The dignity of the person

Foundations for Life continues a long legacy of offering education on the value of life

Throughout the decades, Foundations for Life has been proclaiming the truth. At the root of their 50+ year mission is bearing witness to the truths of human sexuality and the dignity of life, especially in Catholic schools across the Peace Country.

Since it began in the 1970s, the prolife organization has fulfilled this calling to help people know and understand the sacredness of human life. For most of that history, their chief way of doing so has been through offering presentations to young students and other interested groups.

Just in 2024 Foundations for Life spoke to more than 3,000 students – mainly in the schools of Grande Prairie, and in surrounding communities like Beaverlodge, Sexsmith and Valleyview. In the past, they have made trips to speak to students in High Prairie, Peace River, Manning and High Level.

Their presentations draw on a variety of topics related to the human body, to reproduction, fetal development, online safety, sexual health, issues related to abuse and human trafficking, and more. Although their main topics have changed and developed over time, the core message of Foundations for Life has always remained the same.

Most especially, the God-given dignity of human life is a message Foundations continuously tries to impart.

“I just find it very fulfilling that we can take a topic that is very sensitive, but bring the information to students in a way that helps them understand that they have immense, God-given value, that they have a purpose, that they are valuable as a human being, and that the changes that happen to them in their lives and in their body are a normal part of growing up,” said current Foundations for Life presenter/educator Bobbi Barkman.

“It’s encouraging for me, in this role with Foundations, that in whatever school I go to I can relay information related to the fact that all human life has value, that each person has meaning and purpose.”

Their presentations are catered to students from kindergarten to grade 12, each presentation dealing with the topics of human development, human dignity and healthy relationships, at a level appropriate to each grade.

Kevin Walker, a parishioner of St. Joseph Church in Grande Prairie who was chair of Foundations for Life from 2020 until this past year, stresses the importance of presenting these often-sensitive topics in a classroom setting. In today’s world, he noted, young people are exposed very early on to many things through the Internet, social media and through their peers. Foundations for Life provides an opportunity to give them proper and truth-based resources, amidst all the other (and often more dangerous) influences around them.

Their most consistent presentations are on human development, which provide models for youth to tangibly see what a baby looks like through all stages of development in the mother’s womb. It is something that has proven particularly impactful to the students.

“We’ve always used baby models in our presentations. These models feel and weigh the same as a baby would in development, showing the fetus at its stages of development from three months, four months and so on all the way to term. We continue to present those in the classroom, because it’s the truth of how life begins at conception,” said Walker. “Handling the models of babies, especially for kids in elementary and junior high school, is really an eye-opener. You don’t hear any of those kids say, ‘This is a product of conception.’ You hear them say, ‘This is a baby,’ – which is the fact. Bur it becomes a lot more accessible and real for them when they hold this model.

“As well, in classes the students are asked to point out the pluses and minuses of different methods of birth control. Under the negatives for abortion, the students almost always suggest ‘the baby dies’. We didn’t tell them that; this all comes from the students themselves. When they are presented with the facts, that is the response they naturally go to. It is obvious to them.

“We’ve had a few challenges over the years from some people, thinking this was too ‘direct’ in teaching what life is. But most of the challenges have faded away because the models of the fetuses are anatomically, visually and weight-wise factual. Nothing false is presented in what the fetus would look like, feel like, and what it weighs. From that, the objections usually fade.”

These anecdotes reflect how much the sanctity of life is at the very core of Foundations for Life’s work. The organization began under the title Voices for Life, starting as a prolife advocacy group in the 1970s in the aftermath of abortion’s legalization in the US and in other parts of the world.

This is only an excerpt. Read the full story in the May 2025 edition of Northern Light