By Owen Charters, President & CEO, BGC Canada
June 25, 2024
We face a future where BGC’s work is needed more than ever. We have spent the last six years building resiliency and strength—now we must put that strength to work.
We owe it to the children and youth of Canada to do better
Youth are not doing well. The impact of social media and messaging apps has given rise to anxiety, depression, and suicide at alarming rates. The opioid epidemic continues to impact youth, with more deaths each year. Food insecurity is rising, as is homelessness. Every BGC Club I speak to has voiced concerns that learning loss continues to be a major issue, and they have never seen so many children and youth who are behind their grade levels in academic performance.
BGC Clubs are the answer to many of these problems. We have been the solution for 125 years, and we will be for many more. As a collective, we are committed to advocating a broad agenda for children and youth in this country, building on calls for a national child and youth strategy (championed by Senator Moodie).
Last month, we hosted our biannual National Conference: Making Waves. These conferences are a chance for senior leaders and staff at BGC Clubs to come together to learn and network with others from across the country. It’s also a chance for everyone to be reminded of the greater impact of the BGC movement and discuss how we can further improve.
A new chapter for BGC Clubs
This conference year was big—it was the kick-off to a new chapter for BGC Clubs. We closed the books on the strategic plan that has guided us so well, including through a pandemic, saying farewell to Stronger Together and launching our national strategic plan: Growing Together, Creating Opportunities.
We face a future where what we do is needed more than ever. We have spent the last six years building resiliency and strength – even testing our capacity during a pandemic. Now we must put that strength to work, delivering for more kids and families across Canada.
As of April—less than a year after reaching the 40 million milestone—Canada’s population surpassed 41 million. Last year, we served more than 150,000 young people—but Clubs can’t keep up with the growth in needs. Canada’s population is growing. It is time to be ambitious and to grow.
Children and youth are moving – from large urban areas to smaller cities and towns, and Clubs must be ready to accommodate the influx. We need to be in communities we’re not already serving. But even within our existing communities, we must have ambitions to grow.
We are lobbying governments for funds that can support growth, like the $100 million sport and recreation capital fund in Ontario. Or the federal program for daycare expansion.
We are looking at programs that will helps us innovate and create new ways to build capital, like accessing the $900 million social finance fund.
We are asking the BGC Canada Foundation to launch an ambitious campaign. We are asking corporate partners to help us grow.
BGC Clubs matter to kids. They change the lives of every youth that comes through the door.
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