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In February of 2007, ten year-old Tyler Page of Discovery Bay, California was inspired while watching an episode of Oprah when he learned that children, just like himself, were being sold by their own parents into labor. Picturing himself in their shoes is all it took for him to leap into action. He wanted to raise just $240 which he learned would keep one child out of trafficking for an entire year. Within the first year his $240 quickly turned into $38,000. Human trafficking is the recruitment, transportation, harbouring, or receipt of people for the purpose of exploitation. It is estimated to be a $5 to $9 billion-a-year industry. For children, exploitation may include forced prostitution, illicit international adoption, trafficking for early marriage, or recruitment as child soldiers, beggars, for sports, or for religious cults. Source: Wikipedia At Kids Helping Kids, we learn more about the movement of being a part of the Difference. Compassion allows us to move beyond ourselves. In doing so, we build lifelong qualities of self-confident, reliance and accountability in our young adults.

 

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A Snapshot of Our History: Kids Helping Kids
Kids Helping Kids Leadership Academy, Inc. is a unique organization that evolved from a 10 year-old's simple idea and big heart to raise $240 in order to keep one Ghanaian child out of trafficking into a fundraising and leadership movement for global transformation. In February of 2007 ten year-old Tyler Page got inspired while watching an episode of Oprah where he learned that children, just like himself, were being sold by their own parents into labor. Picturing himself in their shoes is all it took for him to leap into action. He wanted to raise just $240 which he learned would keep one child out of trafficking for an entire year. Little did he know that his intent to raise $240, would begin a legacy of hope and inspiration. Within the first 17 months, his $240 quickly turned into $50,000. His desire to help children he has never met on the other side of the globe is what inspired his family & friends to start Kids Helping Kids Leadership Academy, Inc. His innocent but powerful desire to help others has become contagious with whom all he shares the story with.

Self-Esteem Rising
With each fundraiser you can feel an excitement and joy that permeates the air as self esteem rises inside all the children and adults who volunteer. The success of Kids Helping Kids Leadership Academy, Inc. is only possible by the many volunteers, supporters, donations & sponsors that have, and continue to contribute to this global movement. "Let’s team up and show others how Positive Action in your community can change lives. Wouldn’t you like to BE the difference and be a hero? Together as a team we can do it" - Tyler Page After reaching Tyler’s $50,000 goal we officially launched our leadership academy. We meet monthly and discuss different topics such as integrity, accountability, time management, goal setting, conflict management and communication, just to name a few.

Building Integrity Challenge By Challenge
What’s unique about this program is that kids are taking time out of their busy schedules to be a part of the meetings and fundraisers. They are giving up their play time to not only help others but are growing their own self-esteem. We believe and statistics show, that when a child has a high self-esteem they are more likely to stay in school, say no to drugs and alcohol and make better choices for themselves overall. At the beginning of each meeting we commend them for showing up (being on time) and being a part of Kids Helping Kids. We talk about what a privilege it is to be a part of such a special organization and how they are the role models for their family, friends and everyone they meet. We emphasize that integrity is doing the right thing, even if nobody is watching. We also go over a set of “agreements” for the meeting that the kids themselves came up with and wrote on a poster board with things like, turn your cell phones off, confidentiality of personal information shared and being on time. This helps create an atmosphere that feels safe, open and equal.

At the end of each meeting they are given a challenge or mission, should they choose to accept, that goes along with each topic that they need to accomplish by the next meeting. For instance, at our self esteem meeting the kids were invited to interview 3 different people (non-family members) and ask 3 specific questions:

  1. What do you think makes me special?
  2. Do you think there is anything about me that is unique?
  3. What are my talents?


Then, at the next meeting they shared their results and talked about the process of doing the interviews, was it difficult, what did they learn, how did they feel, etc.

Beyond The Lemonade
Every June--August we launch a lemonade stand challenge opened to every child across the world and we vote on one of our projects that the money will be allocated to. At our leadership meeting we teach them “How to run a successful lemonade stand” where we teach them about goal setting, budgeting, location, display, marketing and advertising. They get to be as creative as they’d like and it doesn’t have to be a lemonade stand – it can be any “small business” they are passionate about such as a bake sale or sports equipment, etc. The idea is to get them thinking about planning, execution, creativity and the process. At our September meeting we have an awards ceremony for three different categories:

  • most money raised
  • most creative
  • least amount of overhead

We also talk about what worked well, what they would differently and what effects, if any this had on them, their family and friends.

At Kids Helping Kids we provide leadership experiences through interactive classes, volunteerism, fundraising and completing projects. The children helping are learning invaluable leadership skills, gaining confidence & wisdom, and those we help are feeling loved, getting needs met, and tasting hope.

 

 


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