Got Your Back

Diverse girls and young people ages 9-19 are struggling with emotional and physical well-being, connection, belonging, confidence, and healthy relationships. Over the last two years, the situation has become more urgent as resources for young people become scarcer through increased demand and lack of funding.

Community programs funded through the Canadian Women’s Foundation provide the safe, supportive environment they need now. By supporting GOT YOUR BACK you can help ensure these programs continue to be available to everyone who needs them.

Give to Got Your Back

As young people head into another school year, let them know we’ve got their backs. Your donation goes directly to programs that:

  • Bolster mental health and emotional wellbeing
  • Teach young people about healthy relationships and consent
  • Provide a sense of belonging and community connection
  • Offer mentorship and build confidence
  • Provide engagement and exploration in areas like art, STEM, sport, physical activity, and community leadership
  • Provide mentorship and positive, inclusive spaces where girls and gender-diverse young people can thrive

Got Your Back Survey

Are you a parent of a girl or gender-diverse young person aged 9-19? We want to hear what aspects of your child’s wellbeing you’re concerned about, and what would help them as they head into a new school year. Your voice will help us continue to develop advocacy and policy actions to make things better for girls and gender-diverse young people in Canada.

“I feel like I do not need to hide who I am. There are loads of opportunities to try new things.”
Program Participant, Alberta
Cultural connectedness is associated with higher self-esteem and family and school connectedness.
Source: Saewyc & Colleagues, 2013
“The mentors are always there for me for anything, even if it’s not directly related to math.”
Program participant, Nova Scotia
71% of parents have been concerned about their children’s lack of social opportunities.
Statistics Canada

“I’d like to thank everyone who made this program possible. It can feel so difficult to find non-binary BIPOC community and self-love but this program has made both possible and I am eternally grateful.”

Program Participant, Ontario
62% of young people aged 16 to 17 feel their anxiety, depression and stress levels are higher now than at the start of the pandemic.
Source: Prosperity Project, 2021

“I have so much fun, I want to come for EVERY camp!”

Program Participant, British Columbia

71% of parents have been concerned about their children’s lack of social opportunities.

Statistics Canada
“Girl Code is every Monday and I count down my sleeps each week until the next Monday!”
Program Participant, Nova Scotia

62% of young people aged 16 to 17 feel their anxiety, depression and stress levels are higher now than at the start of the pandemic.

Prosperity Project

59% of girls feel pressure to conform to unrealistic standards on what it means to “be a girl”.

Girl Guides of Canada

“It has always been my dream to be a part of a girls only group, and that dream has come true.”

Program participant, Northwest Territories, Your Content Goes Here

“I can really be myself here, it made my day better to come to this program.”

Program participant, British Columbia
National poll reveals top challenges parents and caregivers believe their children aged nine to 19 have faced over the past two years
Got Your Back Tip Sheet for Parents

You’ve Got Their Backs: Your Impact

Check out some of the incredible programs for girls and gender-diverse young people you support all over Canada.

Image of girls in a circle with arms around each other

Circles of Care, Circles of Courage
CMHA – Cowichan Valley & Malahat First Nation
Duncan, British Columbia

Circles of Care – Circles of Courage in Malahat Nation on Vancouver Island incorporates traditional Coast Salish teachings to provide girls with tools and resources to face challenges. Sessions may focus on knitting and weaving, or learning about traditional plant identification.
Logo from Girls Can Mini University Program

Girls Can … Mini University

Brandon University
Brandon, Manitoba

Girls Can … engages girls in science through interactive, fun, and non-judgmental activities. Projects include programming robots, 3D printing, cooking, digital music, media literacy, floor hockey, and equine-assisted learning and more – all with a science twist.
Terrace GRIT girls' program logo

Terrace GRIT Program
Terrace Women’s Resource Centre
Terrace, British Columbia

The GRIT program uses a strengths-based approach to encourage participants to become future leaders. Girls learn and practice intercultural understanding and conflict resolution while celebrating inclusion. Activities empower girls to know themselves and trust their voices.
SADI Girls Mentorship logo

SADI Girls’ Group Mentorship
Survivor’s Hope
Pinawa, Manitoba

SADI Girls’ Group Mentorship trains high-school mentors in two rural communities to lead empowering and accessible programming for Grade 6 students. Discussions and activities focus on respect, self and community care, leadership, and healthy relationships, and invite students to shape activities based on their needs and interests.
Group of girls standing behind a table with table of refreshments and signs saying "self-love"

Girl Power, Girl Force

Calgary Women’s Centre
Calgary, Alberta

Girl Power, Girl Force creates spaces for girls to build a sense of community, explore issues in their lives, foster activism, and develop leadership skills.
Image of heart made by sparkler against dark sky

Oskinikiskwew
Samson Community Wellness
Maskwacis, Alberta

Okinikiskwew offers participants a culturally-sensitive space to explore the issues they’re facing, and helps them to develop positive gender and cultural identities. Participants also have the opportunity to learn healthy coping mechanisms and leadership skills while connecting with strong role models.

DiverseCity Community Resources Logo

Power Girls: A Migrant Girls STEM Project
DIVERSEcity Community Resources Society
Surrey, British Columbia

Designed specifically for racialized girls who have migrant experiences, Power Girls encourages participants to shape and lead programming according to their needs and interests. Participants develop empowering skills in critical thinking, creativity, organization, problem-solving, and teamwork.
Image of Huu ay aht First Nation symbol on beach

ƛiƛič̓ałukwit̓asin
Huu ay aht First Nation
Port Alberni, British Columbia

ƛiƛič̓ałukwit̓asin – we will be steering our canoe in the right direction – helps girls develop meaningful relationships with themselves and others, and strengthen their cultural identities. It also offers strategies to manage mental health and relationship issues, intimate partner violence, self-harm, and substance use.

Two girls writing on blackboard

Girls Count, SuperNOVA

Dalhousie University
Halifax, Nova Scotia

Girls Count builds critical mathematics skills that promote confidence and literacy in areas such as physics, engineering, and finance. Through team-based activities, skill-building workshops, individual problem solving, mentorship and guest presentations, participants are exposed to fun, hands-on experiences in mathematics as they consider their future academic and professional career paths.
Closeup of hands making a dreamcatcher

Intergenerational Girls Empowerment
First Light (St. John’s Native Friendship Centre)
St. John’s, Newfoundland

Intergenerational Girls Empowerment in St. John’s, NL connects participants with community Elders and seniors to mentor them in Indigenous traditions, ways of learning, and healing.
ElevateHER logo

Girls Code
ElevateHER
East Mountain, Nova Scotia

This program offers a supportive and confidence-building environment, where girls, trans, genderqueer, gender non-binary, and Two-Spirit participants connect with teen mentors, and develop independence and identity as they build healthy relationships.
Self-care products on table

Strong Girls Strong North Girls Club
YWCA NWT
Yellowknife, Northwest Territories

The Strong Girls Strong North Girls Club provides inclusive, youth-led, and culturally appropriate programming that helps girls to better understand violence and its root causes. Programming empowers young women to build self-esteem and make healthy choices, while fostering their leadership potential.
Aboriginal People’s Alliance of Northern Ontario Logo

Tipihew
Aboriginal People’s Alliance of Northern Ontario
Cochrane, Ontario

Tipihew (She Has Equal Capabilities) helps participants overcome barriers related to living in a northern region, and supports them in becoming more engaged at school, in sports, and in their community. Girls also have a mentor (older youth or young adult) throughout the program, who can share their own experiences, coping strategies, and leadership skills
Group of girls at lookout point

RISE Empowerment
Community Resource Centre (Killaloe) Inc.
Killaloe, Ontario

RISE Empowerment provides rural girls, trans and non-binary youth opportunities to connect, express themselves creatively, learn their rights, build healthy habits, and leadership skills. It offers an environment that helps girls to make friends, build skills, develop their voices, and lead community change.
Hands in shape of heart

Speak Up Program: Girls’ Group
Community Arts and Heritage Education Project
Thunder Bay, Ontario

Speak Up Girls’ Group brings professional artists together with girls and girl-identified participants for projects involving art, storytelling, music, song, theatre and dance. Through these activities, participants will look at what it means to be a girl and how girls can help bring about social change.
HERD Zine League Logo

HERd Zine League
LUSO Community Services
London, Ontario

HERd Zine League builds participants’ media literacy skills, encouraging them to think critically about how commercial media promotes gender stereotypes. Girls also learn how to use zines and other media to promote positive, empowering images and messages. Participants use their own talents – writing, drawing, collage, and poetry – to produce zines to be distributed as a form of community action.
Girls sitting on log in forest

Le Centre filles mobile

YWCA Québec
Québec, QC

The Mobile Girls Centre is for and by the participants, collaboratively deciding on goals, projects, and themes. Through these activities, participants will explore their identities, develop confidence, leadership, self-confidence, critical thinking, and sense of belonging.

Nous aussi on peut le faire
L’Oasis des enfants de Rosemont
Montréal, QC

Through discussions and activities, Nous aussi on peut le faire helps participants build a strong sense of community and confidence, as well as strengthening their own potential to face challenges and achieve their goals.
Group of girls

Girls Without Barriers
DisAbled Women’s Network DAWN
Montréal, QC

Girls without Barriers encourages girl-serving organizations to examine and address the underlying causes and consequences of ableism/audism and their intersection with other systems of oppression. Through focus groups and research, the program is developing tools and resources on ableism, and how it intersects with other systems of oppression.
Young woman holding camera

Healthy Relationships for Trans, 2-Spirit, Non-binary, and Gender Nonconforming Youth
Centre for Sexuality
Calgary, Alberta

Healthy Relationships for Trans, 2-Spirit, Non-binary, and Gender Nonconforming Youth creates a safe and welcoming space for participants to explore their identities, experience belonging and acceptance, and develop healthy relationship skills.
The Pas Family Resource Centre Logo

We Know Our Worth
The Pas Family Resource Centre
The Pas, Manitoba

We Know Our Worth helps young people establish clear boundaries, develop mutual respect, maintain individual identity, enhance communication skills, and have a better understanding of gender, identity, sexual orientation, self-expression and personal safety.
Teenagers standing outside

Healthy Futures

Second Stage Safe Haven
Saint John, New Brunswick

Healthy Futures provides educators, guidance counsellors and facilitators in middle schools with training and resources and delivers healthy relationship programming to rural and urban students. The project also trains high-school facilitators working with vulnerable young people, and youth who identify as 2SLGBTQ+.

The Ins and Outs of Healthy Relationships
Newfoundland & Labrador Sexual Health Centre
St. John’s, Newfoundland

The Ins and Outs of Healthy Relationships empowers young people to understand healthy relationships (romantic, platonic, familial, and professional) and develop strategies to improve or end unhealthy relationships.

Non-Binary BIPOC Drop-In
Planned Parenthood of Toronto
Toronto, Ontario

The Non-Binary BIPOC Drop-In is a weekly group for teens who identify as non-binary Black, Indigenous, or people of colour. Through discussions and activities facilitated by staff and peer facilitators, participants explore the intersections of their identities, build community, and gain confidence.
Grande Prairie Friendship Centre Logo

Pitone
Grande Prairie Friendship Centre
Grande Prairie, Alberta

Pitone empowers young people to lead and care for their peers through culturally based exploration of healthy relationships. Elders and Knowledge Keepers provide cultural guidance, lead ceremonies, and provide individual support for young people and facilitators. This program is inclusive of all gender expressions and is led by youth, for youth.
Victoria Native Friendship Centre logo

Youth Warrior Program
Victoria Native Friendship Centre
Victoria, British Columbia

The Youth Warrior Program for Indigenous children aged 6-14 who have witnessed violence at home and/or at school. It aims to help develop understanding of self-esteem, setting boundaries, anti-violence strategies, cyber-bullying, land-based learning, and storytelling. It ends with a “coming-of-age” cultural ceremony steeped in traditional teachings with Elders. The program supports children’s recovery from inter-generational trauma, and provides cultural supports and practical skills to support them into adulthood.

UPstanders Against Violence
Prince George Sexual Assault Centre
Prince George, British Columbia

UPstanders Against Violence is a youth-driven program that brings together community expertise and school supports. It is designed to increase knowledge, awareness, capacity, and resilience, while reducing the risk of violence.
Ma Mawi Wi Chi Itata Centre Logo

Positive Adolescent Sexuality Support (PASS)
Ma Mawi Wi Chi Itata Centre
Headingley, Manitoba

PASS support Indigenous young people and fosters healthy relationships and sexuality in a culturally relevant, safe, and supportive learning environment. Peer-based programming focuses on education and life skills for the mind, spirituality and culture for the spirit, awareness and prevention for the body, and support for emotions. Workshops are youth-driven and include healthy relationships, teen dating violence, birth-control methods, STD/STI awareness, self-esteem, and more.
Amelia Rising logo

Empowered Youth
Amelia Rising Sexual Assault Centre of Nipissing
North Bay, Ontario

Empowered Youth explores healthy relationships (with intimate partners, family, friends, community, and self) through education, counselling, and a support group. It also seeks to address the gap in local services for those who identify as 2SLGBTQ+, and who may be facing isolation and/or abuse.

Em(Power) and Allyship
Sexual Assault Centre of Waterloo Region
Kitchener, Ontario

Teens in this program address and explore the root causes of gender-based violence, including power and privilege, toxic masculinity, racism, homophobia, transphobia, classism, and ableism. They also learn about allyship and bystander interventions so they know how to respond to harmful behaviours.
Black Women in Motion Logo

Black Peer Education Network
Black Women in Motion
Toronto, Ontario

The Black Peer Education Network provides healthy and safe learning spaces for Black young people to dismantle and challenge rape culture and sexual violence within the Black community.

Connect2Protect
Boys and Girls Club of Summerside
Summerside, Prince Edward Island

At Connect2Protect every session begins with a home-cooked meal. In this caring, inclusive environment, young people of all gender identities and backgrounds are guided through explorations of topics crucial to their development, including identity, consent, and healthy relationships.
Bureau de la Communaute Haitienne logo

Respect sans frontiers
Bureau de la Communauté Haïtienne de Montréal
Montréal, Quebec

Respect sans frontier unites teens around common goals, and promotes collaboration, resilience, critical thinking, and leadership. With the support of facilitators, participants launch their own awareness campaigns on cyber violence and hypersexualization and use social media to spread the word.

S.A.R.A.H – les bases d’une relation saine
Sexplique
Québec, QC

S.A.R.A.H – les bases d’une relation saine helps young people develop healthy relationships, through interactive workshops on many topics including consent, sexuality, and self-esteem.

Resources

Know a girl or gender-diverse young person who needs support? These resources may help. You can also look for other resources in your community by checking the website of your municipality or community centre.

Kids Help Phone

Central Toronto Youth Services:  community-based, accredited Children’s Mental Health Centre

We Matter: Toolkit for Indigenous Youth

Adolescent Connectedness

Cultural connection for Indigenous young people

Canadian Women’s Mental Health Network