Captains & Poets is a powerful language of self-awareness that enables us to be our best selves. The result is heightened social awareness, self-leadership, well-being, agency, and purpose in the world. We ignite transformation from within!
“This isn’t just a program. It’s a movement.”
More than a workshop or one-time experience, Captains & Poets is a simple but powerful framework that activates how people learn, coach, lead and live. It can be used in classrooms, in sport, on leadership teams, across organizations, and in everyday life — helping people navigate challenges, strengthen relationships, make intentional choices and, ultimately, learn to coach themselves.
Inside each of us are a unique Captain and Poet who, in partnership, bring our Leader Within to life. Discovering our Leader Within strengthens our sense of identity and well-being, deepens our relationships, expands our capacity to lead more authentically, and builds the confidence and agency to become active authors of our own lives. All in two words.
Our mission is to make this language accessible to people of all ages, building the inner capacity to navigate an increasingly complex world with heightened connection, authenticity, and purpose.
Curriculum, workshops, and professional development.
Programming for athletes, teams, coaches, and parents.
Team and leadership workshops, and coaching.
“Captains & Poets provides a blueprint for social connection. Children learn to contribute to a group and feel positive about the way they co-exist with others.”
Primary Teacher - Simcoe Muskoka Catholic District School Board
"I really enjoyed the program...Themes of identity and equity and humanity and how to treat others arose. The program provides a lens for advocacy and agency around how we respond to things going on in the world right now."
Teacher - Toronto District School Board (Grade 7)
“The Captains & Poets program is a great way to address the social/emotional learning of young people. It is easy to implement, flexible, and students will really enjoy the activities.”
Teacher - Durham District School Board (Grade 11)
“The brilliance of Captains & Poets was their ability to tailor the workshops to our school leadership and character development programming as well as students’ individual leadership journeys. The workshops met the pent-up need and demand for meaningful leadership training and will inform our own framework going forward."
Director of Character and Leadership Development - Holy Trinity School
“Captains & Poets helped students and adults to think differently about the concept of identity. It was inspiring to see the light bulbs come on as each participant began to better understand their true nature, their innate drivers, and what enables them to thrive."
Tyler Fujita - Project Director, Finding Why: Bringing Life Design to Hawai'i High Schools
"The Captains & Poets curriculum requires learners to bring their whole, authentic selves to the classroom and community. This means examining their identities and how they show up for themselves and others. Through this critical reflection, the curriculum promotes inclusion for all."
Executive Director - Curated Leadership
"Captains & Poets offered real and practical ways for parents, schools and students to know themselves, bring soft skills to life and to face the world as emergent leaders."
Principal - Durham District School Board
“I loved seeing the light in my student’s eyes when he recognized that his Captain could help his Poet and pointed to his heart.”
Teacher - Toronto District School Board (Grade 7)
"Captains & Poets focuses deeply on self-awareness AND social awareness using language accessible to all students Grades K - 12! They support educators with insightful, engaging and relevant lessons that help educators model and grow all five of CASEL's competencies (self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making). By offering a simple language for students to explore who they are and inform how they are showing up in the classroom, students are able to connect thoughts and feelings with actions and to deepen their relationship with themselves and others."
Founder - Resonance Educational Consulting
“Captains & Poets will really help kids, not only talk about their feelings with others but put a name to the feelings that they have inside.”
Public School Librarian – Nebraska
“Captains & Poets was transformative and will have a life-changing, lasting impact on the well-being of my class of students living with Autism Spectrum Disorder.”
Teacher - Toronto District School Board (Intensive Support Program)
“Working with Captains & Poets was awesome! They were adaptable to our needs and priorities as a school and offered a deeply engaging leadership program for our students. We knew after the first session that this was something special and that we would want to do more work with them in the future. Captains & Poets gave our young adolescents the space to explore who they are and how they want to show up in the world!”
Coordinator, Student Wellbeing Programs - Upper Canada College
"The content, delivery, and impact were overwhelmingly positive and on point. Captains and Poets created an amazing opening night session that was dynamic and captured the essence of the conference's ideals on student leadership. The Captains and Poets session displayed the quickest landing, hook, and buy-in from our 108 students I have ever witnessed during a presentation. They got our student's attention and more importantly, they had them deeply invested in the process from start to finish."
CAIS - Middle School Leadership Conference 2024
“Captains & Poets helped my students realize we all have the potential to be the best version of ourselves by focusing on progress and not perfection on the learning journey.”
Teacher - Toronto District School Board (Grade 7)
"The Captains & Poets program acts as a formalized platform for integrating SEL in the classroom with a consistent approach across classrooms. It provides a common language for kids and they recognize is is something they all go through. It is a great way to address the social/emotional learning of young people. It is easy to implement, flexible, and students will really enjoy the activities. This was a blessing and really worked out well at the end of a tough year as it kept students engaged."
Teacher - Toronto District School Board (Grade 8)
"At Nugent, we have been focussing on enhancing our equality, diversity and inclusivity and this programme from Captains & Poets will further enrich our students, giving them the space and tools to thrive as they navigate their futures. We are very excited to be collaborating with Captains & Poets."
CEO - Nugent School House
"Captains & Poets is an excellent unit promoting inclusion and a positive school climate. It engaged my Grade 7's with multimedia and thought-provoking activities. Activities connect well with Health and Language curriculum and assessments."
Teacher - Toronto District School Board (Grade 7)
"Whether experienced leaders or novices, students found it valuable and were able to seamlessly make connections to their own experiences. The facilitators were experts in insuring all voices were heard and leading our students to new understandings in wholly natural and stress-free conversations. Students were empowered to reimagine and expand their leadership potential by balancing the Captain and the Poet in an authentic way."
Director of Character and Leadership Development - Holy Trinity School
“What better way to introduce the Captain and Poet to my island classroom than with beach rocks!!! I picked beach rocks and brought them into class for the students to paint. As we painted I explained how these special rocks will remind them of the inner parts of them that they want to work on this summer. They will work on strengthening their inner Captain by trying new things this summer that require them to have more courage. Some will work on strengthening their inner Poet by having more patience during frustrating times and practice taking deep breaths.”
Tracy Arsenault - Ellerslie Elementary School – Public Schools Branch