A heart for mission has been in the DNA of the North American movements from the beginning. Christian graduates from Canada and the US have played a critical role in world mission, with thousands being influenced by the triennial Urbana Student Missions Conference.

In InterVarsity/Canada, there has been a concerted effort in recent years to reach high school students, in response to the concerning rates of young people leaving the church between school and university. IFES is currently supporting the start of 28 new groups across the two Canadian movements. InterVarsity/USA has recently co-launched the Every Campus initiative, which aims to see a Christian witness established on the remaining 77% of the country’s unreached campuses.

One of the region’s current priorities is to empower students to start groups in unreached corners of the campus. Students thinking missionally has led to new outreach initiatives among student refugees, international students, ethnic minority groups, Mormons, the deaf community, and many more sub-cultures.