Welcome to CityKidz
A place for kids to shine.
We provide free, inspiring programs for children and youth that nurture a sense of hope, belonging, self-worth, and servant leadership.
Our programs are packed with interactive games, singing, dancing, and team challenges that’ll keep your kids engaged and excited – all while teaching them inspiring lessons about faith, hope and love.
Big Red Bus Online
Driven by CityKidz, Big Red Bus Online is the online stop for you and your kids to play, connect, and stay up to date with everything happening at CityKidz. Big Red Bus Online is a fun, welcoming space for your kids to interact with CityKidz through games, videos, contests and other activities. It is also a place where you can find updates and information about our programs and their schedule.
Our Programs
CityKidz: Grades 1-6
Life-Changing Experiences
On a CityKidz Saturday, your kids will be picked up and dropped off from your home on a big red bus that takes them to our theatre for 75 minutes of fun, friends, a hearty meal, and unconditional love.
Our flagship program is focused on giving your children a solid moral foundation on which to support their dreams and aspirations. Here, they’ll come to understand God’s grace, feel God’s unconditional love, and get a glimpse of God’s purpose for their lives.
CityYouth: Grades 7-10
Faith, Leadership and Lifestyle
With a focus on developing and practicing leadership skills, this Wednesday evening program encourages your youth to serve their communities. At CityYouth, your teen will explore topics like identity, wisdom, faith, and relationships.
Mentors connect with your youth in small groups to work through the challenges in their lives and celebrate their achievements. This guidance and support helps them grow into caring, resilient, and mature young adults.
Education Fund
Supporting Post-Secondary Education
The Education Fund, made possible by the generous support of the Weston Family Foundation, is our way of supporting CityYouth and Roadmaps to Dreams graduates who pursue post-secondary education. It provides yearly financial support to help offset the costs associated with their continuing education.
Pre School program
(formely known as KinderKidz): Grades JK & SK
(Currently unavailable)
Foundations of Hope
At KinderKidz, we strive to fill the hearts and minds of your preschoolers with BIG dreams.
Through songs, stories, and games, the KinderKidz Saturday program helps young hearts understand compassion and make good choices. We help give your kids a foundation of love and hope and understanding that, through God, all things are possible.
Jr. Leadership: Grades 7-12
Leaders of the Future
Junior Leadership is a companion to our other youth programs and is centred on building faith and servant leadership.
The Junior Leadership program is a chance for your teen to continue their participation with CityKidz in a way that gives back to the community.
Junior Leaders receive mentorship and support as they work with volunteer teams to help bring CityKidz programs to life. Each Junior Leader joins a CityKidz bus team under the leadership of a Team Captain and learns through hands-on experience what it takes to be a true servant leader.
Roadmaps to Dreams: Grades 11 & 12
Launching Dreams
This mentorship program for CityYouth grads gives your young adult the skills, tools, and strategies they need to transform their dreams into reality.
Through mentorship, teamwork, and hands-on experiences, this program helps youth develop the essential life skills – like communication and budgeting – that they will need to successfully pursue meaningful employment or post-secondary education.
Our Core Projects
Weekly programs aren’t the only way we connect with your kids. We like to take every chance we can to celebrate and engage with your kids, and our Core Projects allow us to do just that. These weekly and annual events are special opportunities for us to build relationships and bring positive experiences to your children throughout their CityKidz journey.
Home Visits
Trust and Community
A home visit consists of two CityKidz volunteers stopping briefly at your home once a week after school, to connect with you and talking with your kids about the things most important to them – their new favourite game, what they did with their best friend at recess, and what they can look forward to at the next CityKidz Saturday.
Gift of Christmas
Making the Season Merry and Bright
Through the Gift of Christmas, your kids receive a Christmas meal with their CityKidz friends, a festive party, and a carefully-selected, hand-delivered gift by Christmas Eve.
Operation Birthday Child
Celebrating Children
If there’s one thing kids love to celebrate, it’s their birthday.
Once each month during the regular CityKidz Saturday season, a party is thrown in honour of the children who are celebrating birthdays. On that Saturday, each birthday child receives a sweet treat and a present, hand-picked for them by their captain.
Summer to Remember
Life-Changing Experiences
CityKidz’ Summer to Remember works alongside local camps to provide children with opportunities for new, life-changing and memory-making experiences at summer camp.
Frequently Asked Questions
Our current programs are open to all children ages six to 15 who live on one of our existing bus routes across the city. We have several bus routes across the city. To find out if you live within one of our catchment areas, please call our office at 905-544-3996.
* In 2023 we are focusing on rebuilding our in-person programming. This year our focus will be on CityKidz and CityYouth. While we focus on rebuilding sustainably, we will be pausing our KinderKidz, Junior Leadership and Roadmaps to Dreams programs.
To register your child for our programs, call our office at 905-544-3996 (Monday-Friday, 9:00 am to 4:30pm)
Absolutely nothing! Thanks to the generous donations from the community, CityKidz is free for all children.
CityKidz has been providing programming and taking care of children since 1993. Our highest priority is always the safety and well-being of the children in our care. During all of our Saturday and Wednesday programs, children are cared for by our staff and volunteers.
All staff and volunteers are carefully screened through screened through an extensive application, interview, background check, and reference check. Once screened, each staff member and volunteer receive the necessary training to ensure every child is cared for so they can fully participate in all the fun CityKidz has to offer.
CityKidz programs take place at our theatres on Wednesdays and Saturdays, March to June and September to December. We provide door-to-door transportation in our buses for all children on our designated routes.
Presently, CityKidz operates programs in Hamilton, Ottawa, and Regina.
Program dates and offerings are subject to change, so we encourage you to connect with your local branch for specific details.
Volunteers Transform Lives
Whatever your time, whatever your talents, you can make a transformative difference in a child’s life.
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Inspire Big Dreams
Help us build strong foundations of faith, hope and love into children’s lives and watch them thrive.