Local youth learn the greatest gift they can give is their time
MONTREAL, Sept. 23, 2013 /CNW/ - Today, at École Villa Sainte-Marcelline, TELUS launched its innovative Give Where You Live program. This program, developed in partnership with Free The Children, educates, encourages and empowers young people to become ambassadors of positive change and visionary leaders of tomorrow.
The Give Where You Live program includes speaking tours, workshops and a curriculum that introduce youth to philanthropy. It engages youth on the importance of giving back and that one's own time and talent is often the most powerful and rewarding gift we can give. The program recognizes the great potential in today's youth to identify opportunities to enhance the lives of others.
"Growing up, my friends and I were always searching for ways we could help get involved and make a difference in our community, but they were difficult to find," said Craig Kielburger, founder of Free The Children. "The Give Where you Live program will provide our schools and their students with all the tools, information and support they ever wanted to help spark change and support their local community, helping them to become future leaders and change makers."
The Give Where You Live program will make the rounds of schools across Quebec, at no cost to the schools thanks to the support of TELUS. Inspirational speakers from Free The Children will share their stories and philanthropic experiences in an effort to further inspire and empower young people. Students will leave the talk and workshop armed with a concrete action plan to tackle the issues they care about.
"The TELUS team strongly believes in its 'we give where we live' philosophy, which lies at the very heart of our corporate DNA. Free the Children is inspired by this same profound desire for change; by uniting our efforts and launching this new program, we are providing young people with the tools they need to achieve their full potential," noted François Gratton, President of TELUS Québec and Atlantic provinces. "Whether by setting up a food bank for the disadvantaged, cleaning up alleys, or creating an organization to end bullying in schools, our primary objective is to equip young people to become responsible citizens. In helping today's youth, we are also contributing to building a better future for Quebec."
$1,000 to help young people become agents of change
Each school which participates in the Give Where You Live program will be encouraged to identify causes in their community that individual students, classes or entire schools can support. Once students have developed an action plan, they will have the opportunity to apply for a $1,000 charitable grant from TELUS to bring their initiative to life.
The Give Where You Live speaking tour and associated curriculum first launched in 40 B.C. secondary schools earlier this year, with the expectation that 150,000 youth across Canada will be involved in this philanthropic initiative by 2016.
For more information about TELUS in our community, visit www.telus.com/community.
About Free The Children
Free The Children is an international charity and educational partner. Founded in 1995 by international activist Craig Kielburger, Free The Children believes in a world where young people are free to achieve their fullest potential, and empowers youth to remove barriers that prevent them from being active local and global citizens. The organization's domestic programs—which includes We Day, Free The Children's signature youth empowerment event—educate, engage and empower 1.7 million young people across North America, the UK and around the world to become engaged global citizens. Its international projects have brought more than 650 schools and school rooms to youth and provided clean water and sanitation, health care and food security to one million people around the world, freeing children and their families from the cycle of poverty.
The organization has received the World's Children's Prize for the Rights of the Child, the Human Rights Award from the World Association of Non‐Governmental Organizations, and has formed successful partnerships with leading school boards and Oprah's Angel Network. For more information, visit www.freethechildren.com
TELUS
TELUS (TSX: T, NYSE: TU) is a leading national telecommunications company in Canada, with $11.2 billion of annual revenue and 13.2 million customer connections, including 7.7 million wireless subscribers, 3.3 million wireline network access lines, 1.4 million Internet subscribers and 743,000 TELUS TV customers. Led since 2000 by President and CEO Darren Entwistle, TELUS provides a wide range of communications products and services, including wireless, data, Internet protocol (IP), voice, television, entertainment and video.
In keeping with their community motto "We give where we live," TELUS and its current and retired team members have donated over $300 million to charitable and non-profit organizations and volunteered for a total of 4.8 million hours in the community since 2000. Fourteen TELUS Community Boards lead TELUS' local philanthropic initiatives. TELUS was honoured to be named the most outstanding philanthropic corporation globally for 2010 by the Association of Fundraising Professionals, becoming the first Canadian company to receive this prestigious international recognition.
For more information about TELUS, please visit telus.com.
SOURCE: TELUS Corporation
For media inquiries, please contact:
Jacinthe Beaulieu
TELUS Media Relations
418-318-6102
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