100 Women Who Care, Lethbridge group gives to U of L’s Chess for Life program

caroline.zentner — Tue, 14 Jan 2020 21:38:31 +0000

The Chess for Life program at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge received a boost of $8,300 thanks to 100 Women Who Care, Lethbridge.

The 100 Women Who Care, Lethbridge group, has raised more than $175,000 to help 17 local charities since it was formed four years ago.

“We are incredibly grateful for this donation,” says Dr. Lance Grigg, an associate professor in the Faculty of Education and founder of the Chess for Life program. “The funds are and will be used for a number of expansion projects, including ongoing work with schools in Lethbridge and youth who are sentenced to Chess for Life by Alberta Justice. We offer the program here at the U of L, but we’re also looking at offering the program at two sites downtown.”

Chess for Life was the lucky recipient in a recent fundraiser by 100 Women Who Care, Lethbridge. Members hold four fundraisers a year and, each time, randomly choose three local organizations from those nominated by their membership. The three are invited to present to the group for five minutes and members then vote to determine the winning organization. Members donate $100 each and the funds go directly to the chosen charity.

“The Chess for Life team was so passionate about their cause when they presented to us,” says Sandra Asuchak, who co-founded 100 Women Who Care, Lethbridge with Sharon Carruthers. “The program itself seems simple yet so powerful. It’s incredible how much a game of chess can help adults and children alike. I believe our members appreciated the fact that their donations would be going to a program that can help those similar in age to their children and grandchildren.”

Chess for Life was born in 2018 out of a conversation between Grigg and a local judge. Grigg brought up the possibility of learning to play chess as an alternative sentence for youth involved in the criminal justice system. The judge liked the idea and Chess for Life had its start. Initially, the program was set to run only until the end of May last year but it showed positive results and demand for the program grew.

The Chess for Life team, which consists of Grigg, Josh Markle and Riley Kostek, continues to work with 15 to 20 youth who are at odds with the law and offers chess instruction in five elementary schools in Lethbridge. Since September, the team has also been working with students at Red Crow Community College at both the Lethbridge and Stand Off campuses. Tsuaki Marule is the lead instructor with that initiative. Since the program started, Grigg has been contacted by other jurisdictions, including Calgary, Edmonton and Houston, Texas, that are interested in Chess for Life. In addition, Grigg and the Chess for Life team are working with the Lethbridge Correctional Centre to get a chess program established there. The team, along with local schools, is planning the first ever Lethbridge Scholastic Chess Festival next spring.

“The program has grown amazingly,” says Grigg. “We’re really focusing on Lethbridge and area, making sure that is all solid and consistent. The probation officers have been absolutely fantastic.”

The local chapter of 100 Women Who Care has raised more than $175,000 for 17 charities in the four years since the club was founded. The first 100 Women Who Care group was established in Michigan in 2006. Since then, 100 Women Who Care has become a worldwide initiative with more than 900 chapters that include women, men, people, kids and teens chapters.

Carruthers, whose father was a philanthropist, initiated the local club. She wanted to follow in her father’s footsteps and when she learned that Lethbridge didn’t have a chapter, she reached out to Asuchak.

“This city that we live in is unbelievably generous,” says Asuchak. “The sheer generosity of these women from the moment they come — they give $100, they donate door prizes, they put money in to help with the refreshments — is just unbelievable.”

The investment is part of the U of L’s SHINE campaign and this partnership highlights the importance of the U of L’s connection to the community, specifically how expertise available at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ helps solve problems at the local level and beyond.

Unique research project involves at-risk youth sentenced to playing chess

caroline.zentner — Wed, 14 Feb 2018 17:51:12 +0000

Local youth involved in the criminal justice system are being referred to a program where they learn to play chess as part of their sentence. The Chess for Life program is a research project that aims to explore how learning to play chess affects youths’ thinking and the choices they make every day.

After a local judge sentenced a youth to practice basketball a couple of years ago, Dr. Lance Grigg, a ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge associate professor in education, brought up the possibility of learning to play chess as a possible alternative sentence for youth involved in the criminal justice system. The judge liked the idea and Grigg organized a trial run of the Chess for Life program last year.

“I had a handful of youth,” says Grigg. “They came regularly, the youth were engaged and one of them even started playing chess online. It worked and I got good reports from the people the kids were working with.”

A team came together to work on the Chess for Life program, including Dr. Monique Sedgwick, an associate professor in nursing, and Dr. Jeffrey MacCormack, assistant professor in education. Josh Markle, an instructor in the Faculty of Education, and Riley Kostek, a teacher at Victoria Park High School, joined the team as research assistants.

Since mid-January, Markle, Kostek and Grigg have provided chess instruction on Friday afternoons to five youth, ranging in age from 12 to 18, who have been referred to the program by the Crown, the judge and the probation officer. The instructors help the youth think ahead and plan their moves — all the way to the end of the game.

“We have conversations about chess and we don’t have to go very far before they start to draw parallels between what we’re talking about and their own lives,” says Markle. “I can see change already.”

“There are a lot of rules to chess,” says Grigg. “In the first four moves alone, there are over 300 billion options. So, there are a lot of rules that make possible a lot of creativity. Chess needs planning, you need memory and you need to be able to see the consequences of actions before you make them.”

MacCormack brought his expertise on executive function to the project. Chess has been shown to positively impact executive function, which includes skills such as planning, making decisions, remembering, thinking flexibly and developing self-control.

“As kids become better chess players, they aren’t just learning how to play a game; they’re learning to play the game of life,” says MacCormack.

“There’s very little in the research literature that deals with the youth experience involved in the criminal justice system, let alone in alternate sentencing,” says Sedgwick. “We want to hear their voices to see whether or not they feel that this program has changed them somehow. We also want to hear from the adults who are involved with these youths to see if the chess program is influencing how the youth see themselves.”

The Chess for Life program will continue until the end of May. The program is not yet funded but the Faculty of Education is paying the salaries for the research assistants. Team members are applying for additional funding and hope to offer the program again and even expand it provincially.

UNews - Riley Kostek

100 Women Who Care, Lethbridge group gives to U of L’s Chess for Life program

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Unique research project involves at-risk youth sentenced to playing chess

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