During the pandemic, when I taught chemistry in Jamaica, I could see the kids in my classes struggling, but I didn’t have the toolset to help them process what they were going through. Now that I'm in my second year of the Child and Youth Care program as an international student, I'm learning skills and strategies to help young people navigate life’s complexities and build resiliency.

As students in the Child and Youth Care program, our job is to make life a little bit easier for those who are going through the crux of it. So, for the past three years, the CYC Circle Club has fundraised for and helped organize the Life Kits project – a collaboration between the Faculty of Health and Community Studies, MacEwan alumni and Kinsmen for Boyle Street Community Services. 

In December and January, we set up donation boxes and gather supplies – backpacks, socks, scarves, all the things people who are unhoused need when it’s cold. We put everything together on an assembly line, invite Boyle Street to do a presentation and pack all the kits. Life Kits has helped me gain a deeper understanding of the importance of community partnerships and the impact of the collective on social change. 

This project is near and dear to me. It correlates with what I believe – that a person is a person. As a part of humanity, if I can’t help someone in need, if I’m just all for myself, then what’s the point of living? 

I am so grateful to have found this work – it’s like everything I have done as a youth leader, teacher and mom has led me to this moment. I get to connect with the young people I work with and let them know that I’m all in – I want them to succeed as much as they do. 

– Ronique Holgate, Bachelor of Child and Youth Care student and president of the CYC Circle Club

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