Support students to value themselves

[School] should be a place where kids can go, even if their home life is bad. The teachers are there to boost their self-esteem, to make them feel good, to tell each and every child how worthy they are. To teach them values like sharing, like peace, how to resolve conflicts. Right from the time when you're in kindergarten to grade 12. (Clara Locey)

Helping students to feel they have worth may be the most crucial factor in supporting learning. As well as schools taking on that role in every way possible, after-school and out-of-school programs can make an enormous difference in students' lives. Students I interviewed through the LOVE afterschool leadership program were inspiring. Although they told horrendous stories of their experiences of violence, they had hope, they believed in their ability to complete their schooling, they were clear about career dreams and felt confident in their ability to make a difference in the world.

One student spoke of his experience:

I had all this stuff going on in my life, too. When I hit the middle of grade nine, I never used to talk to nobody. I had stuff at home going on. I had my stepmom really abusing me, not physically, but emotionally...just bringing me down as a person. So I started feeling like I didn't have no meaning here, and it just started affecting my general life but also it was affecting school the most. 'Cause I couldn't concentrate on things, my brain was stuck on one thing...so I wasn't concentrating on my schoolwork at all. I don't know, my brain was just-it would come in, but it would not register. 'Cause I wasn't giving it time to register, I wasn't giving myself time to really figure out what's going on.

My friends noticed I was going in the wrong direction, I was doing a lot of stupid stuff. So they decided to bring me here. For the first three months, things were basically the same, I was just sitting here and listening. But I realize at the same time-right now I realize that I needed that three months just to take in stuff and listen to what people were saying. I wasn't reacting to it, but at the same time I was listening. When I started reacting to it, talking about it, I realized that I was feeling better as a person, my brain was going, flowing more. I could feel stuff going through. I could feel myself learning more.

At school, I never had that chance to express myself that much. Just in the back, sitting there not saying anything. But here people were actually caring what I was thinking about or caring what I had to say. They made me feel that I was important, that I had some role on this earth. I had something to do... [I was starting to think about] what should I write about? What pictures should I take? You know, my mind started moving faster, I started generating more stuff in there, so it took my mind off of [the abuse].