BeaYOUtiful Confidence Program & Workshop Series

The Cause

After seeing the success of running the BeaYOUtiful Program in Toronto and Vancouver, BeaYOUtiful Foundation will implement a new six-week program and pop-up workshop series in Southern Alberta with a focus on Calgary and Red Deer. The BeaYOUtiful Program and Workshop Series is for those who identify as female between the ages of 8 to 14, aimed at building self-esteem and positive mental health. Programming will be offered for free, both in-person and digitally for at-risk youth and those struggling with mental health and/or low self-esteem. The program and workshops are led by three empowering female mentors from local communities, creating one-on-one mentorship experiences within an intimate group setting. The programs will take place once a week for 1.5 hours (generally between 3:00 p.m. and 5:00 p.m. or 6:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m.) in rented facilities including elementary schools or community spaces. This program is free for young girls, ranging from 10 to 15 participants per program.

Aware of other programming for female identifying kids and youth in the Calgary market, we are developing the BeaYOUtiful Program to provide unique offerings so there is no duplication of educational content. The program consists of five interactive sessions which focuses on, but is not limited to, the following topics: confidence, positive body-image, safe spaces, mental health, media literacy, and goal-setting. Media literacy relates to the topic of technology, and activities include understanding the impacts of media consumption, the media’s impact on one’s self-esteem, and safe ways to navigate online social platforms using technological devices.

Additional to six-week programs, BeaYOUtiful is innovate in that singe-day workshops are provided to those unable to commit to a full program. This provides flexibility for parents and young girls. Pop-up workshops are three hours long and involve 20-30 participants and 5-8 mentors. Mentors facilitate on topics aligned to the program, including positive body-image, equality and racism, media literacy and leadership. Pop-up workshops bring in guest speakers from unique industries to speak on topics associated with their professional expertise, in partnership with BeaYOUtiful's purposes of helping build confidence. Therefor pop-up workshops are always innovate, changing in content, and widen the opportunity for local Calgary women to be involved with our Foundation.

Who Will it Benefit?

The BeaYOUtiful Foundation’s confidence programming is open to those who identify as female or no-binary, between the ages of 8 to 14. Programming will be offered for free, both in-person and digitally for at-risk youth and those struggling with mental health and/or low self-esteem. It is top priority that the programs reach those in need, and the Foundation’s goal is to work closely with community partners to ensure at-risk youth have accessibility to the programs.

BeaYOUtiful successfully ran a pilot four-week confidence program and single day pop-up workshops in the Summer of 2022, selling out of enrolment for 90% of programming. This proved that communities are searching for programs like this for youth, and it was immensely well received with parents and participants wanting to enroll in Fall classes.

This grant proposal is for a program that will target girls in various communities in the Calgary Area, with free and accessible workshops for young girls who may identify as minorities, immigrants and low income communities. BeaYOUtiful is currently in the process of looking to develop community partnerships with school districts, sport leagues, community health centres, and youth centres as part of our initiative to create a healthy environment for youth to thrive and prosper. Currently we are in the development stage of building a greater amount of partnership between agencies and youth development programs to help reach our target audience of at-risk girls and those in need of mental wellness support.