The Duke of Edinburgh's Award empowers young people ages 14-25 to MAKE A DIFFERENCE while exploring their potential, taking on new challenges, giving back to their community, and achieving success.

Silence the Violence and Shun the Guns is a Toronto based, North American anti-gun violence and youth gangs initiative. At-risk youth is our priority. “Silence the violence and shun the guns” is a Toronto based, anti-violence initiative to save primarily at-risk youth from all walks of life from turning to gangs for the love, acceptance and family that they feel they lack. In other words, we plan to recruit all at-risk youth into mentorship before they get recruited into gangs therefore, methodically reducing the gang population. Our anti-violence initiative was designed to target 10 year olds in North America. By identifying and reaching out to these at-risk youth, who responds to our appeal efforts, we plan to execute our solution by pairing them with mentors in the same careers they want to pursue and encourage adequate education in order to secure excellent careers. By purchasing every month one or several of the 100+ items from our growing product line, you are supporting a winnable cause which will become self-sustained because we will be encouraging those who were mentored into careers to go back into the communities they came from and recruit future generations. In addition, we believe by dispelling the negative image of people of colour, primarily black males, in our publications must be the starting point in order to inspire everyone, especially our future generations, for positive action. Why these mountains of facts about people of colour who has contributed to the building of Canada and abroad, is not receiving the proper acknowledgments and respect they deserve and it is not taught, black history and anyone other than European and false Aboriginal history, in the schools at a federal level is disturbing. Society promotes black males who excels in sports and/or most of them are involved in crime and/or violence. See: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/06/half-of-blacks-arrested-23_n_4549620.html This is simply not true. We intend to uncover the facts, publish it and celebrate the good news for everyone's best interests. We actually have a plan to solve this problem oppose to most causes which just accommodates the problem and ask for more financial support. Silence the Violence and Shun the Guns is a for-profit organization which is a N.G.O. and is not a charity meaning that if a branding executive accepts your money and you do not receive a item to buy, your should notify us immediately so we can have it addressed immediately. Part of the money you spend with us will be allocated to the Silence the Violence and Shun the Guns initiative. Please provide as much details of the transaction(s) as possible Example: Time, location, description of person, etc.. Our contact information can be found at the bottom of this webpage. How the Silence the Violence and Shun the Guns initiative will be executed The battle to reduce gangs and violence is not easy because if it was, this problem would not have grown to the epic level it is at now. We are undeterred, even when http://thenod.ca/racists, who we see at mainly the sports events and sometimes on the street, make inappropriate comments and harass us instead of stopping for a moment to discover that gangs and violence effects everyone, because we believe the battle is winnable as long as the right strategy is executed. Please keep in mind that we will be travelling in uncharted territories to win but the end result will be certainly better than anyone or organization has done before. There are several organizations that has and are trying to slow and reduce the number of gangs and its members and violence with primarily at-risk youth with no significant success. Currently there are over 30,000 gang members in Canada and 1.4 million gang members in the U.S. and unfortunately these numbers are growing. Collectively they are losing this winnable battle so we need to redirect all our resources and efforts and take a different approach. Here's how we envision how we can make a verifiable impact, efficiently and effectively: -> 1 ) Create and build the brand – Dispel the negative stereotypes society promotes concerning people of colour, particularly young Black males, by highlighting people of colour who have done and are doing positive things in their lives by producing a monthly publication called "LEARNING ABOUT PUBLICATIONS" (LAP). Spread awareness by selling the growing catalogue of monthly editions and several items mainly at Toronto’s major sports events, nearby subway entrances, major entertainment performances, inside government buildings and its properties, upscale areas and events and the financial district. Why are we having a growing support of people? Our mere presence, of mainly young Black males, who are always professionally dressed in business attire, enthusiastic, articulate, quick speaking presenters and the design of the editions has had wide approval. In edition, it is understood that gangs and violence effects everyone and we can reduce it only if we take the right steps to promote and encourage education and provide adequate support for the wide range of economic opportunities so that at-risk youth can seize them before they get lured into gangs. Bottom line, gangs are mainly an economic opportunity problem and for those who it effects are not aware that they could have the same chance to succeed in life just like others who does not have the odds stacked against them. We are constantly fine tuning, updating our future editions and related material. Although we have not stated it, in the field we are promoting young minorities in a positive light which explains the professional business attire requirement for our representatives. Known as the premiere organization in our field, front line representatives for the Silence the Violence and Shun the Guns initiative are carefully selected and receive ongoing training and support. So far the response has been an eye opener with some of the most unlikely supporters stepping up which includes current and former adult gang members.If you would like to apply to become a volunteer for our initiative, please see: http://www.thenod.ca/volunteer-application/. 2 ) Recruit career mentors – With the ongoing relationship with N.O.D.'s growing clientele, economic stimulus advisors are trained to identify and suggest to clients to become career mentors. In addition, N.O.D. is always looking for people who meets its mentorship profile standards and are prepared to commit to becoming a career mentor. If you would like to apply to become a mentor for our initiative, please see:http://www.thenod.ca/mentorship-application/. 3 ) Change structure of business - Change the form of business to a registered non-profit organization. 4 ) Corporate sponsorship – Approach corporations for sponsorship commitments by placing their logo on the back of all editions. Our hope is at this stage the corporations has seen our representatives in the areas where we sell the monthly publication or had purchased at least one of our editions, recognizes the brand and has some basic knowledge about what our initiative is which should increase the chances to partner with us. 5 ) Offer career mentorship opportunities – Send out groups of representatives to all schools in North America, starting in Toronto, Canada and then the U.S., targeting 10 year olds, offering career mentorship opportunities primarily to at-risk youth. Mathematics tells us that the less potential gang members who are available to recruit, over time the numbers will naturally decrease by methodically executing our initiative and best of all, not a single bullet would have been fired. 6 ) Self-sustainment – With our encouragement, those who was mentored into careers will return to the communities that they came from and recruit future generations of at-risk youth. At this point, our involvement will continue to slowly decrease as the initiative will become progressively self-sustained. 7 ) Macro-management – Gauge the results, continue to build and make adjustments as needed. 8 ) Management – Gauge the results, continue to build... Question: What stage are we at? Answer: Currently we are at number one with the projection of moving on to number two at the current rate is a few years. Practically all of our small, but slowly growing, number of representatives and volunteers are part timers. GET INFORMED! GET INSPIRED! GET INVOLVED! AND BE PROUD! Through this monthly publication, the Silence the Violence and Shun the Guns initiative is dispersing little known historical facts about people of colour all over the city! This publication has been making waves all around the globe; visitors to Toronto from all over have been interested in and are requesting the publication - and when the public speaks, the public gets! The main purpose to produce this publication is to dispel some of the negative stereotypes media portrays by highlighting people of colour who have done positive things in their life. Our hope is to inspire everyone for positive action, especially our youth. Loaded in every publication, you can find out abundance of information about Black Heroes and other heroes facts that have not been widely told. You will be surprised to learn about facts that you never dreamed of, making you anxious to get the next publication the following month immediately. From ancient royalty, to those who were went down in history for being responsible for one of the seven wonders of the world, the dark years of slavery and much more, the Learning about publications (LAP) publication has and will continue to be in huge demand for many years to come simply because there is little known compared to...

Official Boys and Girls Clubs of Canada page. Community-based services. Positive relationships. Life-changing programs. As Canada’s largest child- and youth-serving organization, Boys and Girls Clubs provide vital programs and services to over 200,000 young people in 700 communities across Canada. During critical out-of-school hours, our Clubs help young people discover who they are, what they can do, and how they can get there. Our trained staff and volunteers give them the tools to realize positive outcomes in self-expression, academics, healthy living, physical activity, mental health, leadership, and more. Since 1900, Boys and Girls Clubs have opened their doors to children, youth, and families in small and large cities, and rural and Indigenous communities. If a young person needs it, our Clubs provide it.