ComKids

Our mission is to engage youth facing digital exclusion by providing new technology and digital skills, ensuring all young people have an opportunity to thrive. 

Our vision is to eliminate the digital divide within Canada's youth.

For over 20 years, ComKids has been equipping Grade 7 and Grade 8 students who lack access to technology with the tools and the opportunity to improve their digital access and build their digital confidence and capacity through the support of skill-based digital literacy training and access to their own personal devices. We prioritize communities experiencing the highest levels of inequity by working in partnership with allied organizations and school boards to select neighbourhoods where digital access is most needed. The digital divide has been shown to disproportionally affect low-income, rural, and BIPOC communities, making it difficult for these youth to keep up with their peers socially, economically, and academically. 
 To date, we have engaged over 110 schools across Canada to support over 9,000 students that otherwise would not have had access to digital infrastructure and digital literacy support. 

Using a wrap-around approach to digital inclusion, we focus on four objectives:

1. Access for All: Providing free, consistent, and reliable access to technology within their homes including a new device and internet access (if required).
2. Digital Skills Training: Providing a free and accessible online curriculum to equip students with the skills to use technology and digital tools effectively. The curriculum covers a variety of topics including digital literacy, cyber safety, online social responsibility, digital privacy and security.
3. Promoting Mental Health & Well-Being: While we provide the tools to eliminate digital inequity, we also have a responsibility to ensure students are given the knowledge and skills they need to keep themselves safe from potential harm. Because of this, we have started developing supplementary training on maintaining healthy boundaries with technology, and basic mental health literacy.
4. Empower Academic Participation and Success: An increase in digital access and literacy has a direct impact on a young person’s self-esteem, self-efficacy, motivation to learn, and sense of belonging. This is the foundation for full academic participation and success. By building this foundation, it is our goal to improve educational and professional attainment for the young people we work with throughout their lives.