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This interactive kit includes animations, activities, and resources to help you explore why you may find learning hard, and discover ways to help yourself learn.

Helping Myself Learn

Find Helpers

It’s okay to reach out for help if we feel stuck in hurtful messages about ourselves, stuck in confusion or crisis. We need allies to encourage us to keep going. Sometimes our friends can be a big support. But sometimes we need more help than they can give. We may need to work with others to create new messages, experiences, and behaviours – ones that serve us better.

For various reasons, the violence in our lives might get worse because we have started going to school. People in our lives might feel threatened by our studies, or painful memories of past violence might get stirred up. We might realize heavy things about our lives. It may also be time to get help to leave a violent situation, work on an addiction, or learn how to take better care of ourselves.

Getting some help with all this hard work may bring a greater understanding of what’s going on inside, and a greater sense of possibility for choice and change in the future. Here are some ideas about finding those supports.

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Counsellors & Therapists

Find a Counsellor or Therapist

Choose a counsellor or therapist

Going to a therapist (this is aimed at youth).

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Elders

Find an Elder or Traditional Healer – in Toronto, Canada
Look for similar resources in your area

Approaching a Traditional Person, Elder, or Medicine Person

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Friends

Our friends can support us and our attempts to learn or they can make it more difficult. Read more. ( - 14k)

A literacy learner talks about friends that help.
A friend can help you push on when you feel like giving up:

My Friend and I

My friend is going through life the same way that I was. She is always afraid of trying new things. I try to ask her to come to school and try new things with me. I told her that I have been like the way she is. Many times, I would yell and get mad at myself. I know that it hurts to say negative things about myself and it does not make me feel good. I made a vow to be nice to myself and not say anything bad anymore. After I shared this with her, she now feels better about herself. She has turned herself around and now she’s doing things that she’s never done before. She brought tears to my eyes when she told me that whenever she feels low, she thinks about what we have talked about. Since my friend has always been afraid to try new things, her self esteem is low and she lacks self confidence. When I realized this, I insisted that she try out things that make her feel better about herself. I told her how I used to undervalue myself and kept thinking that I was stupid. However, I turned it around and started being good to myself and stopped being so hard on myself. I advised her to think about the many good things that she can do for herself. I have also advised her to come to school with me and this will make her feel better. I advised her that school could help her learn more about herself and other people. This is a good way to make us both feel better about ourselves. I am happy again because we are both doing well; we have a better life and respect ourselves more.

- Barb Taylor, Regent Park Learning Centre

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