4 Tips for Creating Back To School Routines With Your Kids
School is back, and so is the challenge of helping kids get back into their routine. With students heading into their third schoolyear marked by the COVID-19 pandemic, healthy routines are more important than ever. Whether your mornings or bedtimes get a little hectic, most families benefit from a little extra structure in their day. … Read more »
New Groups, Workshops, and Series at carya this Fall
With the Fall season soon upon us, carya is switching back into high gear with a slate of new and returning groups, workshops and series. Keep an eye on this space, and our events calendar, for updates. Registration information is included at each link. for families Time to Grow: Shift Happens! This 7-week free… Read more »
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carya programs / Community / Early Childhood / East Village / Families / general / Older Adults / Teens and Tweens / Village CommonsLet’s Talk About Bullying
If you’re experiencing bullying, carya is here for you. Today is Pink Shirt Day. Every year in February, people across Canada and around the world come together online and offline to talk about bullying and encourage everyone to practice kindness. Many of us, young, old and everywhere in between, have felt the effects of bullying…. Read more »
I Siriusly Wish You Knew
BUY THE BOOK NOW Limited quantities available Everyone has an unspoken story – something that they wish their friends, family, colleagues or peers knew about them but they just can’t share. The James Fowler High School Sirius Group asked people to submit unspoken stories of what they wish someone in their life knew. They compiled… Read more »
Doing Some Sirius Good
Two of our Sirius Allies share what they’ve loved and learned as carya volunteers. Being a volunteer requires a special kind of commitment. Choosing to be part of something not because you have to, but because you truly want to is a powerful and wonderful thing. We are very lucky to have Barbara and Laura as… Read more »
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Teens and TweensBOOST – Building On Our Strengths Together
At carya, we’re always looking for new ways to serve the Calgary community. We strive to think differently about the needs of our current and potential clients and develop programs that will make our city a stronger, more connected place. With this in mind, we celebrated the launch one of our newest programs last week…. Read more »
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Teens and TweensBlack, White, and Blood Gala: A Sirius Fundraiser
The Black, White and Blood Gala is a fun-raising event put on by the women’s group L’EMBA to raise post-secondary scholarship money for Carya’s Sirius program. All proceeds from the event go towards funding scholarships for at-risk grade 10 and 11 girls. The event includes a cocktail reception with hors d’oeuvres, cash bar (beer and… Read more »
How We Spent Our Summer Vacation
Here at Carya, we’re lucky to have the opportunity to work with some amazing young people. Our Starbright, Starburst and Sirius programs are offered to girls in selected elementary, junior high, and high schools respectively. Grade six boys in designated elementary schools have the chance to be a part of our Odyssey program. Although these… Read more »
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Teens and TweensAct Out! at the 2016 NMT Symposium
For more than ten years, Carya’s Act Out! program has been helping teens and tweens learn how to navigate the difficult situations they face every day. By dramatizing scenarios that they might face in their everyday life, Act Out! has allowed hundreds of young people to find their voice, develop empathy and become comfortable in… Read more »
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Teens and TweensNeglect in a digital era
Around a dining table, a family are about to eat. They don’t speak to one another, their eyes are fixed on various handheld devices which chirp and vibrate at regular intervals. They consider themselves to be a regular family with a peaceful home. Let’s look a little closer. Chloe is twelve and she’s becoming increasingly… Read more »
Got Sleepy Teens?
If your sparky, full of energy kids have suddenly started to drag their feet around the house and are barely able to articulate a sentence before midday, don’t despair, it’s perfectly normal. In fact the leap into adolescence is accompanied by a re-calibration of something called Circadian Rhythms…which can make said ‘leap’ more like a… Read more »
Risky Business: The neuroscience behind teens’ dubious choices
From cautious and careful to reckless and un-restrained; a new disregard for rules, regulation and boundaries means your teenager has truly arrived. In fact, teenagers have double the risk of dying compared to their pre-teen selves. But why has the child who used to reach for your hand to cross the street become so careless,… Read more »
Introducing Bri Ketler: The ART of the Matter
When Calgary-based artist Bri Ketler was in junior high, bullying led her to her school’s art room and she never looked back. Now the 36 year old is channeling both her passion and her past by using art therapy to help girls in grades 7 to 9 to overcome their own issues and challenges. Bri… Read more »
Why Our Girls Need to Lead
Women hold only 15% of leadership positions within Fortune 500 companies and yet they constitute 48% of the Canadian workforce. So why are our girls not raising through the ranks in the same way their male counterparts do? At the end of November, Calgary will welcome the Born 2 Lead youth leadership conference along with… Read more »
Tongue Tied or Troubled?
Research suggests that, during the teenage years, language goes a little off-line and vocabulary can shrink from 40,000 words to as little as 8,000 words. So parents could find their children go from being chatty and engaged to silent, repetitive and brief in their responses. And that’s a perfectly normal part of the development of… Read more »
Teenage Rejection: It’s Biologically Scripted.
In the early adolescent years many parents are left hurt and confused by their offspring’s sudden rejection of their love and affection. Teenagers can appear to go from doting to disliking overnight leading to hurt feelings and conflict. But parents need to realize that this sudden shift in attachment is biologically scripted and should even… Read more »
FOMO: Why Social Media Could Be Bad for Your Teen’s Health
A recent survey found that 39% of Canada’s teens sleep with their cellphone. It seems FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) is so prevalent in adolescents that not even sleep is off limits when it comes to staying connected and accessing their social networks. But FOMO is also a serious form of social anxiety which we’re… Read more »
Fentanyl: A parental approach
So far in 2015, Fentanyl has been responsible for 145 deaths in Alberta; a sharp and concerning rise from the 120 Fentanyl associated deaths reported in the province for the whole of 2014. Fentanyl is cheap, plentiful on the streets and delivers a powerful high but its strength means that younger ‘experimental’ users and those… Read more »
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Teens and TweensReading, Writing, Arithmetic and Resilience
The incidence of sexual assault among women attending university in Canada is estimated to be as great as 25%. A recent research study by the New England Journal of Medicine found that first year students completing a 12-hour resistance program reduced the rate of rape by nearly 50%. Something to be celebrated? Certainly. But sexual… Read more »