Every Thursday, Crystal Kids get to visit the Nina Haggerty Art Centre where they get to spend time with Lorraine, who teaches a number of different painting or sketching techniques, all around a variety of different mediums. Your art work will get a chance to be displayed in art shows, and sometimes even sold to the public. We are taking a break from this for the summer, but this will be back during the school year!

Every year Crystal Kids looks forward to Santa’s Market. On a special Saturday in December, kids come in to find the centre has been changed into a winter wonderland. On tables around the gym are presents for kids to “buy” for their loved ones. How do you get the “money” to buy gifts? Through earning Santa Bucks! Santa Bucks can be earned through helping out and getting involved with Crystal Kids’ programming. With the help of your own personal shopper, you will walk away with armfuls of presents for your family and friends (with usually a couple of gifts for yourself in the mix too).

Each year, we celebrate all of the youth’s achievements and successes with our annual Junies Awards Night. We get to highlight the hard work that all the youth have put into everything ranging from academics to sports, from music to being an outstanding role model. The youth’s efforts are based on their work at Crystal Kids, the time they spend at school, home, and around the community. It also gives an opportunity for us to highlight some of the clubs at Crystal Kids, for example having the Guitar club perform live during intermissions and breaks during the event.

Are you good with plants? Have you ever wanted to live off the land? Or Grow fruits and vegetables? Crystal Kids offers you the chance to learn how to plant, water, and grow any fruits and veggies of your choosing! Learn how to take care of the different foods that you might enjoy eating, such as potatoes. You get to not only see your hard work grow, but eat it too!

Twice a week, children ages nine and up learn guitar in the computer lab. The kids pick songs they would like to learn and find that it’s not so hard to strum along after lots of practice. The club works on reading music, memorizing chords and feeling rhythm. Each kid in Guitar Club is lent a guitar to care for and play while they’re at Crystal Kids. Every musician needs to start somewhere!

The “Triumph Teens” (or more commonly known as “Material Gorls”) was a targeted program developed for 2023 to 2024. This was an empowerment and self-esteem program for a number of youth to develop and directly improve relationships with their peer group. Through monthly field trips and meetings, the Material Gorls focused on learning self-sufficiency skills such as budgeting and promoting emotional well-being. Progress was noted and gauged through talking circles, specifically planned activities. Individual surveys and reports with members of the “Triumph Teen” program were conducted as well, with the information used to further improve the program and ultimately relationships between the youth and their peer groups. Talking circles allowed for a controlled and mediated environment for group discussions and expressing of individual feelings.