Level Up

Hello friends and neighbours! Come join us festival today! Play games, champion for kid’s rights, fill out your summer bucket list, and enter a contest to win gift card!

Level Up hosted a Food Justice field trip to the Kitchener Market to cap off our 8-week Winter session. from the shared how the fridge got started and their latest project focusing on urban agriculture. We learned some food justice facts about the market and its vendors (25 nationalities represented by 80 businesses - the oldest 128 years and the newest 3 months old!) and then we gathered for a light social justice dinner with food from Black-owned businesses: AMA Cafe, A to Z African and Caribbean Groceries and . Regional Councillor James opened the dinner with a conversation about foods that remind us of home. 🥰

Thank you to the families and friends who joined us tonight - you made the field trip that much more fun!

We’ve found a way to promote critical awareness and action on injustice while having fun, and packaged it together into a new program for tweens (and their families!) called Level Up.

Level Up’s weekly meet-up for kids aged 9-12 offers opportunities to learn about social justice and local civic action projects through simple, fun and enlightening group-based play.

Join us at our new location in Waterloo! The next quest runs on Mondays from 6:30-8pm starting October 23rd at the Albert McCormick Community Centre.

In Kitchener, we are at the Downtown Community Centre on Tuesdays, same times and weeks.

Register on ActiveNet (Waterloo code: 45010, Kitchener code: 121613). Clink on the link in our bio or go to linktr.ee/we_level_up for all links.

Waterloo! Here we come! Registration is open. 8 spot available. Running Mondays from 6:30-8 starting Oct 23. Links in bio. Thank you to the City of Waterloo and the Region of Waterloo Upstream Fund for making this happen!

Community Fridge KW and Level Up are thrilled to present: Kid-Powered Urban Agriculture.

In an effort to make use of paved space as green space, build community capacity and co-create a vision for local food sovereignty, Community Fridge KW is piloting Community Powered Urban Agriculture: a project that seeks to establish, maintain and invite neighbours into urban agriculture efforts right here in Downtown Kitchener.

Level Up, KW’s social justice/civic action skill-building program for tweens is thrilled to invite youth and their families to a special growing day with Community Fridge KW where we'll get our hands dirty as we learn about local food systems and participate in a radical community-driven vision for it by preparing planters, planting seedlings and inviting neighbours to support our efforts to grow food in public spaces.

Saturday, June 24th (market day!)
10am-12pm
Kitchener Market Upper Piazza
Drop-in, No registration required

sovereignty

Help us spread the word about Level Up by tagging three friends!

************
We’ve found a way to promote critical awareness and action on injustice while having fun and packaged it together into a new program for tweens (and their families!) called Level Up.

Level Up’s weekly meet-up offers opportunities to learn about social justice and local civic action projects through simple, fun and enlightening group-based play.

The next session starts next week and run for eight weeks starting at the Downtown Community Centre, Victoria Hills Community Centre and Williamsburg Community Centre.

Register now! Click on the link in the bio for more information!

Keep the learning going at home! The Level Up workbook has lots of take home activities inspired by our community partners.

We love onions! Not only are onions 😋, they are a great metaphor for our core beliefs. We peeled back the layers of our onion to expose our core beliefs and to think about how our beliefs are shaped by different influences around us.

For example, we may believe ‘education is important’ but in the real world it is filtered to become “education and jobs are important”.

What are your beliefs? How are they shaped by different factors and filters around you?

is a Kitchener-based grassroots community group that promotes accessible transportation (bicycles!) and builds community through skills sharing and free bike repair clinics all around town. We are so lucky to partner with on activities for the kiddos. Here they are providing feedback to a neighbourhood who is seeking input from kids for an upcoming bicycle parade. We were thrilled to hear more about what will encourage kids to get on their bikes more: an escape room/scavenger hunt!

Registration is now open for the next session of Level Up, which starts the week of April 17th. All links in bio. Spots are limited. Hope to see you this Spring!

We’ve found a way to promote critical awareness and action on injustice while having fun with your family, and packaged it together into a new program for tweens (and their families!) called Level Up.

Level Up’s weekly meet-up for kids aged 9-12 years offers opportunities to learn about social justice and local civic action projects through simple, fun and enlightening group-based play.

The next quest starts the week of April 17th at a Community Centre near you and runs for eight weeks.

Spring registration is now open. All links in bio. See you there!

of the world. We are so lucky to partner with for the Winter session of Level Up. Registration for the spring session starts Mar 7 at 8:30am. Spring session starts the week of April 17th to June 12th.

One week to go before the start of the Winter session of Level Up. Register your compassionate, inquisitive and fun-loving tween to join a group at one of our sites: Williamsburg Community Centre, Victoria Hills Community Centre (waitlist!) or at the Downtown Community Center. Country Hills coming soon in the Spring! Click on the link in bio for more information on dates and locations and register now on Active Net (see activity codes below).
Williamsburg Community Centre: 101808
Downtown Community Centre: 107337
Victoria Hills Community Centre: 103896
https://linktr.ee/we_level_up

One week to go before the start of the Winter session of Level Up. Register your compassionate, inquisitive and fun-loving tween to join a group at one of our sites: Williamsburg Community Centre, Victoria Hills Community Centre (waitlist!) or at the Downtown Community Center. Country Hills coming soon in the Spring!

Click on the link for more information on dates and locations and register now on Active Net (see activity codes below).

Williamsburg Community Centre: 101808
Downtown Community Centre: 107337
Victoria Hills Community Centre: 103896

https://linktr.ee/we_level_up

So how exactly does Level Up work?

Level Up builds skills through play: We do collaborative art projects, role play games, bake together, create together. The way we play emphasizes cooperation, community, critical thinking and relationships.

Level Up values families and caregivers: Our personal values are informed by our culture, the communities we belong to and our life experiences and this can vary from family to family. Families are invited to participate in and contribute to Level Up however much they want to through the take home activities, workbook, field trips and by attending group meetings.

Level Up is grounded in community and civic action: Neighbourhood-based and grassroots groups are leading change at the local-level and have so many ideas and solutions to learn from. We partner with local community action groups who inspire the play-based activities we do together.

Register your favourite tween now for the Winter session of Level Up at one of our sites: Williamsburg Community Centre, Victoria Hills Community Centre (sold out!) or at the Downtown Community Center. Country Hills coming soon in the Spring! Click on the link for more information on dates and locations and register now on Active Net (see activity codes below or click on the link in bio).

Downtown Community Centre: 107337
Victoria Hills Community Centre: 103896
Williamsburg Community Centre: 101808

We are so excited to bring to Williamsburg in January!

Level Up is a community-based social justice and civic action program for tweens that started right here in Kitchener. We’ve found a way to promote critical awareness and action on injustice while having fun with your friends and family.

Connect with awesome community groups like . Learn skills like perspective taking through activities like art appreciation. Create a Take Action Plan and make change (while having fun!). Do take home activities with your families to keep the learning going.

Winter session: Runs Mondays 6-7:30pm from January 23-March 27 (except Family Day week and March Break).

Registration begins Tuesday, December 13th at 8:30am on ActiveNet ID: 101808

What can plants and trees teach us? Perspective taking develops empathy. Cultivating empathy is fundamental to building a social justice practice. Thank you kiddos for bringing your full selves to Level Up.

Victoria Hills! This is group is going to be amazing! We will be playing and social justice skill building, visiting local community action projects and creating take action plans. Let’s get together! Registration is open on ActiveNet.

Level Up updated their website address.

New partner alert! We are teaming up with the Victoria Hills Neighbourhood Association to bring Level Up to the Victoria Hills Community Centre this Fall. Be one of the first to participate in this delightful new program!

Level Up’s weekly meet-up offers kids aged 9-12 years (and their families!) opportunities to learn about social justice and local civic action projects through simple, fun and enlightening group-based play.

The upcoming session starts Thursday, October 20th and runs for eight weeks.

Register now! Only five spots remain. Click on the link in the bio for more information and to register.

Posted • Hey KW, the newest kids of LevelUp stopped by the fridge for their first week of civic education and are wondering where the donations are! Your community fridge & pantry are currently empty and these young leaders understand need is high and our community is abundant when we show up for one another. So, stop by on this beautiful Friday with food items, menstrual products & essential items to share with your neighbours.
🤎
A big warm welcome and thanks to these awesome young folks who are engaged in weekly education through LevelUp, a program hosted by .fred and our good friend Anjali Misra. This is our future. Photo posted with permission.

Level Up has got to be fun if the workbook is on the sleepover packing list, right??

Each kid in Level Up is encouraged to create a take action plan. One kid combined her love for art with her concern for the climate and organized a poster making party for the Global Climate Strike on March 25th, 2022. Way to go kids!

Public art walks cultivate empathy by activating the “moral imagination”.

We need to talk more openly about privilege.

In our close group of friends we tried the privilege walk and did it ever have an impact. What followed were very strong feelings of guilt, sadness and fear. We directed this energy in constructive ways and created time to recharge, as did parents at home.

The Winter 2022 session of Level Up is sold out! Will you join us in the Spring?

Click on the link to subscribe to our mailing list and keep informed of upcoming sessions.

Level Up is a community-based social justice and civic action program for tweens that started right here in Central Frederick. We’ve found a way to promote critical awareness and action on injustice while having fun with your friends and family.

Thanks everyone for spreading the word. We are grateful! More updates soon!

Justice is what love looks like in public. - Cornel West, American Philosopher

Public art walks to cultivate empathy by activating the “moral imagination”