Warning: Undefined array key "prev" in /var/www/vhosts/ashokacanada.org/pathway.ashokacanada.org/wp-content/themes/site-theme/header.php on line 217

Changemaker
Pathway

  • Foyer
    • Welcome
    • Preparing for the Journey
  • Assembly Hall
    • How do we begin to identify as changemakers?
    • What are a changemaker’s core skills?
    • What are the tools that will help you to become a changemaker?
  • Problems
    • Why empathy as a starting point?
    • How can we apply different thinking?
    • What’s already being done?
  • Solutions
    • How do we start to generate solutions?
    • How do we refine our goals?
    • How do we make sure we’re on the right track?
    • Take Action
  • Reflect & Share
    • Reflect & Interpret
    • Your Stories
  • Resources
    • Resources
    • Guides / Curriculums
    • Ashoka Fellow Youth Programs
    • Well-Being Resources
    • Parent Resources
  • Our Stories

Resources // Ashoka Canada Fellow Youth/K-12 Programs.

Ashoka Canada Fellow
Youth/K-12 Programs.

Allo Prof
Provides free homework and lesson support to all elementary, high school, and adult general education students, as well as to parents of students in Canada. Quebec.

Apathy is Boring
Support young people to take charge of the conditions that they live in.

Blueprint for Life
BluePrintForLife offers dynamic, culturally appropriate programs designed for youth that are founded on HipHop, rooted in traditional culture, and centered on community needs.

Digital Opportunity Trust
DOT is a youth-led movement of daring social innovators who have the tools, knowledge, and networks to create opportunities and transform their own communities.

Evergreen
Works with other city builders to convene, collaborate and catalyze ideas into action.

FitSpirit
FitSpirit’s mission is to help Canadian girls discover the benefits and the fun of being physically active.

FOXY
Works with young women and gender diverse youth to promote mental and sexual health and healthy relationships.

Fusion Jeunesse
To lower school dropout rates by creating continuous ties between the school system and the community.

Girls Action Foundation
Encourages girls to discover their power and create positive change in their lives and communities.

Jump Math
Non-profit dedicated to helping people lead more fulfilled lives through mathematics.

Me to We
An innovative social enterprise that provides products that make an impact, empowering people to change the world with their everyday consumer choices.

Peacebuilders
A nonprofit organization based in Toronto, Canada that seeks to enhance access to justice for youth in conflict and advocate for change in our justice and education systems.

Planet Protector Academy
Works with diverse communities to inspire environmental superheroes of all races, ethnic backgrounds, orientations, gender identities and religions.

Pour 3 Points
Provides support to youth, P3P coaches help them gain the skills needed to succeed in school and in life.

The Recess Project
To ensure compassionate, caring, and inclusive societies by supporting children’s relationships at school.

Right to Play
Protect, educate and empower children to rise above adversity using the power of play.

Roots of Empathy
Roots of Empathy’s mission is to build caring, peaceful, and civil societies through the development of empathy in children and adults.

Excellence in Literacy Foundation
Empowers its program participants to realize their full potential through its unique literacy and mentoring programs.

Shark Truth
Shark Truth is a program of Hua Foundation, an organization dedicated to bringing together the worlds of cultural heritage and social change.

La Tablee des Chefs
La Tablée des Chefs feeds families in need and educates future generations by developing their self-sufficiency.

Wapikoni Mobile
Traveling studio for training and audiovisual creation of the First Nations.

Youth Empowering Parents
Youth Empowering Parents unlocks community resources to meet the educational needs of immigrant adults by developing youth into effective teachers and service-providers.

  • The Big Picture
  • About This Website
  • Safe Space
  • What are a Changemaker’s Core Skills?
  • Systems Thinking
  • Facilitation
  • Problems
  • Why empathy as a starting point?
  • How can we apply different thinking?
  • What’s already being done?
  • Solutions
  • How do we start to generate solutions?
  • How do we refine our goals?
  • How do we make sure we’re on the right track?
  • Take Action
  • Sharing
  • Reflect & Interpret
  • Your Stories
  • Our Stories
  • Think Outside the Trash
  • Resources
  • Pathway Resources by room
  • Entire Guides / Curriculums
  • Ashoka Canada Fellow Youth/K-12 Programs.
  • Well-Being Resources
  • Parent Resources

© 2025 Ashoka Canada. All Rights Reserved | Privacy Policy | Website by Macroblu
Strategy and creative direction: Abby Karos & Tim Lockett-Smith

DO

Safe Space

Safe Space

Co-creating a space where people feel that they can speak out in spite of their fears is a vital step in the process of learning how to become a changemaker. Empathy researcher Brene Brown explains that being empathetic requires that we be present and wholly engaged without our ‘protective armour’. People wear armour to try to become invisible or fit in with others to hide what they consider to be defects or embarrassing qualities for fear of being judged, labeled, or bullied. It is difficult to feel empathy for others when you are cut off from yourself.

For this reason, we’re starting the change closest to home. Everyone in the changemaking process needs to feel valued, seen, and heard. Because of the culture we inherited and the way our brains work, all of us carry biases. This isn’t wrong or bad, it’s what we do with them that matters. Being humbled can lead to personal transformation.

The exercises below will help you to:

  • Examine your physical classroom and the environment it creates
  • Co-create a classroom contract
  • Learn how to be a better listener
  • Notice your biases
  • Become aware of diversity in your environment
  • Understand power and privilege

Once the principles of the safe space have been defined and agreed upon by all, they can be used, reinforced, and referred back to as needed throughout the time you share together.

Resources

Design Thinking & the Deskless Classroom(Exercise, Time will vary)
Create a Classroom Contract(30-45 minutes)
Learn how to listen: Are you a good listener? (video 5 min + opportunities for deeper thinking)
Empathy & Equity: From the Stanford D.school, this exercise gives designers to an opportunity to pause and notice their biases(15 min daily over the course of week).
Cross the Line: (30-60 min.) We live in a diverse world. In this exercise we will explore the diversity among us by thinking about our values, our backgrounds, our teachers, and our experiences.
CCDI: Explore Power and Privilege (Toolkit with various exercises)