Kids Help Phone is a completely confidential professional counseling service helping kids in your community and across the country 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Vulnerable kids from the ages of 5 to 20 reach out to Kids Help Phone for all kinds of reasons, including sexual, physical and emotional abuse, depression and thoughts of suicide, eating disorders, self-harm and bullying. Every day, Kids Help Phone counselors answer calls, online questions and most recently live chat requests from all across Canada. No matter what the problem or concern our counselors are there to provide immediate and caring support, information and referrals to the kids who reach out to us.

In early May, The Walk so Kids Can Talk event took place in 50 communities across the country, raising $2.5 million! Great going Canada!

Walk so Kids Can Talk is Canada’s largest fundraising campaign to improve the mental well-being of the young people in Canada. It is organized on behalf of the 6.5 million young people in Canada to ensure they can continue finding immediate, non-judgemental, anonymous and professional support, and expert-vetted information on a wide range of issues that are affecting the quality of their life. 100% of the funds raised by Walk participants help young people who are dealing with mental or emotional distress cope with these overwhelming emotions by ensuring they will continue to have access to Kids Help Phone’s professional counsellors 24 hours a day. All funds raised by the Walk go to support Kids Help Phone’s essential service.

Today’s reality is that the demand for our service is greater than our ability to meet it. In 2011, calls to Kids Help Phone have increased significantly, and online posts have seen an upsurge; sadly children, teens and young adults are being placed on hold and waiting longer to receive the help they seek and our online professional counselling site (Ask Us Online) closes during some days of the months to kids posting their issues.

Kids Help Phone must raise 100% of the necessary funds to cover the costs of delivering day and night professional youth counselling service, 365 days a year.

New launch of real time live chat counselling pilot:

Live Chat counselling lets young people participate in real-time Instant Messaging-type exchanges, with a Kids Help Phone professional counsellor, through either a smartphone or computer. Over the past 3 years, Kids Help Phone received a growing number of requests for immediate, live online counselling from young people. Kids are really excited about the service because it’s easier in many instances for kids to contact Kids Help Phone online rather than through the phone, users with limited privacy report feeling more secure chatting online rather than on the phone, users receive help in real-time during online chat as opposed to the wait for responses through Ask Us Online. Providing Live Chat counselling to youth across Canada will cost an estimated $7.5 million over the next 3 years so support is greatly needed.

As you can see there is a lot of support being provided to kids across our country who need help. Kids Help Phone has been visionary in its approach to finding ways to connect and provide the counselling necessary. I urge you to learn more about this great cause and next time when you think about a charity to give to…think Kids Help Phone.

Through your donation you may be helping to positively change the course of one child’s life.

At first, I was thinking Hawaii…palm trees…tropical breezes…the sound of ocean waves…becoming one with nature…ahhh, lets delve into the soul. However, after several attempts to center myself, I quickly learned this was no book to immerse myself in with all the loud people, construction, sirens, traffic and helicopters. Out comes Erma and her travels to the suburbs instead. Yes, that is just what I needed, a humorous look at life and a giggle or two between the pages.

I’m not a person who can read amidst any noise, I get easily distracted. It truly has to be the right setting for the right book, otherwise I’m re-reading the same chapter over and over again. I realized all the banter between Bombeck’s family and the emergence of characters eager to sell her a house, insurance and a whole host of things that come with suburban living, was the perfect insanity to accompany my visit to Waikiki. In fact, at times it appeared that some people around me could have been the characters I was reading about.

When I was in Kona, I read Joseph Campbell’s, The Power of Myth from cover to cover, but that was easy amongst the tranquility we had found ourselves in. Waikiki was far from tranquil. It is the hub of action, which is fine, if that is what you are searching for on your trip. Adapting reading to the setting is just something I have to do. Others, (maybe even like yourself) may feel quite comfortable to pick up any book and begin the journey into the authors world; I’m envious of that. I’ve always wished I could just read without being like a dog that has just seen a squirrel. ‘Concentrate Jennifer, concentrate!‘ Our relationship with our books is personal and it is about carving out the right space, time and genre to capture our attention.

What type of books do you take on your vacation? Is there any change depending on the location of your travel?

All the clothes were geared to young mothers who must have children and partners with very deep pockets. With emerald and diamonds jewelery well over $1000, most perfumes were over $100 and even lingerie being a trendy gift for Mother; a little card, flowers or dinner appears to be passe.  “You know I have always loved lingerie but I wouldn’t be expecting that for mothers day!” my mother said.

Let me tell you what this really meant to my mother, as she ages she become less and less relevant. She lives in a world full of age discrimination, erased from the consciousness of advertisers except if they are peddling medications or leak proof under-garments.  The Bay, a Canadian institution bought out some years back by a U.S company, has changed like so many things in her life and it is frustrating. Beyond her realization that this promotion failed to consider mothers of all ages was her observation that most of the featured products did not make sense as gifts for this special day and I tend to agree.

Is this really what mothers expect to receive? or Is this just another opportunity to exploit a day of respect and persuade us all to show our love through Coach, Michael Kors and Prada. You can bet it was the latter! Persuasion and exploitation go hand in hand in the world of advertising. Lines like “the Golden Rule: Treat Her” next to diamonds and gold, “There’s no Present like the time”  for Fossil watches and “Objects of Affection” to describe earrings and pearls, do we need to guess who their target buyer really is? No pressure for any child or partner intended, of course.

One day, it will probably happen as it has with my mother. I will be sitting in my chair and it will dawn on me… I no longer exist. I will recall when I turned heads and wore heals that were bad for my feet but great for attention. I will have to be more savvy with my shopping in order to find the clothes that stylishly suit my age. I will be surfing the television channels to find shows that use language I can understand and some representation of a woman over the age of 60. I will be flipping through a magazine or flyer searching for “Every thing I love” and finding it really hard to even find one product, article or picture that speaks to me. I’m not looking forward to that reality.

My mother still wears heels and other not so grandmotherly looking things. Though, she would never want her kids to buy her any of those items, (preferring instead to receive a beautiful card) she wouldn’t have minded having The Bay, and others like them, remember that she’s a mother too.

The Candice Tells All show is in its second season and in between those new episodes I watch  repeats of past episodes.  I’m sure each of us can think of what we would love to do with our homes if we had the money, talent or a designer ready to take over the whole project. However, even with all those things intact it can still be overwhelming and time consuming. It is not easy to trust the vision of someone else but when you watch Candice with her clients you can tell they get her and she gets them. Fabulous show and for all the fans of her work let’s hope she continues to dazzle us with more shows in the future. 

Recently, I spoke with someone who had graduated from high school about two years ago. As a career practitioner in the private sector I wondered just how much information was provided prior to graduation, that helped her plan her education or find a job. Her response: “I wasn’t prepared out of high school.”

She explained, “I didn’t get enough information on what jobs are out there. You take biology and harder courses, they gear you to take these courses which I guess can make you prepared for something? What she wasn’t prepared to answer was what to do with those courses. “What are you going to do? I never got information about the types of jobs.”

In fact, the schools set these kids up from Grade 10 onward to start picking courses for some imaginary future job. One assessment may be offered and off they go picking their course structure. I remember that same approach during my junior and high school years and that was a long time ago. With no resources, basic resume understanding and no clue as to what is happening out there in the real world (and how that relates to their abilities or interests), many young adults flounder around trying to discover what is next.

There is so much to share with them and it is in their best interest that they receive it before the stress levels get higher. In fact, this young woman spoke to that very stress in our talk. Paraphrasing her passionate response: You see others going off to school and then you see some dropping out of college because it wasn’t right for them. You see friends with jobs and others without. It is a confusing time and you put pressure on yourself to figure out what are YOU going to do.

It is time for these graduates to get more of what the general public has access to from a career consultant, counsellor or coach. When my adult students come through one to one or group sessions they come away feeling empowered, they can plan better for their future and they understand the job market in a whole new way. Self discovery, proper planning, supportive resources and better decision making are important pieces in the process. Shouldn’t our students in high school receive the same quality of information?

There are two traps kids (and parents) fall into post high school:

1. Trying to look for work without a proper understanding of how to market their skills.

2. Applying for courses or programs without proper analysis of their interest or the viability of their choice.

In both cases, the outcomes usually are that self esteem plummets because of lack of success, plus time and money is wasted. We are not teaching our children proper planning for their careers nor providing necessary life skills for a successful transition from school to the working world.

Everyone always say’s “I wish had learned this career planning when I was younger, it would have saved me a lot of time and maybe I would have got into something that I actually like to do. I say, “I wish you would have had this too, but now you know better, you can do better by finding the job or taking the course that makes sense for you.”

I’m going to be putting together graduation packages for parents to give their children. Helpful advice one on one that can make a huge difference in their career/educational planning and job search. I want to help young adults start out on the right foot upon completion of high school. If you want more information on this service email me directly.