In honour of Brila's big birthday, we are building a new website and training platform! In the meantime, you can learn a bit about our approach and projects on this temporary page.
Brila is an educational charity committed to inspiring youth and communities through philosophical dialogue and creative projects. Our workshops, camps, trainings and consultations encourage participants young and old to wonder aloud about life’s big questions and express their ideas through our signature Philocreation® approach. If you’ve got quirky, caring brains, Brila projects are for you!
Discover our new headquarters in the wilderness just one hour north of Montréal! This beautiful 96-acre space boasts a lake, a forest, a field, eco-friendly lodgings and more, to enable truly immersive philocreative experiences in nature for youth and communities. We are so excited to be launching our camps, workshops and trainings in the great outdoors as of the summer of 2023!
Our blog will be live again soon! For now, here are our top stories...
In a world overflowing with complex issues, Brila feels it is crucial to curate immersive and collaborative philosophical spaces that promote human growth for curious humans to explore and enact what matters to them so they can grow in their confidence as capable, considerate thinkers. Philosophy should belong to everyone, so Brila wants to help democratize it!
Since 2007, Brila has been developing its signature Philocreation® approach that offers hundreds of hours of original, fully bilingual educational programming for thinkers of all ages. Fusing different kinds of philosophical dialogues and unique creative projects, this approach inspires participants to playfully and rigorously engage with the concepts that are most alive in their lives, and share their ideas in our philosophical magazines. Brila’s pedagogical materials have been tested with thousands of brilliant youth and hundreds of inspired educators, and form the focus of longitudinal studies on the positive impacts of creative philosophy. Brila is a proud member of the global network for public philosophy and the international Philosophy for/with Children (P4wC) movement, endorsed by UNESCO for its commitment to peace-building.
For more than 17 years, we have had the chance of witnessing amazing humans grow up with our philocreative programs! Meet some of our long-standing participants and parents:
what parents are saying...
AFTER A DECADE WITH BRILA
"I think it’s a very welcoming, accepting environment so my girls have felt very free to be themselves, to express themselves, to ask questions that are outside the normal realm."
"Since arriving in Canada, my sons feel part of something important so they have a responsibility to build toward a more peaceful atmosphere of discussion."
"I’ve spent two-thirds of my life at Brila! Without philosophy, I wouldn’t have learnt there is a whole world to explore: your mind. I love the hands-on creative projects and the perspectives."
"I keep coming back because Brila is something special. It has really changed me—forged and sculpted part of my personality for the better. Transformation is the word to describe it!"
"It's so fun! You get to think about things a lot more deeply than just a surface level and realize that your actions have real impact and realize your reasons for doing things."
what apprentices are saying...
AFTER TRAINING WITH BRILA
"I think everyone should go through this training! I see it as a deepening and a widening of perspectives on philosophical facilitation. Philocreation gives so many tools and aids to make the process both playful and rigorous."
"What keeps me coming back is I feel like my way of thinking is finally challenged and welcomed at the same time, which is truly the best experience possible. Sharing beautiful thinking with other wonderful people!"
These films were made on the unceded territory of the Algonquin people.
Brila’s philosophical magazines—or “philozines”—come alive with the ideas and creations of our participants, from powerful words and drawings to inventive photos and multimedia. Check out some of our latest issues:
Can belief be scary? This philozine explores the nature of belief and our fears over what we cherish most.
How can teens find their voice? This philozine dives deep into taking action for the environment and citizenship.
What does it mean to know? This philozine uses comics to consider the tricky dimensions of knowledge.
We are working on a new training platform full of Philocreation® materials! In the meantime, discover these free educational resources to launch your mind adventures:
Imagine a world where concepts are alive and living in community, as creatures with their own thoughts and feelings. Now imagine we could visit this Land of Wonder… with a very special guide: Philosophy! What might happen? What could we learn? This music video “Dancing in your Mind” features young philosophers from Brila telling an imaginative tale about following the concept of Philosophy on its creative path. Watch the video then download the free workshop plan that offers a series of Philocreation® activities for kids ages 9 and up!
An online platform with over a hundred free activities of creative reflection and conceptual play for youth and their families, developed with the University of Montreal.
An award-nominated series with Radio Canada featuring our expert young philosophers discussing with leading thinkers on everything from art and power to the environment.
A series of concept-driven comics with the magazines Les Explorateurs and Les Débrouillards for kids ages 6 to 12, including the award-winning books Les Oizofilos.
Oh, you generous thing! If you are willing and able, we'd love your support, whether through a donation of funds or equipment. As an educational charity committed to ethics and sustainability, we make the most of every penny and appreciate any gifts. All donations are tax deductible.
Brila means “brilliant” and “bright” in Esperanto, which is fitting as we believe shiny brains are far better than lacklustre ones! Plus, we chose a name that defies boundaries since we work in multiple languages with many cultures, from Indigenous communities to immigrant families.
Brila’s space is situated in Lanaudière, Québec, Canada, one hour north of Montréal. We acknowledge that our headquarters is located in the unceded territory of the Algonquin people.
