubs provide staff support, time and space for the youth facilitators to run their programs. There are also activities in West Africa which have involved SCF US and UK, as well as other local NGOs and organisations. Partner organisations collaborate with us in various ways, such as by sharing resources, training expertise, the design and development of program materials, support to youth facilitators, and the writing of funding proposals.
Activities
The purpose of the programs is to empower youth and give children a chance to voice their opinions on issues of concern to them. We have incorporated children's rights training into our program for youth. We provide 'Youth-to-Youth' programs across Canada in a range of geographical locations - rural, urban, refugee children, aboriginal, low income, middle income, and street children. Each program involves 6-10 youths as facilitators, 5-30 children, and 1-3 adults. We have set up 25 programs since 1997 in Canada. Youth facilitators are aged between 13-17 years, child participants between 7-13 years. There are no fixed groups in terms of ethnicity or gender. We do work with disadvantaged/marginalised children, and sometimes with children who have special needs and disabled children. We have carried out a specific project in Toronto with street children.
How Activities are Introduced and Participation of youth and adults
Activities are introduced at the Boys and Girls clubs or through specific organisations - by staff, posters, word-of-mouth, or job advertisements for youth. Youth facilitators go through the Child-to-Child process with children, who decide exactly what issue they want to focus on, how they can find out more information on their issue, and what they want to tell others regarding this issue. Children take action on their issue in a number of ways. We do use the six-step approach. A challenge is the 'finding out' step. Research can become boring for kids and they often want to skip this step. Otherwise it is a simple, straightforward methodology that youth pick up quickly and can facilitate with relative ease. Their are many types of competency that we aim to generate in children: leadership skills; confidence; self-esteem; knowledge of children's rights; increased awareness of community responsibility; a sense that their opinions and ideas are valued; communication skills with adults and peers; and research skills/tools/techniques. Parents are always informed of the project and often are invited to the final 'take action' piece. Community members are often invited as well, and they are used as information resources, depending on the issue chosen by the kids, e.g., guest speakers or visits to local agencies.
Monitoring and Evaluation
We have designed hands-on evaluation tools that can be completed by youth facilitators and child participants. Often they are 'too much paper work' so we ask youth facilitators to keep logbooks and record key information. Regarding changes that have come as a result of the program, children feel more confident and empowered to take on problems and find solutions. Youth feel more valued and able to lead groups and deal with kids. Adults have more postitive attitudes to youth.
Training
We train youth aged 13-18 years. Content of training events included icebreakers, games/co-operative activities, team building, leadership, facilitation skills, popular education, six-step approach, children's rights.
Use, Adaptation, Translation and Production of Child-to-Child Materials
We use the Child-to-Child video with clips from India, Uganda, Nicaragua and the UK. We have developed a Youth-to-Youth training guide for youth facilitators. It is based on our 1st pilot YtY project, but includes all the steps and tips for facilitators, etc. Our YtY guide has been translated into French for use in Canada, West Africa and Haiti.
Date: 2001
Source: CtC Website Directory 2001
Update 2005
In February 2005 the programmes coordinator wrote:
“I am happy to inform you that Save the Children Canada has been implementing the Child-to-Child methodology for a number of years, specifically since 1997 when we took the methodology to a group of young people as part of a pilot project where teenagers would facilitate the steps of Child-to-Child with younger children as participants at their local Boys and Girls Club over the summer. Previously there had been quite a developed network of Child-to-Child trained adults, with a coordinator funded by Save the Children Canada to increase awareness and implementation of the Child-to-Child approach, particularly in Eastern Ontario. Save the Children Canada, as a rights-based organisation was looking to increase opportunities for young people under the age of 18 to participate in the improvement of their communities and their own lives in meaningful ways. We saw the Child-to-Child methodology as a perfect model to do just that. The teenagers we trained to facilitate the Child-to-Child approach immediately decided that the name of the program should be changed to Youth-to-Youth. That was the beginning of a very successful pilot and an increasingly strong partnership with Boys and Girls Clubs of Canada, to train young people across the country to deliver Youth to Youth programs with younger children as participants. Our funding has since run out and we are currently waiting to hear back from Health Canada regarding a proposal to revitalise the program across the country.
Source: Erin Smith, Canadian Program Coordinator, Save the Children Canada
E-mail: esmith@savethechildren.ca
Date: 2005
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