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Creating a safe culture for teens |
Courage for Youth respects your privacy. We protect your personal information and adhere to all legislative requirements regarding protection of privacy. We do not sell or trade our membership information or donor lists. The information you provide will be used to keep you informed and up-to-date on Courage for Youth activities, programs, services, donation and volunteer opportunities, and donation receipts.
Incorporated as a non-profit association in May 2003, Courage for Youth is dedicated to creating a culture that supports, nurtures, and protects young people. We concentrate our activities in the Okanagan Valley of BC, with a focus on Kelowna.
Courage for Youth is proactive and solution-oriented. Our desire is to strengthen young peoples' self-esteem, to prevent relational aggression, and to thwart suicide, depression, eating disorders, poor self image, loneliness, and poisonous media influence. Prevention is far more cost effective than intervention!
Because professionals and theorists agree that significant relationships are crucial for children's development, Courage for Youth offers programs not only for young people but also for adults. Courage for Youth relies heavily on mentoring and small group models.
Courage for Youth does not operate in isolation. We partner with community organizations, schools, churches, and families to work toward systemic change in the social norms of youth.
Courage for Youth is Canada's first Ophelia Sister Project. The Ophelia Project®, founded in 1997 in Erie, PA, is dedicated to creating an emotionally, physically and socially safe culture where girls are respected and nurtured. Through our association with Ophelia, we are able to take advantage of their expertise and experience, as well as their programs and resources.
The Board of Courage for Youth includes professionals and counsellors who direct and maintain our established values and ensure accountability. Our Board members are:
Debra
Walker (BA) is an ambitious problem solver with over 30 years experience
in both business and non-profit organizations. Her life-coaching
skills are backed with several years experience leading seminars
and small groups, directing youth and women's groups, and working
in management, sales, and marketing.
As a mother of two young teenage children, her recent completion of the Ophelia Continuing Professional Education Training in Erie, PA has evoked the passion and vision to bring this culture-awakening project to Canada.
A hero generation, early in life, becomes the target of passionate
adult efforts to encircle and protect the childhood world, to
promote child achievements, and to attach a new sense of destiny
to youth - to which it responds by meeting and beating adult expectations."
(Millennials Rising, Neil Howe & William Strauss)