Community Builders was founded by Bo-Young Lim, Eileen Nemzer, Janis Galway and Jerry Brodey. A committed group of educators with extensive experience in teaching, counseling, and working through the arts with children, they lead skilled and diverse teams of Community Builders trainers in planning and delivering our programs.

Community Builders has worked in six Ontario communities since 1994: York Region, South Toronto, the Jane-Finch area of  Toronto, Brantford, Sudbury and Espanola. 

We have worked in close partnership with eight District School Boards, and over sixty schools have run Community Builders programs. Since 1998, we have trained more than a thousand student leaders who have delivered over two thousand classroom workshops in their schools. Over forty thousand children have received Community Builders messages through these workshops.

Community Builders programs build the leadership capacity of young people in elementary schools.  We train students, teachers and parents in anti-bullying, social inclusion, equity and conflict resolution, while raising their awareness of racism, sexism, classism, and other forms of oppression. 

Community Builders has worked for many years to develop and hone programs that are effective in teaching leadership and intervention skills to children.  Sustained leadership training of young people (Grades 4 through 8) has a significant impact on reducing bullying, harassment and social exclusion in school communities.  We know that early intervention can help reduce the potentially lifelong negative effects of mistreatment on perpetrators, victims and witnesses. 

Research shows the importance of the skills taught by Community Builders Youth Leadership. While peers are present eighty-five percent of the time when others students are being mistreated, they intervene only eleven percent of the time. When peers do intervene, they were inclined to act aggressively, rarely displaying pro-social skills. (Making a Difference in Bullying, Report #60, April 2000 Pepler and Craig).

Clearly, children, just like adults, need to be taught conflict resolution skills so that they can act responsibly when they witness mistreatment.