Mission, governance, and the parts we haven’t built yet.
AWARE Community Foundation brings betting-risk education to Alberta’s high-school and youth club teams, delivered by university athletes from the same sport. We are an independent Alberta non-profit company, incorporated in 2026. We are early, and we would rather say so than dress the page up with stock photos of a team we have not hired.
What AWARE stands for
Alberta Wagering Awareness & Responsible Education. The name is the job: helping young athletes understand a betting market that reaches them long before they can legally take part. “Community Foundation” is our legal name and our posture. We answer to Albertans, not to the industry that funds us.
What we do
Betting-risk education for under-18 athletes, boys and girls, on Alberta’s high-school and youth club teams. A university athlete from the same sport delivers each session in the team’s own space, with the coach present. We teach risk, not technique: the law, how betting reaches young people, integrity as they move up, and where help lives. We also brief coaches and athletic directors, and give families a free guide.
Where this ends up
An Alberta where every young athlete has had the conversation once, properly, before it mattered. They know betting under 18 is illegal. They know the integrity rules waiting for them at 18. They know what to do if someone approaches them or abuses them over a bet. And they know where help lives, as do the coaches and parents around them.
An arm’s-length board majority, pooled funding with no program credit, no funder branding anywhere near minors, and audited, published accounts. Each built in from the start.
Built to deliver established content. We intend to seek to become the Alberta delivery partner for the Responsible Gambling Council’s Beyond the Game, subject to RGC’s agreement, and to add an Alberta module. A third party evaluates our work from Year 1.
In the team’s own space, with the coach present, by a university athlete who plays the same sport. Not a portal module assigned in August and clicked through in September.
Why a sport figure, and what that obliges us to disclose
This program needs three things at once: trust inside sport, the confidence of parents and schools, and standing with government. That combination is rare, and it is the reason AWARE exists at all. It also creates conflicts that we would rather publish than be asked about.
Why team access can’t be bought
Schools and clubs do not open their team rooms to sportsbooks, and they shouldn’t. A program like this has to be invited in by schools and clubs, through people sport already trusts. AWARE was founded by a Canadian sport executive for exactly that reason.
Interests, declared
All three founding directors, including the co-founder and interim chair, declared no interests on 9 October 2026. Every director makes the same written declaration every year, and any interest is published on the register and managed under our conflict-of-interest policy, the same policy that binds every director and officer, including recusal from any decision where an interest could reasonably be seen to bear on the outcome.
Operator money, youth programs
Funding comes from licensed gaming operators. That is a real tension, and it matters more when the athletes are under 18. Our answer is structural: an independent board majority before any funding is signed, pooled funding with no program credit, no funder branding anywhere near minors, no funder editorial control, no athlete ever supplied to a partner’s marketing, and accounts published in full. The mechanics are here →
What we’d decline
Funding conditional on curriculum content. Any funder name, logo or mark in a session, material or communication for under-18 athletes, schools or clubs. Any request to connect a funder to an ambassador, school, club or session. Any arrangement presenting our ambassadors as brand ambassadors. Exclusivity that would let one operator lock competitors out of a public-safety program. If a term makes the education less believable, it costs more than it pays.
Governance, honestly
Our adopted policies and declared interests are published here → We’re at the beginning. Three founding directors, with a co-founder as interim chair; an independent majority is being recruited before any funding agreement is signed. This page changes as roles fill.
Board & chair
Three founding directors, with a co-founder as interim chair; an independent majority is being recruited before any funding agreement is signed. The founding directors are Victor Cui (co-founder, interim chair and Privacy Officer), Kah Boon Lee, and Christopher Kir-Chen Feng (interim Safeguarding Lead). Independent directors will be arm’s-length from the gaming industry, each listed here with credentials and an independence statement. The board profile adds two requirements: at least one director with sport-integrity expertise, and at least one athlete voice.
Independent directors: recruiting nowExecutive director & team
Role and mandate, not compensation. No staff or leadership pay at AWARE is tied to sessions delivered or athletes reached, and there are no volume bonuses.
Hired once funding is signedAdvisors
Sport integrity, safeguarding and youth sport, athlete welfare, public health, and government relations. Names and domains are listed once appointments are confirmed, not before.
Recruiting nowWhat happens when
- 2026, so farIncorporated as an Alberta non-profit company under the Companies Act (Corporate Access No. 5128599791). Four policies adopted on 9 October 2026 and published on our governance page. All three founding directors declared no interests the same day. As of October 2026, AWARE has no agreement or partnership with any regulator, operator, the Responsible Gambling Council, school or sport body.
- Oct – Nov 2026No operator funding agreement until a majority of our directors are independent. Recruitment of independent directors continues.
- Dec 2026 – Mar 2027Conversations, in this order: the Responsible Gambling Council, about Beyond the Game; Alberta university athletic departments, about ambassadors; then School Sport Alberta and school divisions. An executive director hired once funding is signed. Independent evaluator and research-ethics approval in place.
- Apr – Jun 2027First cohort of University Athlete Ambassadors recruited, screened and trained. Pilot sessions with a small number of high-school and club teams in spring sports.
- Summer 2027Family Guide published: free, printable, and never behind an email wall.
- Sep 2027Full launch with fall high-school sports, such as volleyball, football, soccer and cross-country.
- 2027–28 seasonProvince-wide youth baseline study fielded, with parental consent and research-ethics approval.
- After Year 1First audit and first independent evaluation, both published here in full, whatever they say.