I Belong Bags:
Returning Dignity to Children in Crisis in Alberta
Tanya Forbes • Founder, I Belong Bags • articled featured in Alberta Teachers Association newsletter
As featured on CTV News in 2020, I Belong Bags (IBB) is a grassroots initiative in Calgary supporting vulnerable children in crisis. This initiative and vision originally focused on supporting children entering foster care but has since transitioned to include all children and youth experiencing crisis, trauma, neglect and poverty in the city. IBB provides children in crisis with backpacks filled with essential and comforting items such as pyjamas, toothbrushes, soft blankets, small toys and other gifts.
As of June 2018, in Alberta, over 11,000 children accessed child intervention services of some kind (Alberta Children’s Services 2018/19). Many of these children would have been apprehended from their homes for their protection with only the clothes on their backs or just enough time to fill a trash bag with their most treasured belongings. Using a trash bag as a suitcase or leaving empty-handed from the only place they know as home sends damaging psychological messages to children already experiencing trauma, and children do not deserve to feel this way. The impact of this moment lives with them and carries into every part of their existence from this point forward. I Belong Bags is working toward changing this meaning-making moment for children and reminding them that they do belong in this world, no matter what they’ve experienced, where they’re from or what they believe to be true about themselves.
Founder Tanya Forbes started I Belong Bags in her child’s Grade 1 classroom at Tanbridge Academy in February 2019. The Grade 1 social studies class took this project on wholeheartedly and spearheaded it to the entire school. They drafted e-mails to parents and created posters, donation boxes and a presentation for the Grades 2–9 students. As the donations started rolling in, they collected and sorted the items into backpacks. By the end of the term, they collected 18 filled backpacks as well as such miscellaneous items as diapers and newborn hats to add to each backpack. The Grades 2–9 students donated over $700 that they earned from an entrepreneurial fair and casual Friday. These backpacks found homes at the women’s emergency shelter and Tosguna Tsuut’ina Nation Police Service.
The social impact of this little project was far-reaching. This hands-on involvement helped the students connect with words like belonging, responsibility, rights and active citizenship, and instilled such values as compassion, empathy and caring for others. Students gained an understanding of how to affect change in the world by supporting children in need in their own communities. Rather than simply talking about what it looks like to be positive members of society and of the community, the students gained a lived experience that strongly impacted their sense of pride and self-worth. They took responsibility and ownership of this project in a big way, were truly engaged in the learning and enrolled older students, teachers and parents with their presentation and leadership skills.
This small school project was expected to be a one-time initiative but has since grown into a viable community movement that is on its way to becoming a nonprofit organization. IBB is working with Tsuut’ina Nation Police Service, the Children’s Cottage Society and the Alex Youth Centre, and free storage space is generously sponsored by Sentinel Storage.
The I Belong Bags Backpack Program has been submitted to the Calgary Board of Education again this year as a community project for teachers to review and consider implementing in their classrooms as part of the social studies curriculum in new and creative ways. If you are inspired by the impact of this initiative and would like to find out more, please reach out to Tanya Forbes at tanya@ibelongbags (Subject: Backpack Program) or call 403-512-5606
Reference
Alberta Children’s Services. 2018/19. Child Intervention Information and Statistics Summary. Edmonton, Alberta: Alberta Children’s Services.
