Our Path Forward

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The way we think about and approach partnerships and philanthropy is rooted in the idea that we can fix systemic problems of inequity quickly, cheaply, and easily.

This is untrue.

As BGC Canada evaluates the effects of inflation, labor market shortages, and the rising cost of living on the lives of Club kids and their families, it’s time to build a new path forward.

Through our work with partners, it’s essential that we create new opportunities that allow us to meet the growing complexity of challenges facing kids and youth today. For many Club kids, their everyday “norm” isn’t a comfortable one and is often filled with academic challenges, hunger, loneliness, mental wellness issues, lack of support, and more. We know that it takes more than a single program to address these realities.

It takes skilled talent and supporting infrastructure. It takes mission-critical investments in staffing, training, data capture, technical tools, back-office expenses, and capital investments to do this work properly. We are often hampered in our ability to support these areas. And yet, they are essential to achieving the best possible outcomes.

BGC Canada is launching a mission-critical family of funds, including a parent fund known as Reject the Norm, as well as key priority funds to support food, mental health, and learning and development needs.

We invite current and prospective partners to join us in their support of one of these four funds. By doing so, partners are giving us the greatest chance of success in transforming the lives of young people.

Reject the Norm is a parent fund that allows partners to take a strong leadership position in supporting BGC’s mission and investment in areas of greatest need so that we can generate the highest social return on their investment.

This support allows us to respond quickly to evolving needs and plan for future needs. In this current economic environment, operating costs are higher than they’ve ever been. Clubs have been impacted by the effects of the labour market shortage, leading to a significant increase in staffing-related costs. They’ve also been impacted by inflation, especially food and fuel costs.

As Canada’s largest and longest-standing child and youth-serving organization, BGC Canada and its Clubs are leading experts in the needs of young people and are best positioned to decide where and how to invest funding to support these needs. As we work to create impact, this funding will allow us to put our resources where they are needed most.

By Rejecting the Norm, you truly give us the greatest chance of success in transforming the lives of as many young people as possible.

Reject the Norm Fund Contributing Partners

Food is a fundamental need.

Yet as food prices skyrocket and incomes remain stagnant, more and more families are struggling to meet their food needs. Without regular access to food, everything in a child’s life is impacted: their ability to think and learn, their mental and physical well-being, and importantly, their ability to imagine a future for themselves.

BGC Clubs have always understood this and play a key role in feeding and educating kids about food nutrition. Last year BGC Clubs provided close to 6 million meals and snacks for kids and teens.

For some kids, the food they have at their Club may be the only meal they eat that day. For others, the Club plays an important role in supplementing food needs. And for those households experiencing food insecurity, Clubs send home a backpack of key staples to support the entire family. We know that when young people have a full belly, they can think better, perform better, learn better, and make better decisions. Yet, as demand for this basic need continues to rise alongside inflation, this work is getting significantly harder. It now takes close to $15M annually to support food needs across all BGC Clubs.

By coming together as a collective to support our Food Fund, partners will provide BGC Clubs with the assurance that they can continue this foundational support so that no young person is held back because of inaccessibility to a fundamental, basic human need.

Try our food impact calculator

Food Fund Contributing Partners

The Mental Health Fund supports another priority area of our mission.

During the pandemic, public health measures were put in place to keep us safe, but this led to social isolation during a time when kids needed those connections the most. More recent economic conditions have put additional pressures on families and young people are increasingly feeling the effects.

While recent headlines show that our world is facing a mental health crisis, we see firsthand how profoundly and disproportionally this is impacting Club kids, many of whom were already struggling prior to the pandemic. The needs of today’s children and youth are more complex and so are the needs of our front-line staff who support our kids. At BGC Canada, we recognize that the challenges our kids and staff are facing are multifaceted and so should be our approach to addressing them.

The Mental Health Fund is flexible and will allow each local Club to be responsive to the unique needs of the communities they serve. Individual Clubs will be able to leverage their knowledge of their community to determine the most appropriate forms of support, to avoid a one-size-fits-all, top-down approach to solutions.

While one Club may deem mental health first-aid training for staff as a key priority in supporting their members’ mental health, another may wish to hire outreach workers, while another may opt to hire other personnel to deliver mental health-focused programs.

Support of the Mental Health Fund allows BGC Canada to continue making an impact while meeting the growing demand amongst our kids and staff for mental health support. It puts the trust in the hands of our Clubs to determine the most effective means of supporting their young people.

Mental Health Fund Contributing Partners

Learning and Development are fundamental to everything we do at BGC.

As a high-impact area, we are constantly finding new ways of delivering evolving forms of learning and development that can reach the broadest number of young people. Through the introduction of the Learning & Development Fund, we are seeking investments to amplify our efforts.

When youth are given the chance to participate in educational and learning programs and are provided with supporting resources and tools, they strengthen and acquire new skills. They are empowered to take control of their lives and make positive choices, putting them on the road to success and a brighter future.

Additionally, by providing Club staff members with opportunities to learn new skills and knowledge, they become better equipped to effectively support and engage with the youth they serve. This can improve outcomes for youth, including increased confidence, higher academic achievement, and enhanced social and emotional skills.

To amplify these already-proven efforts we are seeking to build a new online learning platform, known as MyBGC.

Aimed at Club youth, aged 13-21, Club staff, and other youth audiences, this online hub will house BGC Canada’s self-directed learning modules, programs, tools, and activities. MyBGC will also serve as a digital meeting place, providing opportunities for youth and staff from across the country to connect and collaborate.

This platform will enhance the BGC program experience, while also creating more learning and training opportunities for youth and staff.

Investing in the development of this new tool allows BGC to offer learning and development opportunities that can have a transformative impact on both the staff and the youth we serve.