Youth and Education: 1) Spotting and Stopping Bullying; 2)Majority of Canadian youth have been bullied, child poverty on the rise; 3)How young content creators plan to balance their social media success and campus life; 4) Heading back to school to change your career? Do your homework first, experts say

1) Spotting and Stopping Bullying

Back-to-school season is exciting for most kids. Reuniting with old friends, making new ones, and settling into a routine. But for some, the start of school can be frightening if bullying is part of their experience.

Dr. Tony Volk, Professor of Child and Youth Studies at Brock University, joins Barrie 360’s Ian Maclennan to explain why it’s so important to stop bullying early, the signs parents should watch for, and the best ways to support children who may be struggling.

https://barrie360.com/what-barries-talking-about-e153/

2) Majority of Canadian youth have been bullied, child poverty on the rise

Courtesy Barrie360.com and Canadian Press

By Natasha Baldin, September 2, 2025

A report released as students across the country return to school finds bullying, poverty and mental illness are on the rise among Canadian youth and urges action from policy-makers to improve the lives of children. 

The Raising Canada report says more than 70 per cent of Canadian youth between the ages of 12 and 17 experienced bullying in the last year, and more than 13 per cent of children were living in poverty by the end of 2024.

The annual report compiles various data from the government, university research and consultations with youth and subject matter experts to determine top threats to childhood well-being in Canada.

Sara Austin, CEO and founder of charity organization Children First Canada, which commissioned the report, says this year’s findings highlight “a generation at risk” as many of those threats continue to worsen.

She says increased levels of bullying stand out as one of the most shocking findings, with more than two-thirds of youth having experienced bullying, and one in five kids experiencing cyberbullying.

She says the rise of online technology, including social media and artificial intelligence, are escalating the harms youth face on a daily basis and have a significant impact on mental health.

Additionally, while 71 per cent of teachers report acting to prevent bullying, only 25 per cent of students feel supported by teachers at school, the report found.

“It’s not to say that teachers don’t care or (are) not trying, but it just really points to the fact that our kids are struggling in ways that we as adults haven’t fully grasped,” Austin said in an interview. 

The report also notes increases in childhood poverty levels, with about 1.4 million Canadian children experiencing poverty by the end of 2024 — the highest level the country has seen since 2017.

Austin said there was “measurable progress” during the COVID-19 pandemic with funding to support low-income families, but she said children are now struggling again as these supports start to decrease.

“With the removal of those supports, we’ve seen kids sliding back into poverty again where their families are struggling to put a roof over their heads to put food on the table,” she said.

Other threats to youth outlined in the report include childhood mistreatment, vaccine-preventable illnesses, racism and climate change.

Austin said the goal of issuing this report every year is to spark concrete action to better the lives of youth.

The advocacy group has called on the federal government to implement a national strategy to improve the lives of children and to appoint a commissioner who will hold Canada’s leaders accountable, Austin said.

“Kids represent nearly a quarter of our population and 100 per cent of our future, but they do not receive an equal amount of funding or an equitable amount of funding when it comes to public health services, and that needs to change,” she said.

At the household level, Austin said she also encourages parents to talk to their children about the challenges they’re facing at school and online.

“Don’t take the easy answer of, ‘I’m OK,’ or ‘everything’s fine.’ Dig deeper, talk about the things that they’re seeing and experiencing online. Talk about what’s happening in their classrooms. Talk about their hopes and their fears,” Austin said.

3)How young content creators plan to balance their social media success and campus life

Courtesy Barrie360.com and Canadian Press

By Vanessa Tiberio, August 30, 2025

Growing up, Sofia DelGiudice never imagined her father’s annual back-to-school tradition would be a pivotal moment in her social media career.

Before starting university two years ago, the 19-year-old content creator from Toronto had the idea to stitch together all the videos her dad filmed of her descending the stairs in the family’s home on the first day of school.

“It’s the first day of what grade?” DelGiudice’s dad can be heard asking her in each clip recorded from kindergarten onward.

DelGiudice posted what she thought was a cute homage only her small TikTok following would see — and it went viral.

“My dad had no idea for a really long time until people in our family started saying they had seen the video and he was confused, and I had to tell him that five million people had seen it,” she said.

Since then, DelGiudice has amassed more than 90,000 combined followers across Instagram and TikTok and gained 20,000 new followers this summer alone. She’s heading back to school with a renewed focus on maintaining that momentum and building upon the 35 million views she has earned in the last three months across platforms.

As young content creators like DelGiudice head back to school and shift their focus on their studies, they are grappling with maintaining their online brands and keeping up with the demands of their social media presence.

“Not a lot of people, I think, really understand or comprehend the amount of work that goes into being a content creator or an influencer,” said Lara Cardoso, a media and communications instructor at the University of Guelph-Humber and founder of the school’s first influencer marketing course.

The pressure to constantly put out content to stay relevant can be overwhelming, especially for students who benefited from high social media engagement over the summer but now must manage a separate workload, Cardoso said.

“Students really need to be able to prioritize their time and their projects if they were to be a content creator or influencer alongside school.”

One strategy Cardoso recommends is batch-creating and scheduling content to be posted throughout the week over the course of the school year.

While DelGiudice enjoys creating content throughout the week, she said it can be a full-time gig as she finds herself constantly thinking of new ways to be creative or staying awake into the early morning hours to edit her videos.

Despite the constant demands of social-media platforms, she doesn’t find balancing content creation and schoolwork difficult, which she credits to her experience juggling multiple part-time jobs and finishing school assignments well ahead of deadline.

“I’m good with asking for help. If I need an extension on something because I have something for work, or if I just have too much on the go, I’m kind of good at talking to my professors,” she said, adding that instructors in her early childhood studies program are supportive of her social media goals — even if they don’t relate to her area of study.

Students whose studies go hand-in-hand with content creation, such as media or communications, may be able to leverage their influencer content in the classroom and use school projects to advance their online brands, Cardoso said.

Combining those two worlds is what Haley Jackman, an 18-year-old content creator from Barrie, Ont., and soon-to-be student in a university media and communications program, plans to do to stay on top of her social media career.

“I never wanted to go to university prior to actually starting social media,” Jackman said, adding that choosing media studies was a no-brainer.

As she saw her online engagement increasing over the summer, Jackman also noticed an uptick in brand deals — partnerships in which companies pay content creators for posts or videos promoting their products or services.

Managing brand deals can be another challenge for students, especially when it comes to meeting deadlines and partnership requirements that also align with the creator’s own personal brand, said Cardoso.

“You have to be really clear on what you want to get out of the collaboration,” she said.

Nyah Lawryshyn, an Instagram content creator from Caledon, Ont., who just finished her postgraduate degree, said she experienced a learning curve when companies started to approach her — from filtering dozens of potential partnership emails to being able to advocate for herself at the bargaining table.

“Sometimes people will reach out and will fake an email that looks really similar to a large company and they’ll say, ‘We’ll send you $1,000 for one post,'” Lawryshyn said, adding that she’s had to reach out to companies herself to verify the legitimacy of such offers.

For Jackman, hiring a talent management company was the answer to staying on top of brand deals.

“As soon as I signed with the manager, it was like pretty consistent brand deals,” she said, adding that her team helps her stay on top of emails and campaign deadlines while also advocating for her in meetings.

Influencer talent agencies are carving out a new space in the social media market, and Cardoso said students in her course are increasingly interested in them.

But the co-founder of agency Upside Down Talent, which represents Jackman, cautions that young creators should beware of bad actors who may try to take advantage of their online success.

“A lot of brands need content fast and they will use urgency as a means to get content through the door,” said Sebastian Javier, a former singer who has experienced online fame thanks to his covers of popular songs.

“And that’s exactly why we’re here, to be like, ‘Hey guys, no, we’re not going to do exactly what you need, we’re going to find a middle ground.'”

University of Toronto marketing professor David Soberman says content creation can be a viable career but young people should be aware of their situation and “read the writing on the wall” if things aren’t going as planned.

“If you’ve been doing this for six months and you’re making $20 a month, it may be time to hang up your skates. If you see a positive trend and you are learning and figuring out what’s working, that’s a different situation,” Soberman said.

Whether it’s a side hustle or a full-time effort, social media gains can be achieved through hard work, said Cardoso, the influencer marketing instructor.

“For almost a decade, from day one, I’ve been working with influencers and content creators and I absolutely stand by that it’s a viable career path,” she said.News

Published August 31, 2025

4) Heading back to school to change your career? Do your homework first, experts say

Source Canadian Press

By Tara Deschamps, August 31, 2025

Daniel Buchardt was about seven years into a sales career when he looked around the insurance company he worked for and realized that not only did the job feel monotonous, he also wasn’t very interested in it.

“I’m not really passionate about insurance. I don’t think anyone really is,” said the 31-year-old Guelph, Ont., man.

“There really wasn’t a lot of upward mobility and it’s kind of like you’re doing the same job day in and day out. I was getting antsy. I wanted to get out of the office, get outside.”

Given his love of the outdoors and interest in sustainability, Buchardt eventually decided to head back to school to study environmental engineering.

While he made the decision quickly, there was a lot he had to think about first: a return to school would make juggling work difficult, finding a job in a new field isn’t always easy — and there’s no guarantee you’ll like that new gig better.

Experts like Sangeetha Dikshit, the Toronto-based founder of career coaching business Pod Transformations, say these are some of the top things they advise anyone mulling a career switch to consider long before they start the admissions process. If you don’t think ahead about the financial, emotional and career consequences, they say you risk worsening your situation rather than improving it.

While people have always wanted to pursue additional education to make a career swap, Dikshit said it has become a “huge phenomenon” more recently because the COVID-19 pandemic ended some jobs and gave people time to reconsider their ambitions. The proliferation of artificial intelligence, which stands to dramatically change the way we work, is also fuelling career shifts, she said.

She recommends anyone wanting to make a transition take four steps. The first is clearly identifying what their next career move is and whether it is suitable for them.

“There is a significant chunk of people who tend to make these career transitions based on what they see outside, right?” Dikshit said. “It could be social media, it could be what they hear … or maybe a perceived expectation of what could be the next best thing.”

She thinks it is better for clients to cut through that noise and think more closely about jobs that fit their values, interests, skills and strengths.

Once they’ve done that, it’s time to become aware about job market realities, she said. That can be done through coffee chats with industry experts who can share the pros and cons of sectors and help you consider if a job aligns with your aspirations.

Buchardt was able to talk to his father, who worked in the environmental engineering industry and told him demand for the kinds of jobs his new studies could deliver are “only growing” as developers look to build more and need environmental surveys and other due diligence.

If you need more reassurance after a coffee chat, Dikshit suggested taking short courses online from LinkedIn Learning or YouTube to get a feel for the field or job they want to enter.

The next step is all about resilience.

“Returning back to school could mean a huge shift in priorities, in their finances. Are you really prepared to go through that process?” she asks clients.

To give her an answer, people have to consider whether they can afford to go back to school, especially if classes require so much of their time that they won’t be able to simultaneously manage a job.

It’s an important calculation because people working full-time often don’t qualify for government grant and loan programs, said Lance McCready, an associate professor affiliated with the University of Toronto’s adult education and community development program. They usually need to pare back work hours to get the funding or rely on savings, loans or family to finance their studies.

If they have kids or are caring for sick or elderly loved ones, they will also have to consider whether that will conflict with the demands of their education or new career.

“In order to finish the program and get this degree, you’re going to have to take some time away from something else,” said McCready.

If they determine they have the support they need, Dikshit said they can move onto her final stage: a look at their emotional readiness.

Transitioning to a new career often means going from being an expert in one field to a newbie in another. Sometimes the shift will come with a pay cut or a much younger group of peers that may be hard to relate to.

While many people go through these steps and emerge prepared for a job switch, others realize it’s not the right time or they’re not as ready as they thought.

That’s okay, too, she said.

Sometimes you can take online classes to upskill or pursue certifications to help transition your career while you remain on the job.

Many schools also allow students to complete programs on a part-time basis or offer shorter but more intense degrees and certificates, reducing the amount of time you’ll spend away from work.

For example, Buchardt was able to find a one-year program in environmental engineering at Conestoga College.

A friend he consulted who had gone back to school to start a new career before him warned a shorter program is “not a walk in the park” because you “have to be studying every single day.”

But so far, Buchardt has found the work has paid off. He’s now completing a co-op he enjoys at a biofiltration business.

McCready said that’s often how mature students feel about their transition.

“What they feel challenged by is … balancing the financial, the social support, the learning expectations, but no one ever regrets it once they do it,” McCready said.

“It inevitably opens more doors for them.”

“I think, like anything, you have to decide that this is what you want to do and put the work in to do it and you will see success.”