Place
Ottawa, ON CA K2P 0J3
Description
It's 2023! Let's hit the ground running for The Missing Link Project.
The Missing Link Project uplifts and nurtures the community’s youth by creating and providing alternative education, drop-ins, and after-school programs. These program categories include Fitness Literacy, Business and Financial Literacy, and Mental Health Literacy. These categories are all required to have a healthy, thriving life. Fitness and mental health are important for longevity, avoiding injuries or illnesses, and how to reduce stress levels during times of extreme or chronic stress. This is especially important to those in poverty as it can be difficult to create nutritious meals, learn when to take breaks from work, and navigate a stressful and dangerous environment. As for business and financial literacy, we provide them with tools to start their own business without start-up funds, how to gain employment opportunities, and how to manage their finances. There are many stories about how people suddenly come into money but due to lack of financial literacy, they end up in more debt or remain broke. The Missing Link Project wants to avoid this from happening when they get a job or build a business.
Poverty affects 15.2% of Ottawa citizens as of 2005. Unfortunately, poverty rates have been increasing since then due to inflation, systematic injustice, and more recently, Covid. About 17% of youth in Ontario are living below the poverty line simply because their parents are also under the poverty line. These children are denied everyday opportunities, thus forcing them to mature faster than their peers. Though we don’t have all the answers to provide all the required resources, we can help provide them with tools that will open up more opportunities for them.
What sets us apart is that The Missing Link Project focuses on literacy and education. The Fitness category will include physical activity such as basketball or weight lifting but will emphasize on learning about fitness. For instance, proper form and why it is important, how to build a training program for yourself, how the muscles of the body function, etc. The Mental Health category will teach the children how to develop strategies to acknowledge and process any extreme emotions. From listening to many personal stories, it is not uncommon that youth in poverty are also coming from abusive or damaged homes. They might not be ready to come forward so in the meantime, we can provide them with the tools to survive and heal for their future.
If anyone is interested in volunteering, they can email volunteer@tmlpcanada.org or join the mailing list to keep in the loop by contacting newsletter@tmlpcanada.org (we will not spam!) If any other organizations would like to collaborate or if anyone wants to pitch their ideas, they can contact our Executive Director at DanciaKS@tmlpcanada.org (please contact her for media inquiries as well).
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