|
It happens every year, while we cling to the last days of warm weather, the school year returns. As students, parents and educators engage in the ‘rites of Fall’, so do a host of local not-for-profit organizations working across the province to enhance education and level the playing field for all, particularly for students at risk.
We now accept it as fact that academic success begins well before a child enters school. Yet many children entering junior kindergarten have not encountered even the most basic early learning activities. To bridge the readiness-to-learn gap for these prekindergarteners and their families, The Learning Partnership (TLP) developed a Welcome to Kindergarten program. The program features, among other things, a “welcome bag” stocked with early learning resources for kids and practical guidance for parents on how to use them. When preschoolers open their welcome bag and find that first pair of safety scissors or books with letters they can recognize in their own names, they are getting an important preview of the learning experience that awaits them in school.
The Learning Partnership is a not-for-profit organization that brings together business, education, government and community representatives to strengthen education. At orientation sessions held in the spring for parents, the organization demonstrates how to use the materials in the welcome bag and provides literature in 19 languages. Demand for its program is strong. This past spring, TLP distributed bags to over 12,000 families and anticipates a need for as many as 20,000 bags next year.
Providing a good start to education is – well, a good start. To keep the momentum going, other not-for-profit organizations, such as Actua, focus on older students. In partnership with its member organizations, Actua is planting the seeds for a diverse and talented workforce. It has exposed over two million young Canadians to hands-on science, engineering and technology programs. Every year, Actua taps into the energy and enthusiasm of over 1,000 undergraduate students and volunteers to deliver workshops, camps and community initiatives to more than 215,000 youth in 375 communities.
Through its national reach, Actua strengthens the scientific and technical literacy of girls and minorities that have traditionally been underrepresented in these fields, such as Aboriginals and children from low-income families along with youth living in rural and remote areas.
This summer, an Actua member, Virtual Ventures, hosted a Girls’ Week summer camp in Ottawa, where girls in grades five through eight built their own website and created electronic projects. The camp included a mentorship component so the girls could meet face to face with scientists and engineers. Another Actua member, Science Outreach, offered science-themed workshops in the GTA to close to 1,500 young people of African Caribbean descent. For the younger kids, there were activities such as Chemical Magic, while older participants built miniature race cars, motor boats and basketball courts.
It seems that regardless of where Canadian children live, they often know more about our US neighbours than they do about their own country. How often have you heard parents lament, They can tell me who George Washington is but not where Vimy Ridge is! Enter Historica.
To bring Canadian history to life and celebrate our distinct national character, Historica hosts student fairs in grades four through nine. The program, delivered by teachers in the classroom, allowed last year over 49,000 Ontario students to explore Canadian history through a project of their choosing. Projects ranged from the expected, such as prime ministers, Confederation and Louis Riel, to the unexpected, such as ‘the history of the fire station in my neighbourhood’ or ‘how my family made the decision to come to Canada’.
Historica also offers cyber support for older students. It owns and maintains the Canadian encyclopedia on-line, which has more than a million visitors every month. They’re also the folks who bring us history vignettes on TV and in movie theatres.
And at the most local level, there are homework clubs for those who need after-school help. For example, the East Scarborough Storefront, a partnership of local residents and community-based agencies, runs a Homework Club to support students in the Tamil community. A dynamic combination of volunteers and community members have come together to help create more positive learning attitudes and outcomes for students.
It takes a village to raise a child. It takes community-based organizations like The Learning Partnership, Actua, Historica and the East Scarborough Storefront to bolster and supplement learning at various ages and stages. It takes organizations like the Ontario Trillium Foundation and governments to support and sustain those community-based activities. So this month, as children and youth are returning to school, remember the “village” of organizations, volunteers and community groups that are enhancing education in Ontario. In the end, better outcomes spell success for us all.
Helen Burstyn is Chair of the Board of the Ontario Trillium Foundation, an agency of the Government of Ontario and a funder of the organizations highlighted.
|