Introduction
“The worst possible time to make a decision about organ donation is in the ICU. Educating young people is the key to changing culture and increasing support for organ donation.”

In Canada, public opinion about organ donation remains relatively unchanged over the last 15 years. Yet, post-pandemic mistrust in healthcare has risen. Efforts to raise awareness and fight misinformation are facing new challenges, while hundreds of Canadians die each year waiting for transplant. Consent models alone are not the answer. A comprehensive, well-funded organ donation system, with highly trained specialists is foundational. And, so too is quality – and perhaps early – school-based education that equips and enables Canadian families to make decisions about donation that save more lives. As research tells us, even young children can participate in, initiate and encourage family discussions about important social topics.

Methods: In 2020, a project identified existing organ donation education materials available in Canada and internationally. A digital resource library was created to collect and share links to programs for teachers, students and parents to use in class or at home to learn and create conversations about organ donation. Dozens of resources for a range of ages and grades, were reviewed, vetted, sorted, tagged and added to the Organ and Tissue Donation Education Portal  (learn.organtissuedonation.ca).
 

The Orgamites, a global education program for K-8, was licensed for Canada and included to fill a gap for younger students. A lack of age-appropriate material was identified by a grade 2 teacher whose son Logan became an organ donor in 2018. Logan’s legacy has inspired an interest among educators to bring this topic to classrooms. 

Canadian Blood Services partnered with the UK-based creator to license Orgamites toolkits on behalf of Canada, and adapt and make them available to teachers for free on the Portal. 

Results: The Portal launched in 2021. Comprising an ever-growing resource library, it hosts links to 35  English-language and 14 French-language resources. So far, the site has engaged more than 16,000 users and led to 114,000 user interactions that suggests that teachers and parents are leveraging the site to access educational materials for their classrooms. The Orgamites teacher toolkits have been downloaded more than 5000 times.

Conclusion: Next steps include fostering a community of educators through a teacher champion network and continued creation of materials that meet community need and are based on feedback and a study of models that are working. Focusing education programs at youth and young children by helping them understand the facts may just help to raise a generation of kind and caring people. Further work aims to secure a foundation of trust that successfully shifts Canadian culture to one where donation (and kindness) is the norm.