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State Farm celebrates the achievements of men and women who have inspired others at the fifth annual Embrace Life® Awards
An Ipsos Reid study, in collaboration with State Farm Canada and kids.now, found that 97% of parents ranked strong self-esteem as the single most important life skill for grade 7 and 8 kids preparing to enter high school. And more than 90% rank the importance of problem solving, managing conflict and communication skills above academic ability.
“Many lifelong skills and behaviour patterns are established between the adolescence years of 12 and 14,” says Janet King, President and Founder of kids.now. “Without the right direction and the foundation of self-esteem, these grade 7 and 8 kids can easily make the wrong choice and end up hurting themselves, their family and the community. These choices can affect them for life. Our free after school program focuses on coaching kids to help them make positive choices.”
The Ipsos Reid study also found only 22% of parents could easily find quality, after school programs to help build their child’s self-esteem. In addition, more than half of parents polled found the cost of after school programs and lack of transportation as further barriers to being able to have their kids access a program that focuses on essential life skills.
In 2008, State Farm joined kids.now to provide free educational leadership programs that are sought by Canadian parents. “We are happy to support a program that can help foster the next generation of leaders,” says Bob Cooke, Senior Vice President of State Farm Canada. “State Farm’s promise is to help our customers and neighbourhoods in time of need. Assisting these kids in building their self-esteem and life skills by providing a safe and educational after-school environment ensures stronger families and communities. Our employees and agents are very active in community programs, being associated with kids.now is important in our efforts to build confidence in children who will one day take the reigns of leadership in these communities. These are the people our agents and employees will be serving and assisting with their home, life, and auto insurance needs as well as helping them make sound financial decisions. It’s a win-win situation.”
Self-esteem issues can affect kids regardless of the family they are from or the neighbourhood in which they live. The kids.now program is available to all public and separate school boards and focuses on five of the top life skills that polled parents identified as important to the development of their kids. Parents or teachers interested in having the free afterschool program in their school can email kids.now@kidsnowcanada.org.
The survey results are based on 520 online interviews with parents of children under 18 years of age from the Ipsos Reid Canadian Online Omnibus survey. Interviews were conducted between July 22 and July 28, 2008. Full survey results are available by contacting State Farm or kids.now.
About kids.now
kids.now is a national charity that provides free educational leadership programs to grade 7 and 8 kids. Held both in-school and afterschool, volunteer coaches lead kids through interactive sessions that focus on self-esteem, managing conflict and stress, problem solving, working with others, communicating effectively and setting goals. Since 1999, kids.now has helped thousands of kids to make positive choices. For more information about kids.now contact Wendy Kubota at wkubota@kidsnowcanada.org or 416-236-4948.
About State Farm®
State Farm has been serving Canadians since 1938. State Farm and its affiliates are the fourth largest auto insurance provider, and the seventh largest property and casualty insurer in Canada. In addition to providing affordable car insurance rates, State Farm has more than 540 Canadian agents and 1300 employees providing insurance and financial services including mutual funds, life insurance, vehicle loans, critical illness, disability, home and auto insurance to our customers in Ontario, Alberta and New Brunswick. For more information, please visit statefarm.ca, join us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, or see us on YouTube.
