Click here for access to the website, created by my collegue, Suzanne Picard, in partial fulfillment of her M.Ed. graduate studies. 

The benefits of youth volunteerism are significant. Volunteerism connects students with "place" in authentic and genuine ways. Volunteerism provides opportunities for autonomy (if students are given opportunity to identify needs and choose the ways in which they volunteer in the community), competency (as students social and cognitive develop skills), and relatedness (as students connect with their community, and each other). 

Volunteerism courses provide students with an opportunity to develop social responsibility by reflecting on their volunteer experiences and making plans for future positive contributions to the school, their peer group, the community, and themselves. Students can explore how ethics and values relate to volunteerism and thriving communities. 

For more information about Youth Volunteerism, click here. 

Mentorship connects students to the larger social environment and provides adolescents the opportunity for generosity. 

Benefits of teen mentoring:

• improved communication and problem-solving skills.

• increased self-confidence, self-concept, social responsibility and appreciation of diversity. 

• increased feeling of school connections resulting in improved attendance, learner engagement and academic performance. 

• documented volunteer experiences that can be considered for scholarship and employment applications.

• increased awareness of valuable contribution teens can make in their community and importance of a life-long commitment to volunteering.

For more information about Student Mentoring, click here. 

For more resources click here.

Play-based pedagogy reduces educational stressors and increases the development of executive function through the inherent existence of fun, humour, laughter, and reward within play. 

The resource provided includes a collection of games for all ages and is accompanied by detailed descriptions of the neuro-biological structures and functions developed in playing the game.

This research based initiative in which a curriculum of activities was developed in order to improve children's EF skills and improve kindergarten readiness has expanded to include games for adolescents too!

https://www.buildingbrains.ca/