The Jeunes leaders des relations saines (JLRS) program is an initiative of Réseau-Femmes Colombie-Britannique which aims to promote healthy and respectful relationships among Francophone youth in Grades 9 to 12 who live in minority linguistic settings, in order to reduce violence in interpersonal relationships.

Students from four Francophone schools in British Columbia (Comox, Surrey, Port Coquitlam and Vancouver) will have access to the workshops. However, the www.jlrs.ca website is accessible to everyone, and provides information and practical resources for youth, parents and guardians, and teaching staff.

Thanks to the JLRS approach, the initiative will be partly created and managed by the young people involved, allowing them to develop a program specific to their community and culture. Starting in the 2020/21 school year, students in Grades 11 and 12 will have the opportunity to become “Young Leaders” in Grade 9 classes. The JLRS program will allow participants to be trained to lead workshops in pairs, using a peer-educator approach.

This program is being carried out in collaboration with other community organizations, including le Conseil scolaire francophone de la C.-B., le Conseil Jeunesse francophone de la C.-B., la Fédération des parents francophones de C.-B., and RésoSanté Colombie-Britannique, and with funding from the Public Health Agency of Canada.

We encourage parents of teenagers to discover the English version of the first JLRS information sheet for parents, which is about stress and anxiety, and the tools that can be used to deal with this.

Please note that the other information sheets will also be translated in English, but that they currently are available in French in the section for parents of the JLRS website (www.jlrs.ca), at this address:   https://www.jlrs.ca/programme-parents/parents.