Grow Boys Global- Our First Partnership

We are excited to announce that Grow Boys has initiated its first global partnership with PEEM PEACE School in Lagos Nigeria, West Africa. The school's headteacher and founder, Ese Dodokior contacted us through mutual colleagues and is very interested in working with Grow Boys in support of the young boys in her school. She describes her school as a private school with fifty-two students. She states that,

We believe in raising a generation of Godly children is a priority. Our Motto is God is our strength. We believe that all children are very unique and special in their own way. Here we promote social intellectual, physical and emotional development.

The challenges of operating a school in Nigeria on a shoestring budget, and without the various sorts of supports and equipment that we enjoy in Canada are humbling to be made aware of. That Ese has pulled her school together and is capably and caringly providing a high-quality education to her pupils is inspiring to say the least.

This project is very exciting to Grow Boys Global for many reasons, but primarily, it will prove that the Grow Boys concept and foundational reliance on the HOPE Wheel perspective are transformational and scalable anywhere in the world. As our good friend, Michael Josefowicz says, "if it can be made to work in a village in Africa, then it can be made to work anywhere."  This morning Ese and I had our first brief dialog around what point to jump off the curb in support of her boys at PEEM Peace School.

The Grow Boys belief has always been that our HOPE Wheel model is more than integral enough to form a solid foundation for any effort in support of boys throughout the world. Michael Josefowizcz's post from 2012 proves that scaling the Grow Boys model has been front and center for a long time. Now is the time for Ese to take an audit of the sorts of protective factors her boys experience in the local context and compare those to the risk factors within the same environment. In the HOPE Wheel context, we can then juxtaposition these realities on the HOPE Wheel, and more specifically in the related directions under the heading of Respect, Understanding, Relationships, and Responsibility. This is the beginning of our scaffolding into action to reduce and eliminate risk factors while in turn growing the exposure to protective factors... all in the local context of Ese's community in Lagos, Nigeria.

This is just the beginning, and where this goes will completely depend on the vital audit of risk and protective factors that exist currently in the local context. Stay tuned as we grow this project together in support of happy, healthy, well-adjusted boys in Lagos, Nigeria, West Africa!

Another Sponsor Jumps on Board...

Grow Boys Red Deer would like to thank Glen Trefanenko for jumping on board as our latest sponsor and presenter. Glen is the owner of Trefko Safety Services and contracts to Red Deer Public School District as an Occupational Health and Safety consultant. Glen is also an accomplished percussionist and will lend his talent to one of two drumming sessions at this year's Knights in Training (KIT) Conference on May 16th.

On behalf of his company, Glen has graiously donated bottled water to keep the boys at KIT hydrated throughout the day. Glen has been supporting KIT for the last year as a committee member at large, and we are very happy to receive his sponsorship.

Thanks again Glen for helping us out, and for supporting the happy, healthy growth and development of boys in Red Deer.

Here We Grow Again!

Grow Boys Red Deer presents the Second Annual…

Conference, May 16, 2013 at G.H. Dawe Community Center

Come take the journey with us! 

We are thrilled to present another Grow Boys Red Deer conference event this year for fifth grade boys within our community. We are calling it "Knights in Training," and anticipate over 600 boys from three school districts will be joining us along with over 75 adult volunteers, and an equal number of high school volunteer clan family leaders. 

The boys will be arranged in groups of 20 - 25 clan families representing 24 different school kingdoms. They will take a journey of discovery with their new family as they learn what it takes to become a 'knight'. Each of our knights in training will participate in a range of learning experiences that teach them about the core concepts of respect, understanding, relationships and responsibility... elements of life and learning that true knights understand implicitly.  They will also learn how the four directions correlate to the core understanding of knights everywhere; "hope is an action word."  

Participants at the Knights in Training event will participate in 4 learning activities throughout the day revolving around the four directions. They will be taking action to learn what the directions mean to them, and how they can use their new skills to have hope, and more importantly, how to take action to achieve what they hope for. 

Details about our program are evolving as session facilitators are confirmed. We are very excited about the conference this year!