LiveDifferent has been providing schools across Canada with effective motivational presentations and supplemental resources since 2000, having reached more than 1.8 million students to date. Each year, our presentation theme changes in order to remain relevant and fresh for our partnering schools, and always falls under our overall goal of inspiring young people toward lifestyles of compassion and service.
Our 1-hour dynamic and engaging presentation is geared toward students in grades 6 – 12. It's a mix of videos, personal stories, crowd interaction activities, and more, all delivered by young, dynamic team members that young people find easy to relate to. We’ve found a nice balance between meaningful messaging, fast-paced entertainment, relevant content, and practical learning opportunities that result in students not only paying attention but coming away having been inspired and changed long-term by an accessible message of purpose and hope. (A presentation takes about 1.5 hours to set up/sound-check for and when everything is over with, about 1 hour for tear-down/tidy-up/etc. Keep this in mind when reserving your gym/auditorium/cafetorium/etc.)
Cost is one of the best parts of how we support schools from coast to coast. As a charity, we’ve covered most of the expenses involved for schools to have programming like this through the generous support of our corporate partners. This allows us to simply ask each school to cover as much as they’re really able to of our remaining $1500. Some schools are able to cover this for us fully, some find themselves more in the $800 – $1000 range, and some less. We know schools will support us back with what their unique budget situations will allow at a given time and we greatly appreciate both the help with recouping operational expenses AND the opportunity to engage with their amazing students. Essentially, if you’re interested in supporting your staff and students with the country’s most effective motivational resources, there’s a good chance we can make that happen.
Quite honestly, very little. We bring absolutely everything we need with regards to sound/lighting/display/etc, freeing staff and students up to simply focus on having a great time learning together. There’s no tracking down projectors or microphones. We’ve got all of that covered. You fill your gym with eager students and we’ll take it from there.
LiveDifferent’s programming chooses, instead of focusing on negative behaviours and outcomes, to approach youth in a more positive and potential-centred way. We engage students by highlighting just how similar we all are, what the underlying factors are that make us feel certain ways sometimes, how we all have struggles to work through, and that there’s help available when needed. Our goal is to impact individual lives and school communities by creating resilient, compassionate students who more easily recognize opportunities to apply themselves, get involved, and just how similar we all are. 98% of educators rate LiveDifferent as being better than other resources they’ve used in the past, and actively pursue bringing us back in subsequent years.
Although our various programs are consistently engaged with by many faith-based school boards/businesses/groups/churches/etc who recognize the incredible amount of good that we can have working together, LiveDifferent does not have any particular faith-based affiliation or agenda. Our programs are open and accessible to all who are passionate about having a real and lasting impact in the lives of others, whether through our touring school presentations, on a humanitarian Build project internationally, or while learning with our Academy program in Mexico.
LiveDifferent is not a government agency. However, LiveDifferent is a charitable organization registered with the Government of Canada. Our registration number is 86123 2890 RR0001.
LiveDifferent supports many northern and remote Indigenous communities via our presentations program and a specially trained team equipped with additional programming that fills up to 2 days (per community). The team, typically consisting largely of young Indigenous leaders, not only provides our high-quality, 1-hour motivational presentation for students in a community/school, but also numerous impactful follow-up sessions and community events, all centred around inspiring Indigenous youth with a sense of hope, purpose, pride, and potential.
With two touring presentation teams on the road from September to May each school year, there’s a very good chance we’ll be able to make a presentation at your school happen. We support over 300 schools and communities each year, so if you live anywhere between Victoria BC and St. John’s NFLD, we’ll probably cross paths!
