They are teenagers.
They meet twice a week — sometimes more.
They sit in a circle in Calgary, Alberta, and they talk about things that most adults avoid: seniors’ loneliness. Global warming. Children in cocoa fields. Systems that fail people. Problems that seem too big to touch.
And then they ask: what can we do?
This is Freedom Tree’s Global Initiatives Program — a program designed for youth aged 6 to 18 that brings young people face to face with the real issues shaping our world. Not in a textbook. Not in a lecture. In a conversation. A circle. A space where their opinions matter and their instincts are taken seriously.
The results are remarkable.
One group of teens — meeting at the Boys and Girls Club of Alberta — started the program talking about what they might do to help. Within weeks they were designing volunteer initiatives for seniors’ homes. Why? Because one of them said: I know people in seniors’ homes who are really lonely. It’s really sad. I want to do something.
That is not a teenager being told what to care about. That is a teenager discovering what they already care about — and being given the tools to act on it.
Freedom Tree’s curriculum does not tell youth what to think. It opens a door and trusts them to walk through it.
And they do. Every time.
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