As a tribute to its past President and CEO —  and one of its great leaders — Henry Labatte, the YMCA of Greater Toronto established the Henry Labatte Scholarship Fund and annually selects qualified and deserving YMCA staff members as recipients. This scholarship program is intended to strengthen international YMCA movement, build international ties and enhance cross-cultural awareness through study or work placements and exchanges. International exchanges are an important way that YMCAs around the world maintain and nurture one another in the spirit of a global village. It also provides recipients the opportunity to share their skills with other communities, especially in developing nations.  

The Henry Labatte Scholarship Fund recipients for 2007 – 2008 are Mishele Ecker and Kim Charteris. Mishele Ecker is a Job Skills Specialist at the YMCA Rexdale Youth Resource Centre, where she has been working since 2001. Mishele is spending three weeks in Northern Thailand working with the YMCA of Chiangmai. While she is there, she’ll be involved in projects that support income generation for women, skills training for youth and migrant workers, and education on child labour.  

Kim Charteris is the Manager of Teen and Young Adult Leadership Development for the YMCA of Greater Toronto. Kim has worked for the YMCA for 24 years —15 years in a full-time capacity and the past five years with the YMCA of Greater Toronto. Kim is spending two weeks in Beirut, Lebanon where she will be exchanging ideas to better understand the post-war youth model developed by the YMCA of Lebanon. As well, she’ll learn more about the process they have undertaken to teach and develop YMCA leaders from their youth through employment programs, camp counselor training programs and youth leadership development. In exchange, Kim will share our research and finds around youth development, including teenage brain development, and our model of Youth Leader Corps and leadership development in our camping and aquatic programs.

View Mishele’s and Kim’s posts and learn more about their exciting experience:

- Thailand
- Lebanon