Twenty-five percent of seniors in Canada experience significant loneliness.
A group of teenagers in Calgary learned that statistic in a Freedom Tree Global Initiative Program— and it stopped them cold.
Not because it was assigned reading. But because it was real. Because some of them knew people in seniors’ homes. Because they could feel what that number meant.
“It’s a very rough spot to be,” one of them said. “Senior loneliness is a big thing for me.”
These are high school students. They came in thinking they might talk about children’s issues or environmental work. And they did — they covered global warming, child labor in cocoa supply chains, civic responsibility. But when they landed on seniors’ loneliness, something clicked.
Because good civic education does not tell young people what to care about. It exposes them to the world as it actually is — and trusts them to find the place where their heart connects to the need.
Freedom Tree’s Global Initiatives Program does exactly that. Twice a week. In a circle. With space for real conversation, real disagreement, and real decision-making.
The facilitator of this group put it simply: “It’s not a class. It’s a conversation. And it’s interesting to see where the conversations lead.”
Where they lead, it turns out, is toward action.
Every single time.
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