By Mary Tabak, Our Kids Network Developmental Assets Manager
Thirty years ago, many world leaders made a commitment to the world’s children by adopting the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, an international agreement on childhood rights.
Take a moment to review the rights. Are there any surprises? Did you feel that you had these rights when you were young?
It’s become the most widely ratified human rights treaty in history and has helped transform children’s lives around the world. However, until every child has every right, our work is not done.
November 20th is designated as National Child Day. This day is an opportunity to reflect on how we can advocate for, promote and celebrate children’s rights to make the world a better place for children.
30 Ways to Celebrate and Reflect on Children’s Rights
Discuss the rights with children and youth in your life.
Donate to an organization that works to make the lives of children better.
Donate children’s supplies to a local charity.
Sponsor a child. Foster a child.
Send a child a letter of appreciation. Here’s an example to get you started.
Appreciate all that Canada has to offer children and youth now, and consider the work still to be done.
Introduce a child to something new in their community.
Write a letter to local politicians supporting children’s rights.
Learn about the Indigenous culture and community in Canada.
Provide Support. Help me complete task and achieve goals.
Share Power. Treat me with respect and give me a say.
Expand Possibilities. Connect me with people and places that broaden my world.
Be Dependable. Be someone I can trust.
Listen. Really pay attention when we are together.
Navigate. Guide me through hard situations and systems.
Empower. Build my confidence to take charge of my life.
Advocate. Stand up for me when I need it.
Inspire. Inspire me to see possibilities for my future.
All kids are our kids. Let’s keep working together to make this world a better place for children and youth.
We Have A Voice
National Child Day is celebrated in Canada on November 20th in recognition of our country’s commitment to upholding the rights of children and two historic events: the 1959 signing of the UN Declaration of the Rights of the Child and the adoption of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1989.
“Be kind to everyone. You don’t know what battles they’re fighting.” is paraphrased from a quote written by Scottish author Ian MacLaren in 1897. It still rings true today and never more than when we are working with adolescents. Life is hard enough through this period of development, but these days youth contend with social media and the tremendous impact that it has on their lives. School yard bullies wait for them now via social media. Too often home is no longer a safe place to hide at the end of the day. Keyboard stalkers are there at every click to criticize and bully. The pressure is on to fit in and get noticed by the number of likes and views on hundreds of social media and gaming platforms. Youth struggle to be “unique” in a world where rich media celebrities and music icons promote unattainable luxury lifestyles and model shallow, destructive behavior.
The competition to get into a post-secondary school and find a good job is substantially more stressful now than it was even fifteen years ago. And both families and young people are bearing the financial burden of higher education.
Adults are more stressed these days for their own reasons, and that affects the young people around them. All of this adds up to much higher rates of youth struggling with depression and anxiety at younger and younger ages.
“Be kind to everyone, you don’t know what battles they’re fighting.”
Imagine yourself as a youth: you arrive at school and not one adult smiles as you walk in the door. Not one adult addresses you by your name or asks how your morning is going. Not one adult takes an interest in you, guides you, or supports you. No one seems to see or care about the battles you’re fighting. They are preoccupied with imposing their own agendas on you, and might criticize you if you can’t follow through. You would certainly feel disheartened and hopeless, and overwhelmed. The pressure would seem unbearable. Then you arrive home and encounter stressed parents, who may be dealing with the needs of their own elderly parents and have no time for yours. When you imagine yourself in this situation, it’s easy to understand how anxiety and hopelessness can build up.
“Be kind to everyone, you don’t know what battles they’re fighting.”
Now let’s think about this quote when we look at interacting with young people, including our own children. Let’s be the adults that smile when a youth walks into the room. Let’s make an effort to know their names and learn something about them. Let’s guide them and always support them. We’ll ask them how they’re doing and, if we’re concerned that they may not be doing well, we’ll ask them privately and find out how we can help. It’s possible that you may be the only person in a young person’s day that reaches out to them, praises them, and sees the good in them. Let’s model how to be caring, empathetic and supportive for all youth that we encounter each day.
“Be kind to everyone, you don’t know what battles they’re fighting.”
When we meet youth that may need more support than we can offer, we want to be able to provide them with information about professional supports in the community. It’s important for us to know where to find information or who to ask for the appropriate supports so we can respond quickly to their needs. The Our Kids Network website is an excellent knowledge-building resource that includes Developmental Assets and Relationships First, found in the Building Relationships section.
Most of all, remember, the easiest way to make a connection – smile and simply ask how they’re doing today.
Every
structure needs a strong foundation. The OKN Asset-Building
Toolkit is constructed of valuable resources and information that
have been used by Halton professionals for years in building Developmental
Assets. They’ve also used the toolkit to help families build Family Assets. Important
accomplishments, but we felt something was missing to make this work really concrete.
It was the Search Institute’s Developmental Relationships Framework that steered us to a missing key ingredient – relationships. This important foundation focuses our attention on the central element of relationship building, which underpins the Developmental Assets and Family Assets work.
All Asset-Building
in Halton is grounded in relationships. Relationships with each other, our
children and youth, our families, and our communities, are the foundation of
successful interactions, interventions, programs and outcomes. We can build
assets more effectively and efficiently if we build meaningful relationships
first.
Health
Canada says
that relationships are protective of many positive health outcomes.
Josh
Shipp, a
teen expert with lived experience, supports this thinking in his story about
the power of one relationship in his life.
Leaders can consider the preconditions necessary in organizations for
relationships to thrive, and address barriers to building relationships by
reviewing this
summary from the Search Institute.
These examples are just three of
numerous new resources that have been added to the “relationships foundation” of the improved Asset-Building
Toolkit. Watch for a highlighted NEW! as you tour the website.
Did you
know use of the Asset-Building Toolkit is going up year after year? People in
Halton, Canada and well beyond, are accessing and using this comprehensive
resource that we built together.
We know about the power of relationships in Halton. In the spirit of continuous improvement, this NEW and IMPROVED toolkit gives us even more tools, ideas and resources to elevate relationships in our work.
Take some time to explore our renovated Asset-Building Toolkit and discover how you can use it in your work today.
