Hey! I thought I would take the time to reintroduce myself and World-Changing Kids for those of you who might be new to our community.
My name is Lindsey and I am the Founder of World-Changing Kids (WCK): we create engaging programs, workshops, activities and resources, focused on kindness, community building and social justice, to help our kids become confident, inspired, compassionate leaders and citizens.
My philosophy at WCK is to talk about real life issues with kids, at a level that they can handle, letting them lead with questions, and then pairing this with an action they can take to help make things better. So for example, we talk about homelessness, and then we raise money and collect donations for Shadow Ottawa to hand out to their street friends. Click here for more info on this action.
By providing kids with actions they can take to make things better now, not just in the future, but right now, we will help them become confident, inspired, passionate, curious, fulfilled, empathetic adults. Rather than what we are seeing a lot of lately, which is young people who are anxious, overwhelmed and apathetic because the world’s problems seem too big and they don’t know where they can fit into the solutions.
During the pandemic, I pivoted my activities to offer workshops and programs online and I have discovered something amazing! The kids LOVE having wide open, unscripted conversations about all types of issues with amazing guest experts – they have exceeded my expectations every step of the way. We interviewed Georgia, from Wyatt & Jack in the UK, who takes old, inflatable pool toys and turns them into bags and accessories, thereby diverting all that plastic waste from the landfills. We spoke with Gever Tulley, from SF Brightworks in San Francisco, who is disrupting the education system so that it better meets the needs of all of our kids. We spoke with Rawlson King, City Councilor about racism and the work he is doing on the Anti-Racism Secretariat. We spoke to an amazing eco-blogger from Toronto, Meera Jain, and then later we saw her on a CBC Marketplace video we were watching!
Imagine what these kids will be able to do in their future lives knowing that they can speak with someone who is later featured in a CBC video? Imagine the confidence they will have to reach out to whoever they need to reach out to to achieve their dreams? I could go on and on …. I get so excited imagining this future.
For some clips from these amazing interviews, check out my YouTube channel here.
During this time, when there is so much that is out of the kids’ control – when the rules around physical distancing keep changing, when the way they attend school keeps changing, when they have gone so long without being able to see their friends and family – it is of utmost importance that we give them things they can do, actions they can take. This is extremely important for their mental health and well-being. As a result, I am running (and will continue to run) some really amazing programs to help give the kids some meaning, purpose and control. To check out our current programs, click here.
We would love to have your awesome kids join us!
Explanation of photo:
That is me … in the top row, second from the left, waving. This photo is from my last Upstanders Academy session, where we were interviewed by the fantastic Dylan Black about our efforts to help Shadow Ottawa fill 100 Happy Bags for their street friends. You can watch this awesome interview here.