How BGCBigs Builds a Youth Support Continuum

We sit down with Kerry Woodland from BGC Big Brothers Big Sisters of Edmonton and Area to talk about why consistent relationships with caring adults are a game-changer for kids. We dig into how BGCBigs supports youth from ages 6 to 24 with mentoring, after-school programs, and targeted youth engagement that meets real needs right now. 
• the unique Edmonton amalgamation and what “better together” enables 
• a youth continuum of services from ages 6 to 24 
• Kerry’s 30-year career path and what mentoring changes 
• the Co-Executive Director model and how shared leadership works 
• mentoring options in community, schools, workplaces, and teen mentoring 
• after-school programming in the critical 3 to 6 pm window 
• youth engagement supports including employment skills and Diversion First 
• summer camps that focus on safety, themes, and enriching experiences 
• volunteer recruitment through post-secondary partnerships and a $1,000 bursary 
• ways to give through donations, events, newsletters, and getting in touch as a family 
About Our Guest
Kerry Woodland has dedicated more than 30 years to supporting children, youth, and families through her work with BGC Big Brothers Big Sisters of Edmonton. Throughout her career, she has held a variety of leadership roles, building extensive experience in program and service delivery, organizational operations, financial management, and community partnerships. Kerry has played a key role in developing and strengthening programs that help young people build resilience, confidence, life skills, and positive relationships. Her work has focused on ensuring services are responsive to community needs and deliver meaningful outcomes for children, youth, and families. In July 2024, Kerry was appointed Co-Executive Director, where she continues to provide strategic leadership while supporting the organization's mission of creating opportunities for young people to reach their full potential. She works closely with funders, community partners, volunteers, and donors to strengthen programs and ensure the organization remains responsive to the evolving needs of the community. Kerry is passionate about creating positive change in the lives of young people and is committed to building strong, inclusive communities where every child and youth has the opportunity
to thrive.

What is Give Amplify Connect?

There’s a story behind every action. Give Amplify Connect is a podcast from the Wolfe Pack Warriors Foundation that gives a voice to the Alberta-based charitable organizations creating community impact, changing lives, and making a difference. Driven by honest conversations with host Kristy Wolfe, it’s a chance for passionate changemakers to share their story. 

Learn more at wolfepackwarriors.com

Podcast music used with artist permission
"Okay" by Ellen Braun 

Transcript

Why Connection Matters For Youth

Speaker 2 0:00

Having young people be able to connect to adults, but also to other peers is so critical in that brain development that we're very privileged to be in this space in our community. And for us, that's just one of the pieces that how do we grow this? How do we continue to build on it? Because young people need us.

Show And Guest Introduction

Announcer 0:25

Welcome to Give Amplify Connect, the Wolfe Pack Warriors Foundation podcast that dives deeper into the stories of the charitable organizations in Alberta that are making a difference. Host and producer Kristy Wolfe sits down with the leaders of the nonprofit world to learn more about their purpose, hopes, and dreams. Settle in for an honest conversation Kristy about the impact people are making in their communities and how they keep moving forward.

Kristy Wolfe 0:55

With me today is Kerry Woodland, co-executive director of BGC Big Brothers, Big Sisters of Edmonton and Area. Kerry, that's a mouthful. I've tried it like seven times as we're beginning this. We are going to refer to it as BGC Bigs. I'm so excited you're here. This is the Q3 initiative for the Wolfe Pack Warriors Foundation. So thank you for joining me. Will you please share a little bit more about BGC Bigs?

Why BGC Biggs Exists

Speaker 2 1:21

Absolutely. Christy, thank you for having me. Excited to be here today. Excited to be the partner for Q3. So thank you as well for that. BGC, Big Brothers, Big Sisters, like you said, known in the community as BGC Biggs. We um did an amalgamation 15 years ago, actually, of Boys and Girls Clubs of Edmonton and Big Brothers, Big Sisters of Edmonton. And that's how we became known in our community as BGC Biggs. BGC stands formerly known as Boys and Girls Clubs. And so really important when we brought these two organizations together 15 years ago, it was actually all about kids. What do kids need in our community? Both organizations had been focused on providing services to kids, and that's how the organization was born 15 years ago.

Kristy Wolfe 2:05

Well, and this is unusual because that you are the only place in Canada where these two organizations have amalgamated. Is that correct?

Speaker 2 2:12

In this formal way, yes. There are a few cities across the country where underneath an umbrella organization, both programs may operate.

Kristy Wolfe 2:20

I love hearing about this. I think that there's so many times that there's crossover between what different nonprofits do. And so when I learned that this had happened for you, it just made a lot of sense.

Speaker 2 2:31

Christy, it's so important. It really became about how we could be better together and serve the Edmonton community better. We worked with our funders at the time. We worked with our partners, and the two agencies had collaborated in the past on many different activities, events, and programming over the years. And when we began to have these formal conversations, it is what made sense and what was in the best interest for our community. We feel very privileged that we're in that youth continuum of services. So we support young people from six right up until 24. And we have a variety of programs and ways that we do that, kind of sort centered around three streams, if you might say, one being mentoring, one being after school programming. And our third one now is called Youth Engagement. And it gives us an opportunity to provide, again, a continuum of supports for young people right up to 24.

Carrie’s Path And Co-Leadership

Kristy Wolfe 3:26

Will you tell us how you got involved with BGC Biggs?

Speaker 2 3:30

Sure. Yeah, you know, I tell people that I grew up here. Um I've been here 30 years now. And it's hard to believe because it feels like it's it's gone by so fast. I've had the opportunity to do so many different roles here. So I started um when we were formerly Big Brothers, Big Sisters. And I started as a caseworker where I was interviewing families and matching them with a big brother or big sister. And I loved that job. And it just um introduced me to the power of mentoring. Um, and I was hooked right away. Um, I knew this organization was my home. It has both been a really good fit per professionally as well as personally. As a mom and raising three kids and then working in the youth development field, I just knew it was just the right place for me.

Kristy Wolfe 4:15

Well, that's amazing. Okay, I want you to explain a little bit about the co-executive model that you have.

Speaker 2 4:21

Yeah, it's been two years now. So my fellow co-executive director, Kim Collister and I, um, we had a long-term um executive director of the agency, Liz O'Neill. And when she announced her retirement plans, um we began some conversations about what could leadership look like going forward. And um, Kim and I have worked together for 25 years, and we felt that a shared leadership model was exactly how we had been operating in our own roles here within the agency. And it just seemed to be the right fit in terms of the leadership of this agency going forward.

Kristy Wolfe 4:55

Prior to you both moving into this coexecutive role, what was your roles before that, each of you?

Speaker 2 5:01

Yeah, so I was director of service delivery and Kim Collister was director of um human resources.

Kristy Wolfe 5:07

The way the organization has amalgamated, it wasn't like there's still like a separate BGC and a separate Big Brothers, Big Sisters.

Speaker 2 5:15

No, the organization is legally um one entity where we have one board of directors, one budget, uh, one operating system, if you might say. And again, is there programming that falls naturally underneath one or the other? Absolutely. But the agency is all integrated.

Kristy Wolfe 5:32

Okay, thank you for sharing more about yourself and Kim as well.

Impact Stories And Youth Pipeline

Kristy Wolfe 5:36

Um, how has BGC Biggs made a difference? Maybe in your own life. We've heard a little bit about your own family and the fact that you've worked up through different roles within the organization. And maybe you also talk a bit about what you see in community.

Speaker 2 5:50

Absolutely. Um, I feel privileged because every day I get a story or two, right? Um, this work doesn't happen without making such an impact for young people. And so maybe I'll just share two angles of a story because there's what I get to see and experience that's happening right now for kids. And so Friday was club day in our agency. And so we get to see the kids coming into the site, enjoying the programming, participating, connecting with our staff and volunteers, and you get to see the impact you're having in the moment. And then I get to hear the stories from 10 years later. I get to see those young adults come back and tell us what a difference this agency made. And those are really, really powerful because as individuals, as you grow into adulthood, that reflection is there as you look back on your childhood and different experiences and who made a difference and who were my role models, and what was that one statement someone said to me, or someone encouraging me. And those are the stories we hear about young people as they uh continue into adulthood and then come back and share them with us. And how mentoring is so key in a young person's life and having someone to look up to, having someone to confide in, look to for advice, um, even sometimes just that listening ear, and how that helped them um navigate life challenges is just so valuable, so valuable.

Kristy Wolfe 7:19

Do you find that many of the kids that you have served end up coming back as volunteers or staff members?

Speaker 2 7:26

Is that something that you track or you know, I I mean, I mean, tracks probably not quite, uh, you know, but we definitely have stories and we have young people that come back to us. Um, they know the value of giving back because they had received when they were young. And um, so it's that lived experience, right? And so when they come back and they are a mentor to somebody else and they've been through it, oh, it's so powerful. We also work very intentionally um with young people. We call it kind of like our pipeline. And as we work into high schools in that, um, we have some opportunities um during spring break every year where we hire some high school students to help us with our daytime programming over spring break. Um, and then we move into summer programming. So this summer alone with Canada Summer Jobs, we'll employ probably about 25 young people. And so sometimes in their first job, um, they might be still in school right now and just working for the summer. And then then that's our hope is that they can continue to stay with us as as they move through young adulthood.

Kristy Wolfe 8:28

Oh, that's phenomenal. I was also hoping that you would expand a little more on the program. So you touched on some of the programs that happened. Will you dive into those a little bit with us?

Program Tour From Mentoring To Diversion

Speaker 2 8:37

Absolutely. Absolutely. Let me first start with mentoring. Um, so we do mentoring um in a couple different ways. We do mentoring in the community. That's maybe sometimes what we're most known for is that big brother, big sister that young people can have. We do mentoring in schools. So important these days. Um, we know there's lots going on in schools for both our educational system, our teachers, and so to bring volunteers into a school environment to help support what's going on. We have a literacy focus to our school-based mentoring, and there we recruit companies. So sometimes we take groups of kids into companies like Epcor or Mbridge, and the mentoring happens right there at their company. We work with a number of high schools in the Edmonton and area where we do teen mentoring, and that's the high school students come into an elementary school and do formal mentoring one-on-one with young people. So lots going on in schools, and then we get to our after school. So, after school, we some we run programming in some schools as well, in after school programming, as well as our community clubs. This is those hours between three and six, those critical hours in terms of keeping young people engaged with healthy adults and role models. And so we've got a variety of programming areas from educational, academic support, recreation, um, cooking, uh, health and nutrition, as well as growth and empowerment and leadership and providing young people those different experiences and opportunities. So we have clubs across the city that are typically open five days a week. We serve snacks, meals, um, whatever is needed. And then our youth engagement stream. So these have some very targeted programs. One there in particular is our youth employment stream. So we know it's really important to help kids with skill building around resumes, interviews. Maybe we can connect them with potential employers. Uh, we have a program called Change Through Challenge where we're working with um adolescents in junior highs. How can we provide some recreation and fitness-related programming to support them? And then we have a partnership called Diversion First that we do with the YMCA and Edmonton Police Services. And this is targeted for youth under 18. And if they're um involved with the justice system in any way, how can we help divert them from the justice system, involve them in community, involve them in learning and giving

Summer Camps And Safe Downtime

Speaker 2 11:04

back?

Kristy Wolfe 11:04

I know that we will include all these links so people can find this information easily and kind of look more into it. Um, will you talk a bit more about summer camp? We're putting this out in the summer. Uh, and so that's kind of like top of mind, I don't know, for many parents, what's happening in summer?

Speaker 2 11:19

Yeah, we run a variety of summer camps across all of our different sites. Um, for the most part, five days a week. Some sites are four days a week. And this is a really great opportunity. It's really important for us to provide themes to each of the weeks. It's really important that we are giving kids a safe place to be, um, and that we're also giving them experiences. So we look for opportunities to get young people out into community, um, sometimes going to the Devonian Gardens, sometimes going to the zoo, um, sometimes hanging out of the local park. And it just really is about providing kids an enriching experience during a break time that they're not school right now.

Kristy Wolfe 11:59

That's a huge part of the I I mean, I'm hearing it throughout what you're talking about, but just that downtime where there's not necessarily families at home where people are working, and how do we keep kids involved and safe during those times too? I really appreciate that. Are there um any connections that you have with post-secondary institutions as one of those kind of pipelines to getting volunteers or staff?

Volunteering And $1,000 Bursary

Speaker 2 12:22

Oh, absolutely. We're we've got partnerships with all the post-secondaries in the area. Um, we have quite a large volunteer um base within the agency. Um, all of our mentors are volunteers for the most part. And so volunteer recruitment is is one of our key drivers as an organization. Um, and in order to do that, we partner with every university, every post-secondary that we can to promote um all the opportunities. We do have one going on right now. Um, for the last couple of years, we've been running a bursary program for post-secondary students. Okay. And so any post-secondary student that would like to mentor two kids during the school year, um, they're entitled if they'd like to sign up right now. We're accepting applications and it's a $1,000 bursary that is paid to them at the completion of their hours and they're volunteering with us.

Kristy Wolfe 13:10

And what does that look like? When you're working with two youth, how many hours is that? Is that every week? Is that what is there like a time frame that has to be met?

Speaker 2 13:18

Yeah, usually for that program, it's two students, each one-on-one. So for two hours, one hour with each student during the school day. This mentoring program is for our in-school mentoring.

Kristy Wolfe 13:30

Okay, got it. Thank you for clarifying that. Okay, so we've talked a little bit about volunteering.

How To Donate And Join Events

Kristy Wolfe 13:34

You may have more things that you want to tie in there, but I'm just wondering how can people give, amplify, and connect with BGC Biggs?

Speaker 2 13:42

There's so many ways. Um, feel free to check us out on our website. Um, but we appreciate when people are interested in either donating their time through volunteering or the dollars. And um we have a donate page right on our on our website. But there's also a few other ways to get involved from a donation place. Um, in August of every year, we run our annual golf tournament. So if you're interested in joining us on the course at Cougar Creek on August 20th, you can do that. If you're interested in a silent auction item and want to donate, we can take those as well. In the fall, we run um an evening of opportunity, an evening event um, again, as a fundraiser that will be held um October 29th at the Bison Launch. So again, we will be doing some save the dates um right away on that. And that's a fun way to get involved as well.

Kristy Wolfe 14:35

With uh your vast variety of volunteers, do you have a newsletter that goes out just to your volunteers and donors that people could get on?

Speaker 2 14:42

We do. We do. Yeah, you can absolutely um I think we have two different newsletters, one for our donors and one for um, yeah, all of our volunteers and families. So absolutely you can sign up for newsletter.

Kristy Wolfe 14:53

Okay, so just if you haven't heard about BGC Bigs before, definitely head over to their website, uh, click on that link to get their newsletter, and you'll keep getting updates about some of these different events that are going on uh throughout the year and ways that you can support. Is there anything else that you would like to talk about with BGC Bigs that we haven't touched on so far?

Screen Time And Mentoring Need

Speaker 2 15:11

You know, I think what's really important is the need right now. And, you know, the young people, um, we talk about the complexity. We've heard lots about complexity in classroom. We've heard lots about mental health. Um, and it's just really important that as a society, we wrap around young people, they are our future. Um, and we know that mentoring and and having young people connected to adults is vital and key. We know that we have some concern about the amount of screen time that young people are participating in, and connection is important. And um having young people be able to connect to adults, but also to other peers is so critical in that development, that brain development. Um, that we're very privileged to be in this space in our community. And for us, that's just one of the pieces that how do we grow this? How do we continue to build on it? Because young people made us.

Kristy Wolfe 16:07

Carrie and I were talking before we started recording. My background is a teacher. And so a parent, a teacher, the things that I'm seeing are exactly what you're talking about. And how do we get kids involved and engaged when they don't always have the opportunities for school sports? I don't know about you, Carrie, but I feel like I grew up at a time where the sports all happened in schools and there was a lot of things to do after school, and things have shifted more to community, and that means there's more of a need there. So just one of the things that's coming up for me as you're talking. So thank you. The last question, the one I always like to end with uh for Give Amplify Connect is tell us about another organization or a person maybe you've worked with, maybe you want to work with that inspires you.

Mentor Canada And Mentoring Research

Speaker 2 16:49

Oh, absolutely. Um, the one person that came to mind and the organization that they're with is Tracy Luca Huger, and she is the executive director of Mentor Canada. And Tracy and I have known each other for over 25 years. Um, we started our careers at very similar paths, and she worked um with Big Brothers, Big Sisters in Calgary, and that's where I first met her. And I think what is amazing is Mentor Canada has only been around for a small number of years, um, but it provides this overarching resources and tools for mentoring. We know that mentoring as an intervention is studied, it's researched, and it makes a difference in people's lives. And so to have Mentor Canada that now is a backdrop around looking at the research, looking at best practices, looking at how programs need to change and evolve, looking at volunteerism and how that's changing and evolving, and what does that mean in terms of mentoring going forward? So that would be the one highlight that I'd like to do. I'd like to highlight Mentor Canada and all that they're doing for this country and young people.

Kristy Wolfe 17:55

I think I'm gonna be honest, I think this is my favorite question because I always find out something new. I had not heard about Mentor Canada yet. So thank you for bringing that to my attention. And Carrie, I just want to say thank you so much for the work that you and BGC Biggs are doing in our communities. It's incredible. Uh, to our audience, have a have a look. Take a look and see is this something that might fit with what you want to do with your time and your money. I did want to end with one last piece. For families that are listening that are thinking this would be wonderful for my child, how do they reach out? What's the best way for them to get involved with BGC Bigs to find out more about the programs?

Speaker 2 18:33

The best way I'd say is to give us a call. Let's have a conversation, let's see where you're at and which program stream might be the best for you and your child.

Kristy Wolfe 18:41

I think that's the perfect way to end this. Thank you so much, Carrie, for your time. I really appreciate it.

Speaker 2 18:46

Thank you, Christine. Thank you for your support.

Closing Take Care Of Your Pack

Kristy Wolfe 18:49

Thank you for joining us today. The purpose of the Wolfe Pack Warriors Foundation is to give, amplify, and connect. Visit our website, wolfepackwarriors.com to learn more about this initiative or connect with us about a registered charity that is important to you. Don't miss the next episode. Follow Give Amplify Connect on your favorite podcast platform to hear from other Alberta-based nonprofits about the work they are doing. On a final note, remember to take care of yourself and your pack.

Ellen Braun 19:18

Okay, you're gonna be okay. You're gonna be okay. Hush, my darling. Gonna be okay. You're gonna be okay.