A little about Trails
Four Seasons, Four Years, For Life… www.trails.ca Our shop proudly supports this charity
That has become our MOTTO. While many programmes take “at risk” youth outdoors in a wilderness setting, the Trails’ programme breaks with tradition by working year round with those youth. Participants begin Trails when they are 12 and graduate when they are 16. An optional fifth year, the Leader-in-Training Programme provides an opportunity to further develop leadership and life skills. By the time participants leave Trails they have the skills, knowledge and confidence to become contributing members of their communities, not burdens for the system to manage.
In 2001, we were granted private school status by the Ontario Ministry of Education. Our kids can earn up to 3.5 high school credits through our programme. This opportunity is unique to Trails and further illustrates our distinctive approach TO EDUCATION.
Each year of our four year programme can stand alone and is tailored to meet the needs, ability and experience of that group. However, each year is a foundation to subsequent years and our curriculum has a progressive sequencing of activities.
Every year, 10 boys and 10 girls are selected from five middle schools within Toronto’s inner city to join Trails; they are nominated by Guidance Counselors, Principals and Teachers. The criteria for selection are simple – perhaps best explained by one teacher’s testimony. When asked to identify the kids in her class who she thought would benefit from Trails, the teacher could name the kids at the top for their excellence and she could name the kids at the bottom for their turbulence. She could not remember the names of the kids in the middle. Trails wants those kids who are lost in the middle, the ones not previously identified as either the problems or the superstars. Those invisible kids are the ones that need Trails for they are the ones in danger of falling through the cracks.
