GIVING KIDS A HAND
SNAP, a program that helps children manage emotions, wins the Ruth Atkinson Hindmarsh Award,
At 8 years old, Che Latchford was having anger problems. He was the eldest of three children in a singleparent home and had seen more before the age of 10 than most have in a lifetime.
“It caused me a lot of frustration. There were a lot of other things that I witnessed — (violence) and things like that at home,” he said. “I was acting out and came to the attention of local authorities.”
That’s when he was put in a new program aimed at curbing behaviours that could lead to bigger problems later on — such as incarceration.
Now 33, Latchford helps kids in the same program that transformed him as a child. It’s called SNAP (Stop Now and Plan) and teaches children and their parents “effective emotional regulation” so children can make better decisions.
To help with that change, the program was awarded $50,000 from the Atkinson Hindmarsh family Monday evening.
The program is implemented in 20 sites across Canada (120 around the world), including schools and community organizations, and serves dozens of kids in Toronto every year, according to Leena Augimeri.
She’s the director of scientific and program development at the Child Development Institute, which operates SNAP, and she’s Latchford’s mentor.
At 13, she brought Latchford back into the program in1994, this time as one of its first youth leaders. “It helped me to realize that I mattered and that, you know, that what I did could make a difference in somebody’s life,” said Latchford, who now works with youth in the criminal justice system as part of a pilot project that is an extension of SNAP.
Augimeri says SNAP is currently only able to help 5 per cent of the identified need in Canada. “There are thousands of children, we know, in Ontario and Canada with disruptive behaviour problems and their families who need effective children’s mental health services,” she said.
The money will fund the program’s expansion to Boys and Girls Clubs of Canada, starting with the Toronto Kiwanis Boys and Girls Club and the clubs in east and west Scarborough.
Beyond the cash, the Ruth Atkinson Hindmarsh Award is an “acknowledgement” of the 20 years of work the program’s team has put in, said Lyn Baptist co-chair of the McConnell Foundation, which has had a partnership with SNAP for 20 years.
The annual award, named after activist Ruth Atkinson Hindmarsh, wife of the Toronto Star’s former president, was established in 1998 to support the efforts of organizations dedicated to improving the lives of children.