Roots of Empathy

About Us
Roots of Empathy is an internationally acclaimed, award-winning charity whose mission is to build caring, peaceful, and civil societies through the development of empathy in children and adults. Since its creation, Roots of Empathy has reached almost 1 million children with its empathy-based programs. It has been called “Canada’s olive branch to the world”.

Through a series of classroom visits over the course of the school year by a neighbourhood parent and infant, students are guided by a trained Roots of Empathy Instructor using a gold standard curriculum to read the babies emotional cues and take the baby’s perspective. Students also reflect on the loving relationship between baby and parent – the first and most powerful model of empathy. Empathy is the ability to understand how others feel and to feel with them. It’s at the core of our humanity. Empathy encourages inclusion, social cohesion and respect and is best developed through experiential learning.

Our Mission
To build caring, peaceful and civil societies through the development of empathy in children and adults and to break the inter-generational cycle of violence and poor parenting.