About the Foundation

The Herbert H. Carnegie Future Aces Foundation is a not-for-profit, registered charitable organization established in 1987. It works in concert with hundreds of schools and organizations throughout Canada and beyond in order to celebrate success and to foster positive relationships between institutions and their communities.

It has two mandates:

To inspire and assist youth and adults to become the best they can be as responsible, respectful, peaceful, confident and caring citizens.

To work with schools, community organizations and corporations to reinforce and enhance character-building initiatives that promote harmony and as a result deter bullying, violence, racism and religious intolerance.

The Future Aces™ Creed, written by Herb Carnegie in 1956, has been the catalyst for inspiring positive changes in people’s lives for more than 50 years. All of the Foundation’s programs and initiatives incorporate this positive lifestyle guideline to help foster self-esteem and ethical behaviour.

The Foundation services schools through student presentations, staff training workshops and its annual summer institute for teachers. Schools use Future Aces™ as an effective citizenship and violence prevention tool to promote character-building initiatives and to encourage positive and safe school environments. More than 70,000 students annually benefit from Future Aces™.

Gerry Connelly, Director of Education, Toronto District School Board, (the largest school board in Canada ) shares her thoughts about the contribution of Future Aces™ in the following quote.

“One highly successful strategy that helps us achieve inclusive and safe schools is embedded in the Future Aces Creed. It is a creed of positive thinking that has been helping students, staff, parents and community members for close to five decades.”

To support school initiatives, a three-day leadership conference, Future Aces: A Conference Empowering Students, is held annually at the Talisman Mountain Resort each November. Students meet community role models, learn leadership skills and develop plans of action for service to others that provide an unforgettable experience that ultimately changes lives.

The Future Aces Positive Ticketing initiative is currently a pilot project with Division 41 of the Toronto Police Service. Community Officers support schools by recognizing the positive behaviour of students based on Future Aces™ values. This sends a clear message to youth that their contribution in the community is being valued. This project is generating significant enthusiasm and will be initiated in York Region in 2007.

The Herbert H. Carnegie Future Aces Foundation also offers thirty scholarships annually to graduating high school students who exhibit exemplary citizenship qualities and who are in need of financial assistance to further their post-secondary educational goals. Each recipient is honoured with a citizenship award and a one thousand dollar scholarship. To date, the Foundation has granted more than $400,000 in scholarships.

Herb said: