CanU - The University of Can

CanU is where potential meets opportunity. Every year, 800 university students and community members help inspire hope, build confidence, and empower 650 youth across 80 schools in Manitoba through long-term developmental relationships, mentorship, and leadership experiences designed to build confidence, belonging, and future pathways.

Founded in 2011 to address persistent barriers to opportunity for youth in Manitoba, CanU has evolved into one of the province’s most distinctive youth leadership development organizations.

Through a unique model rooted in relationships, belonging, and action, integrating post-secondary students as mentors, program coordinators, and facilitators, CanU develops the psychological, social, and leadership capital youth need to thrive as future community leaders.

CanU is more than an after-school program, it is a long-term youth leadership development model.

Through an eight-year developmental journey from Grades 5–12, CanU intentionally cultivates three forms of capital that research consistently identifies as critical to long-term wellbeing and success:

- Psychological Capital - hope, confidence, resilience, aspiration, and self-belief

- Social Capital - mentorship, belonging, relationships, collaboration, and access to networks

- Leadership Capital - responsibility, contribution, service, mentorship, communication, and the confidence to lead change within communities

Every CanU experience, from mentorship and educational enrichment to volunteerism, gratitude practices, and youth voice opportunities, is designed to strengthen these capacities over time.

By surrounding youth with consistent relationships, meaningful opportunities, and leadership experiences across their developmental journey, CanU equips young people not only to succeed academically, but to become engaged leaders, mentors, and changemakers within their communities.

What Youth Experience

Each year, CanU brings 650 youth from 80 partner schools across Manitoba to the University of Manitoba for intentionally designed leadership and learning experiences that build psychological, social, and leadership capital over time. Participants are 92% or more BIPOC, representing more than 60 countries of origin.

CanU is built around an 8-year developmental arc, accompanying youth from Grade 5 through Grade 12. Programming is delivered through four cohorts of two grades each, with content, mentorship, and leadership opportunities calibrated to where youth are in their growth.

As participants move through the cohorts, they take on progressively greater responsibility, often returning as near-peer mentors and leaders themselves. This long horizon is what allows CanU to build trust, sustain relationships, and produce the kinds of outcomes that shorter interventions cannot.

The CanU Cohort Model

• Grade 5–6: Explore - Building hope and belonging, exploring post-secondary campus contexts
• Grade 7–8: Discover - Developing awareness, confidence, and cultural competency, discovering interests and aptitudes
• Grade 9–10: Aspire - Fine-tuning aspirations in learning while building social capital and leadership skills, aspiring to an exciting future
• Grade 11–12: Rise+ - Customized learning, contributing to community, and mentoring the next generation, rising to new levels of potential and achievement

Signature Learning Streams

CanU’s programming is driven by deep, experiential learning across key signature streams. Each stream includes numerous university student-led and mentored learning experiences tailored to all four cohorts.

• Leadership and Service
• Learning and Academics
• Creativity and Expression
• Health and Wellness

Across every program, the principle is the same: everything is a learning opportunity, and everything is a leadership opportunity.

A Community of Mentors and Partners

Over the past 15 years, CanU has engaged more than 10,000 unique participants and volunteers, building a community of mentors, alumni, and partners that spans generations.

CanU engages 800 volunteers annually, the majority of whom are university students, providing them with hands-on leadership opportunities that reinforce community engagement, empathy, and professional growth.

Faculty members, graduate students, artists, and community partners contribute to this collective impact, making CanU a hub of mutually beneficial, dignity-driven partnerships that change lives.

Our Commitment

Rooted in hope, equity, and empowerment, CanU is committed to building bridges across social divides, reducing stigma, and fostering reconciliation.

By equipping youth with the confidence, relationships, leadership skills, and sense of possibility needed to shape their futures and contribute meaningfully to their communities, CanU ensures every young person sees their future as limitless, and that society is gifted compassionate young leaders to steward a brighter future for all.