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This episode, we’re taking you through a day in the life of a student at the fictional school where everyone can succeed as we explore how the All In For Youth program holistically supports students.
Do Local Good is a podcast created by United Way of the Alberta Capital Region and the team of volunteers on the GenNEXT Cabinet. We feature stories and people from the Edmonton region to inform, inspire, and invite others to join us in building resilient and thriving communities. Listen in to learn about some of the local good already happening, and how you can be a part of the force for good!
INTRODUCTION
[Noreen] Hi, I’m Noreen Remtulla.
[Andrew] And I’m Andrew Mason. And this is the season finale of Peace Out Poverty, the podcast that gives you a local perspective on social issues, and shows you how you can get involved.
Today, we’re talking about education; how poverty can impact a young person’s academic success, and what folks in the Alberta Capital Region are doing to bridge the learning gap.
[BEAT]
[Andrew] How did you like your time in grade school? If you weren’t worrying about money during those times, maybe it wasn’t so bad. Parts of it were probably even fun! Learning to share, count, and read in those first few grades, discovering the world around you in math, science, and social studies, those middle years we don’t like to talk about, and finally, preparing for adulthood at the end of high school. Pretty standard stuff.
Well, for many in the Alberta Capital Region, school is a bit more complicated. When you can’t afford the basics – lunches, supplies, new clothes – grade school can be a touchy subject. Teachers and staff do their best to support their students, but with limited time and resources, some students fall behind. It’s hard to learn if you’re hungry. You can’t keep up with your homework if you don’t have stationary or have a computer at home. And not being able to afford field trips, hot lunches, or being on the sports team can be alienating.
I think we can all agree, especially after these last few years, that schools are doing their best to support students. No school is perfect... but. What if there was one? What if there was a perfect school? What would that even look like? Well, here’s the Peace Out Poverty perspective: The perfect school would be built from the ground up to support all students to be successful, especially those living in poverty and precarious situations.
Easy for us to say, right? Well, let’s show you. This is going to be one of our more ambitious episodes, because today, we’re taking you through a day in the life of a student at the fictional school where everyone can succeed. Welcome to the Peace Out Poverty Academy for Successful Youngsters, or what we like to call... POP Academy.
INTERLUDE 1
[SFX] Alarm goes off and is then silenced
[Noreen] It’s Friday morning and it’s time get ready for school. Here, in a small, cluttered bedroom, we meet Rey, the student we’ll be shadowing for today. Rey is in the 10th grade at POP Academy, a K-12 public school that opened up in the city a few years ago. After getting ready, Rey heads downstairs to grab something for breakfast, and maybe even pack a lunch. They open up the fridge... and there isn’t much there. This happens more than Rey would like to admit.
The house is quiet; Rey’s parents have already left for work. Neither of them will get back home until later in the evening. Both parents work over 40 hours a week at their jobs, but after bills and expenses, sometimes there isn’t much left. Rey sighs, closes the fridge, and heads out the door to catch the bus. Thankfully, Rey's bus pass is subsidized by the school; otherwise, they’d have to walk. After a 30-minute ride and a short walk, Rey arrives at the front entrance of the Academy. But before heading straight to their first class, they make a stop at the cafeteria.
POP Academy has a universal meal program, providing free meals and snacks to anyone and everyone who needs them. Rey grabs a piece of toast and jam from the Nutrition Support Worker and they chat for a while. But we'll have to come back to this later, because the bell has rung and it’s time for first block.
[SFX] School bell/buzzer rings briefly
[Noreen] POP Academy is able to offer many different options for students. The school focuses on providing students with 21st century skills alongside the regular curriculum, all to help prepare students for an increasingly uncertain and dynamic future. Trades like construction and mechanics offer hands-on experiences, instill practical skills, and prepare students interested in pursuing skilled trades later on. Performing and Fine Arts options let students explore different mediums for expression, hone their chosen craft, and build the skills needed for creative careers.
Rey’s first class of the day is Computer Science. Rey’s always been interested in all things digital, specifically video game design. So, when they had the opportunity to take Computer Science 10 as an option, they signed up immediately.
Yesterday’s assignment was to write some code for a basic game. A simple script to make a character walk forward. The problem is that Rey doesn’t have a computer at home. There’s one tablet that the family shares, but that’s about it.
But Rey was able to get their work done because POP Academy has a laptop loaning program.
The laptop Rey often takes home with them is one of the many school supplies the Academy provides to students to ensure they can keep up with their courses. Rey unpacks their bag and settles in for 80 minutes of instruction.
[SFX] Typing on keyboard briefly, dies down.
INTERVIEW 1
[Andrew] To learn about how having the right tools for the job can make all the difference for a student here in the real world, we spoke with Kris Simpson.
[Kris] My name's Kris Simpson and I am the principal. Very honored to be the principal here at Spruce Avenue School, pronouns: she, her, and yeah, I'm excited for the conversation.
I can hear students in the background, in the fitness center, every once in a while you hear somebody who's really lifting something major. So you might hear that in the background. But hey, it's, it's physical fitness. That's a good thing.
Well, we are very fortunate. We've got some incredible community partners to support our students and learning at Spruce Avenue.
So we are partnered with All in for Youth. They are the people that kids feel very connected to in addition to their teachers. Our All in For Youth team really helps to support all of the students in the building. And that would not be possible without the support through United Way. So really, really important to have those people in the building.
[Andrew] This is as good of a time as any to admit that we haven’t been 100% honest with you. The idea of the school where everyone succeeds isn’t completely original. In fact, this episode is largely inspired by a collaboration funded by United Way with that very same mission. It’s called All In For Youth.
We spoke a bit about this program in our last episode, but to catch you up; All In For Youth is a program that brings together multiple community-serving organizations to provide children and youth with social supports directly in their schools.
The program runs in 8 Edmonton Public and Edmonton Catholic Schools, and supplies afterschool programs, mentorship, mental health support, nutrition support, coaching and more. The staff providing these services work in the school on a full-time basis, and can be accessed by teachers, administration, and students.
Spruce Avenue Public School has been a part of the program since it started in 2016.
Now, with that off our conscience, let’s talk about school supplies.
One of the benefits of being a part of the All In For Youth network is being able to access United Way’s Tools For School program.
This program collects school supplies from donors and distributes them to students in need across the Alberta Capital Region. In 2020, the program provided almost $500,000 worth of supplies! This includes binders, notebooks, writing utensils, and importantly, backpacks.
[Kris] This is my seventh school with Edmonton Public, and we've always been the recipients of Tools for School because we know that some families that's just an extra struggle in the fall to make sure they have all of the equipment you need to be ready for school. And I think that some families have to make a choice when it comes to finances about, you know, can we afford all of these things are often a lot of things to make learning happen.
So Tools for School has been really, just, a, helps everybody start the school year in the same place. So I think that partnership just allows kids to have pencils when they need them and all of those pieces of equipment that accompany learning.
I will tell you that during the pandemic, that became more important than ever, because I don't know if everybody knows this but, we didn't use lockers. We haven't used our lockers during the pandemic because they're very hard to clean and it's very hard to also, make sure that kids stay in their cohorts, which has been a really important protocol for keeping kids safe in schools. So lockers haven't been in use. So the Tools for School backpacks have been essentially junior high lockers during this pandemic.
And we heard from lots of families just saying they appreciated it because it was one less thing to do to get ready for school during a pandemic, they didn't have to worry about going to five different places when they didn't necessarily feel safe in the community, looking for the right pencils or the right notebooks or something like that. And, and knowing that everybody was getting the same thing, there's a sense of equity there.
[Andrew] Without the right supplies to take notes in class or complete assignments, a student inevitably falls behind in their learning.
And that’s if the student comes to class at all. It’s understandably frustrating to attend a class, only to have the content go over your head.
[Kris] I'm assuming most of your listeners will have been in junior high at some point in their life. I know I, you know, everyday when I come in here, I do have these flashes of my own junior high experience and what my own children are now experiencing in junior high.
And I think there's always that piece of not really wanting to stand out in junior high, unless it's because you have this flamboyant character and, you know, but for those reasons, for reasons of not having, we don't ever want anybody to feel like they don't have access to education and they don't have, they don't have a right to be included because that's a really, really important part of just everything we do with Edmonton Public Schools to provide that safe and welcoming and inclusive environment. Ultimately, when you don't think you have the right tools, it's hard to feel like you're going to be successful.
It's hard to feel like, you know, I'm already at a disadvantage or I, I spent half the lesson worrying about not having the equipment or I don't have a binder to put this paper in and then you're not actually listening to the learning, taking place. So removing those barriers is really important.
And when you're an adult, maybe those things don't seem as prevalent because you figured out how to problem solve around those things. But if you're in a situation where, you know, you're living in a global pandemic and you know there are concerns in, in your home and or you came cause he had woke up late, those things become the big things.
So to be able to take care of those things, it, it matters here.
[Andrew] If you’ve needed to work, go to school, or even see a doctor in the past two years, you know how important access to digital technology and the internet has been.
Things like high-speed internet and computer hardware have quickly become base necessities. Kris talks about how having access to the right tools helps students now, and even beyond their time in junior high.
[Kris] Beyond just the everyday teaching and learning and being able to connect with their teachers and supports in the school. One of the pieces is they've been able to connect with each other during a pandemic, because I mean, think about being a teenager. Your, your family's important, your teachers are important, but nothing's more important than friends.
So this has allowed a lot of social connection outside of school. So having access to technology has allowed students to stay connected and have that social time and maintain those relationships and that's everything when your a youth.
So access to technology is a pretty big deal we've been able to support lots of great learning digitally. I think it's kind of a reality of 21st century learner. You have to have some digital sense. We learned alongside students.
We have an amazing partnership with, an insurance company, MHK insurance, and they have started a legacy program with our grade seven students to ensure that they all have technology. To take them past their days at Spruce.
And we've also been the beneficiary of Chromebooks through United Way to put into circulation so that our kids are connected. It's hard to go anywhere where technology doesn't come into the conversation.
When we saw some COVID numbers increase just after our winter break there were some families who didn't feel comfortable sending their children to school for whatever reason. And that's part of that meets you where you're at. We thought, "Okay, well, we don't want you to feel uncomfortable." It felt great to be able to say, "all right, we can offer distance learning for your child. Do you have a Chromebook? If you don't swing by the school, we can get on to you but you can still have your child attend and not miss a minute of school because we, you can stay safely at home and then they still get the lessons every day."
[Andrew] Access to technology and supplies have helped to bridge the gap for the students at Spruce Avenue, but Kris has also noticed how the All In For Youth program has led to a larger cultural evolution at the school.
[Kris] Oh, there's so much evidence to support that programming here. And I'd say one of the biggest things is just an increase of attendance. It's really hard to teach if you can't, if we don't get you in the building. So sometimes that connection, knowing that you have somebody to talk to who, you know, doesn't have that also that ulterior motive to get your reading and doing math knowing you're going to be able to connect with a success coach that day to maybe share what happened at home or share a problem you're having with a friend, just having those critical adults who believe in you and take the time to listen, I think has been so important. When those supports are in the school, it is much easier for families to access those supports because they don't have to deal with transportation. They don't have to deal with booking appointments in the same way.
They know that those, those supports are available in the school. We have incredible staff. Teachers. And in the end for youth team who go above and beyond every day to support student needs, but they are also really collaborative in the work that they do. So if you know that there's a lot of conversation between the All in for Youth team and teachers here in the building and our support staff, just to make sure that we're all doing everything we can for student success.
And I think that collaborative piece, the kids see it, too. They know that if I'm having a bad day and I tell the success coach, I'm having a bad day, they're going to connect with my teacher if I don't have the words to do it, but they're also going to build my capacity because next time I'm going to have to talk to the teacher with their support.
It's a really great partnership and I would love to see it in all juniors.
[Andrew] And if you want to help make support the work being done at Spruce Avenue, Kris has some suggestions.
[Kris] You know, we, we talked earlier on about just the Tools for School program. We've had some conversations and her in student voice on that, they know that those tools are coming from the community. And it's kind of built up that belief that the people in the community believe in them and believe in their learning. So if anybody wanted to contribute to that organization, that that does directly impact students and their learning and allow for equity. I think the other thing, and it's going to sound like such a simple thing is build relationships with kids.
If you have time to be a mentor through Big Brothers, Big Sisters, if you have time to invest in something like that, it will pay off. Yeah. Like the dividends are huge on the other side, because it's the relationship really that is the foundation of everything we do in education.
[Andrew] Mentorship in schools.... more on that later. You can find links to donate to Tools For School, and a page to keep up with what’s going on at Spruce Avenue, in the show notes. But for now, let’s head back to school.
INTERLUDE 2
[Noreen] Teachers at POP Academy have a strong understanding of trauma-informed practices. They’re trained to stay aware of their student’s mental health, and be mindful of the fact that some students are coming from uniquely difficult backgrounds.
The students at the Academy receive similar mental health education. They’re exposed to social emotional learning practices as early as kindergarten. Living in poverty can lead to things like toxic stress, anxiety, and depression.
Social Emotional Learning, or SEL, is a practice that helps students understand and manage their feelings, and become more aware of how the world around them influences their emotions. Many things that today’s job market demand from applicants – creativity, adaptability, critical thinking – are all supported by SEL.
On top of these practices, POP Academy has invested in a full-time mental health therapist. They see students facing a variety of mental health issues.
Rey deals with anxiety and sees the therapist twice a month. Rey gets excused from class 30 minutes before lunch and heads down to the office for their appointment.
These appointments have helped Rey develop strategies for dealing with anxiety, plus they value the time they get to speak freely with the therapist. By the way, if you’d like to learn more about how mental health therapy provided in a school can help students and the surrounding community, listen to our previous episode!
When the bell goes, the appointment winds down and it’s time for lunch.
[Noreen] If you recall, Rey hasn’t packed anything to eat today. So, for lunch, we’re heading back to cafeteria to meet with the Nutrition Support Worker. The Academy’s universal meal program offers a rotating menu for lunch. Today, they’re serving sandwiches and fresh fruit.
Rey receives a tuna sandwich on whole wheat and an orange, no questions asked. Then Rey goes to sit with their friends and decompress for just a moment in a busy day.
[SFX] Crowd chatter, swells up, dies down
INTERVIEW 2
[Andrew] Similar meal programs exist here in the Alberta Capital Region, one of which is run by an organization called E4C.
Kelly Bickford met with us to discuss how the organization helps students and their families meet their basic needs.
[Kelly] So my name is Kelly Bickford and I'm manager of community and school-based programs here at E4C. And in my portfolio, I oversee quite a large variety of programming. So I oversee things involving financial empowerment, food security as well as some school-based programs including the school nutrition program, Make Tax Time Pay, which is our free tax filing service, as well as a variety of other financial empowerment and financial literacy supports we provide as wild as Art Start, which is our art therapy program. So, yeah, I oversee quite a wide variety of, poverty reduction portfolio at E4C.
But really when you boil it all down, our mission is to eliminate poverty and we do that by changing lives and growing communities. And all of our program is really focused on doing that by being a supportive and empowering presence in times of, you know, individual, family and community need.
[Andrew] E4C offers a bit of everything for everyone in Edmonton. In fact, their programs reach almost 20,000 people each year.
We asked Kelly to tell us more about the work being done in schools.
[Kelly] Probably the biggest way that we support All in for Youth and of course, most importantly, the students is through our school nutrition program. And so through our school nutrition program, the basic model that we follow is we provide food from the four food groups and it's prepared fresh every day on-site by members of the community. And it's universally accessible to all the students that go to that school. And when I say universally accessible, it's really every child that goes to that school. If they're hungry, they can access that food and eat it.
And part of the reason we do that is we want to de-stigmatize food insecurity. People shouldn't feel stigmatized for eating food when they're hungry. And I think that's a critical component of all the supports that we provide both through E4C and our partners is really trying to de-stigmatize accessing help when you need it right.
Accessing the things you need to grow and thrive. And so our school nutrition program is one of the vital ways that we provide that support.
[Andrew] Food insecurity refers to when someone does not have reliable and regular access to nutritious food.
This could be because you cannot afford it, or because you live in an area that just doesn’t have grocery stores, with the nearest place selling nutritious food being too far away. These areas are called food deserts.
According to the Edmonton Social Planning Council, 13.8% of Edmonton households reported being food insecure from 2017 – 2018.
In 2019, more than 63,000 people received a hamper from the Edmonton Food Bank.
And just weeks after the pandemic started in 2020, Food Banks Canada found that visits to food banks across the country were up by 20%.
Listen as Kelly puts these numbers into perspective for us.
[Kelly] Right now, this school year we're in 39 schools. So of course, eight of those are All in for Youth, but we have a much larger reach than just All In For Youth. And that's across, the public and the Catholic school divisions. And through that program, we're serving about 7,300 children a day if you can imagine.
And so last year, the last school year, we served over 900,000 meals. Like if you want to see someone who can assembly line, put together sandwiches in a hurry. Come mentor under our staff they'll school you any day of the week on getting 7,300, you know, servings of apples out the door.
If there's a dietary need out there, you can think of, we accommodated. We have to, like I said, when you, when you serve that many human beings every day into the, you know, over 7,000 people a day, yeah we've seen it all and we have to accommodate it all.
Shout out here to our amazing, amazing nutrition support workers.
[Andrew] Kelly explained the connection between being well-nourished and getting the most out of your education.
[Kelly] We know that when kids are hungry they can't learn and they certainly can't address some of the other challenges they're dealing with, like abuse in the home, or are struggling with a learning disability or you name it. So that's one of the critical ways I would say that we support the wellbeing of our students.
And you know, another critical component is also the nutrition education that we do with our students and our staff.
We're also doing that educational component to help kids build long-term healthy relationships with nutritious food, which is hugely important particularly in the challenging environment they have with food insecurity and, and trying to make sure they're getting the nutrition they require for their long-term health outcomes, but also their immediate learning. Like, everyone on this call has been hangry.
You know how useless you are when you're hungry, you can't do anything. Well, imagine being a child who's trying to learn, and they haven't eaten for the day and now we need to send them to a counselling session to process the sudden death of a parent. How are we going to do those required very important and impactful pieces of work when kids are hungry, it's just almost impossible. And I'm sure everyone who's listening can relate to that feeling.
The long-term, the long-term health impacts of having regular access to nutritious food. We know that the data, right. Huge impact on the long-term health outcomes. These, you know, they grow into much healthier adults with much less, you know, health problems. So that alone is huge.
The immediate impact on learning is profound. So, you know, when we ask teachers again, they're the ones in the classrooms, they're the ones that directly see the impact of feeding a child and what impact that has on their learning. You know, 97% of teachers told us that students have improved attention and concentration after they eat the meal, that's provided by E4C and 99% of them told us that the students have improved mood after they eat the meal provided by E4C.
You can imagine now the impacts, if a child is acting out in a classroom. Guess what the first thing is that our All in for Youth schools do now? They ask if they're hungry. You can imagine, right? All of us were in school, right. What did they do with kids who acted up before? You got sent to the office? Right? Insert your own experience here. I know I was one of those kids that acted out. Sometimes we got sent to the office. I can tell you I did not get offered food, which is probably what I needed.
But now, right, we know. Well, first start, "are they hungry?" Yeah. And most of the time the answer is yeah. And food, the act of grounding themselves of getting the nutrition they need, it helps them regulate and only, and then we talk about what's going on.
[Andrew] E4C’s school nutrition program is a definite asset to students. And the program brings an additional benefit to the wider community.
[Kelly] One of the things that's less talked about, but it's actually just as vitally important, I think is the support we provide to the community. We have, you know, 60 some staff who run that program. And like I said before, we hire from the community and what I mean by that, it's not just, you know, people they know and recognize from the community it's parents, it's guardians, it's their family members who are struggling with poverty, right. And so we try to be an employer for people in the community and help build them up through skill development, through having employment, being able to build micro credentials. So it's actually a really interesting and unique program.
So, you know, what we really do is work with our partners to really get to know our families and our kids and what they need at this moment in time to be successful. And if that's a meal, it's a meal. If it's a meal and their parents need to get their taxes done. So their GST and their child benefit doesn't get cut off. Then that's what it looks like. If we need to refer a child to art therapy so they can help process the sudden death in the family, through art, or make new friends to have a support system at school. Those are the sorts of things that you E4C brings onside
[Andrew] E4C aims to be responsive to the needs of the communities where they operate.
It’s not just showing up with sandwiches in hand, though that is important.
It’s more of a back and forth. A conversation.
And with the background noise of the pandemic droning on, staying informed on these needs is more important than ever.
[Kelly] We do survey the children that we serve, as well as the teachers who are involved in the program. And we seek to understand from their perspective, what they like, know what they think can be improved and just what the impact is on them. And I will tell you last year, when I read through the data from our junior high/high school you definitely can see it in their own words. They're struggling.
You know, wanting to keep their weight at a certain thing, right. Or, you know, starting to develop an eating disorder or really struggling with their body image.
This year's data. I will not be surprised if we see even more of that come through in this students' survey responses to us.
That critical component of nutrition education really takes on renewed purpose and vigor with that group and our nutrition support workers try so hard and our teachers try so hard to develop good relationships with the kids so we can see it when it's happening and we can support them so we can make sure we address that issue before it becomes chronic before it becomes out of control.
[Andrew] I think you know what comes next. Kelly, how can the listener help?
[Kelly] I think first and foremost, the most important thing anyone can do is if the only thing you do today is go and tell one other person about school nutrition program and the work we do.
Thank you. That alone, help us spread the word that is vital. Talk about the great work that's happening. If all they do is go away and talk about. What the reality of, of Edmontonians lives are in, in terms of, you know, overcoming poverty and food insecurity, spread the word to help get people, understanding the challenges that are out there.
[Andrew] Seems easy enough. Oh yeah, and there’s one more thing.
[Kelly] If you're looking to get your taxes done for free, if you are low or middle income, we can file your taxes for free. That's part of what we do in terms of our service to a community. So if you're a student. Have we got a program for you! Make Tax Time Pay. It's a free, tax filing program. We do it over the phone. It's quick, it's easy. You don't even have to have all your tax slips.
So if you want more information, you can just call 211 and they can guide you to how you access our program, or you can look us up, Make Tax Time Pay, and we offer a tax filing in about 27 different languages. So if you know someone who needs support, send them our way.
INTERLUDE 3
[Noreen] It’s the middle of the afternoon here at POP Academy. The school leaves a block of time for students to catch up on assignments and meet with teachers for extra help. This is also an opportunity for students to connect with the Academy’s support staff. The school offers counsellors that help keep students on track with their progress and academic goals. Think of them as your personal Graduation Coach!
Today, Rey is meeting with a counsellor to learn more about college. Rey wants to explore software development after graduation. So the counsellor helps them build a roadmap to get there.
Potential schools, entrance requirements, making sure Rey enrolls in the right courses at the Academy, the counsellor covers it all. Even after Rey leaves the appointment, the counsellor keeps supporting them in the background. They track Rey’s averages, collect resources, and check in every so often. Just another support to give students that extra boost.
[SFX] Bell rings briefly
[Noreen] When the final bell goes at POP Academy, the day isn’t quite over. At least, not for Rey. The Academy offers a suite of optional afterschool programs for youth. Rey likes to attend an afterschool homework club where students work on their assignments together and receive support from volunteers.
The programs are safe and supportive places to be before Rey’s parents get home from work. Plus, they’re fun. Rey picks out a spot next to some friends in the library and chats a bit before getting into math homework.
[SFX] Hushed chatter, fades away.
INTERVIEW 3
[Andrew] Wouldn’t you know it, the folks down at Boys & Girls Clubs Big Brothers Big Sisters of Edmonton provide these services here in the real world! Tracy Simon supervises these programs. We got her perspective on their success.
[Tracy] Hello, I'm Tracy Simon. I'm with Boys and Girls Club, Big Brothers, Big Sisters of Edmonton Area. And I'm one of the All In For Youth Supervisors of the OST programs within the All in for Youth project.
We are active in five schools within the inner-city community. Three of them are elementary. One is a junior high and one is a high school. Delton is one of our elementaries is John A McDougall is one of our elementaries, St. Alphonsus is one of our elementary slash junior high splits. Then we're working with Spruce Avenue School, and Eastglen.
I've been a part of the project for the last two years, which is year five and year six.
So BGCBIGS, when we enter the project, we offer two streams of programs within the All In For Youth structure. So one of them being afterschool programming, which happens during those critical hours from about 3:00 PM to 6:00 PM in the afternoon, which is in-person or virtual programs for youth looking for access to leisure, access to academic support and so on and so forth. And then the other stream that we support in is through mentorship and our mentorship stream takes on a couple of different faces. We offer virtual tutoring and virtual reading support in one-to-one mentorship.
We offer virtual one-to-one mentors and where it's really around that social, emotional development for the youth. And either of these streams can happen during the daytime at the school or after school in a virtual capacity.
[Andrew] Like everyone we spoke to today, Boys & Girls Clubs Big Brothers Big Sisters, or B-G-C-BIGS, has a lot going on! Tracy walked us through the afterschool, group programming stream first. BGCBIGS calls this OST.
[Tracy] So OST stands for out of school time, which just comes back to those hours out of school where there's not necessarily, family at home or supervision at home, that provides programming opportunities at the school.
And so some of the programs that we operate in are under five different categories. We have health and nutrition, arts and culture, general leadership, and how to live within the world. Academic support. And health and nutrition is like the fifth one.
Some of the programs that we run right now are split between two different ways. We have virtual programs that run after school, where the youth go home with a Chromebook and they sign in and they participate in these programs virtually also under the same five umbrellas. Or we have a couple of our sites right now that we're operating in person.
In a non-pandemic time, we're all in person.
Some of my favorite programs that we have going on right now include, junior high hockey program, where you from one of our local junior highs, get kitted out with all the gear they need to try hockey for the first time. And they're going through like a six week training camp with the coordinators onsite, and then they play little mini games against each other, like three on three or five on five.
Another one of my favorite programs that we running right now is one of our elementary sites has a sensory arts program.
And so what happens is this one is actually being supported in the virtual space. So you'd go home every week with a kit of sensory art pieces. So we paint with our elbows or we paint with our toes or we're building collages out of different textured materials and they learn about what sensory means and they also learn to create in a new way, which I think is really spectacular.
One of the things that I love to see at our high schools right now is really structured around the academic support and the two different streams that as an agency we're able to offer. So specifically at Eastglen High School, we get the opportunity to work with a program called Raise the Grade, which is really geared towards the academic success of the general population of the school. And then we also get to participate in a program, which is really geared around the academic and life success of our English language learners and newcomers to the school.
[Andrew] As you heard from Kelly, and now Tracy, the All In For Youth program serves students from all backgrounds, including folks coming to school with limited English language proficiency. BGCBIGS has adapted their programs to meet these particular needs.
[Tracy] So our English language learners programs are made up of students within the Eastglen population or our high school population, who are learning English, who come to Canada or come to the school through immigration or refugee status some of the specific programming that we offer when we think of BGCBigs and ELL program that we support is hiring staff members who speak languages similar to that of the individuals who are coming into the program. Across the board, Arabic is a really big, popular one that we see amongst our demographic and so we currently have two staff members who are fluent in English and Arabic who provide programming to the youth around learning the English alphabet learning things like addresses and how do I know where I'm at or how to read a map in Canada, who can speak to them about transitional supports?
[Andrew] But the students don’t just make connections with the staff in the program. Through BGCBIGS mentoring stream, they also have a chance to extend their network beyond the school. Mentorship can happen in-person and virtually.
[Tracy] One of the options is virtual mentoring. And what virtual mentoring is, is that a youth who's identified at the school of, you know, benefiting or self-identifies, which is my favorite pathway, as wanting to be in a mentoring match, gets connected to an adults in the community. One of our BGCBig volunteers, and they meet once a week right now, all of our programs, for the most part are happening virtually due to the pandemic. And hopefully it will return to an in-person capacity when it is appropriate to do so. And the whole goal of the match is to spend a little bit of time reading a little bit of time on academics a little bit time on just checking in and seeing how we're doing, a little bit more time on youth led and youth directed initiatives. So what are your interests? What are your passions? What do you got going on? Let's see if we can do something in this moment in regards to an activity that can help fuel those passions and interests, and that as a match, they will also set goals. So what do we want to accomplish with our time together?
And that can be anything from like, "Hey, I'm really struggling with finishing my comic book and I'm really into animating my comic book. Can we spend this time together also talking about that and maybe even working on it a little bit?" It could also be things like, "Hey. I get really bad anxiety when I go into a gym class, it's not my forte. Can we talk a little bit about what that looks like? And do you have any strategies to support me when I go there?"
And so we have this really fun and unique process where when we go to match a volunteer in a youth together, we're not just looking at, okay, we have a volunteer and a youth available. We're really digging in through like interviews and connection with the youth and connected with family about what are your interest. What are you looking to get out of a match and how can we connect you with somebody who's going to actually help you accomplish the goals that you're setting for yourself?
In the last couple of years, something new that we've started, it's been about three years now, is virtual tutoring and virtual reading. And this has really been a response to the learning loss that is very apparent for you over the ins and outs. Being in school, virtually being out of school, virtually being out of school with a bit of a break in those school, going on, and then trying to come back in and be embedded in that learning process has taken a toll on youth in many different ways.
And so the virtual tutoring and virtual reading program is structured very similarly to the mentoring program that we just talked about in the sense that it's a one-to-one match. We take our time to make sure that we're matching the skillset of our volunteers to the needs of our youth. And they meet once a week, but it's really focused on those academic pieces. Our virtual tutoring volunteers come to the agency and they get a bunch of training in how to be an effective tutor, how to scaffold lessons, how to listen for what the pain point of the student might be facing in terms of this math problem. I refer to math all the time cause it's my pain point is like, what is the pain point in this learning process so that we can work backwards from that pain point to build a structure of success all the way up to success within the activity that they're looking at.
And that has been a, quite a popular offering within the all three schools. We see a lot of referrals from teachers, a lot of acceptance and self-advocacy from youth for that type of support in those matches too.
[Andrew] Tracy has been involved with the All In For Youth program since the pandemic started. And in that time, she’s been able to see how the program can be a transformative experience.
[Tracy] I've had the privilege of being a part of the project and wearing many different hats. One of my favorite pieces in the role that I'm at now, being able to oversee all five sites is to return to those places where maybe I had put down roots and see the growth of the youth with even in a short period of time of 12 to 18 months.
I think of one human in particular, when I think of the benefits of the program who last year was going through some transitions in terms of self-identity.
But the growth that I see as I go back this year to do site observations, and to support the team in the programs as that they're running now, is astronomical. The social development of this young youth who found a safe place to just be quiet and be accepted, has transitioned to being this loud, boisterous and excited, vocal human pulling in other youth into a programming space where they used to just silently participate. So there's a huge social benefits and growth that can happen in programs like these.
And then to see that translate into connection, not only to our programs, but to interconnection at the school. So this youth is now like one of the people who advocate for daytime program, or if a staff member is running a special event, they want to be on the committee to help actualize that special event within the school. They want to be able to be the one to run around and give forms to their peers and their classmates to make sure that they're signing up and all of those pieces. And so that's one of my favorite pieces is to see the personal growth of the youth and to see how impactful that can be when they're given the opportunities, the tools and the resources to do that growing.
[Andrew] If you can see yourself as one of the mentors helping to make a change in the life of a student, Tracy has some advice.
[Tracy] Number one, I always would refer any listener to go to our website. The website is very robust in terms of volunteer opportunities or even information regarding what is the agency active in? What are some of the different areas that we're surfing in inside All in for Youth and beyond. So always to go there and to take a look. I would encourage anybody who's even mildly interested to start the application process, because the first thing that that's going to get you is a conversation with an enrollment facilitator who can answer some of those nitty gritty questions that you might have coming up about; what does this look like for me? What is the commitment?
The second thing that I would recommend is BGCBigs is very active on Instagram and also has a LinkedIn account where updates about our projects can also be found. And then the third thing specifically, if you've heard this episode and you're incredibly passionate about the concept of wraparound supports and the All in for Youth movement within the city, there is a designated website for All in for Youth, through the United Way, which is very detailed in terms of the outcomes. What have we seen over the last five years of the project and what do we continue to hope to see as the project continues.
So I, I love the All In For Youth movement. I love the structure of the project itself. I love having the agencies working in partnership, not only through emails and communication, but in offices and in meetings, face-to-face at the school with the youth. And I would just say that it's something that I would vote for a continuation and even a greater expansion to, to all schools.
[Andrew] Well, we couldn’t write a better call to action if we tried. But speaking of youth, I wonder how Rey’s doing?
CONCLUSION
[Noreen] With the school day over, and the afterschool program ending, Rey leaves POP Academy and heads into the weekend. They were given a small hamper of essentials to take home; this will help tide things over until the family can go grocery shopping again.
Before POP Academy opened, school was a big source of anxiety for Rey. But since transferring to the Academy, Rey has come to like school. When provided the right tools and surrounded by people with a vested interest in their success, things begin to shift. Their life is still not perfect, but now, Rey is truly looking forward to school on Monday.
[Andrew] POP Academy doesn’t actually exist. But it could! Through the All In For Youth program, 8 schools in the Alberta Capital Region are already receiving many of the supports that Rey does. And like each of our guests mentioned, these are supports from which all schools could benefit.
Schools are much more than places for raw academic success. There is a strong social component to schools as well. These are places to explore your interests, to be creative, to get inspired! Teachers, administrators, and caregivers work very hard to support young learners, but they don’t have to do it alone. With the right supports in place, everything becomes so much more attainable.
We know that this sort of program doesn’t come about easily. Nor does it come cheap. The show notes are full of links to support the mission of All In For Youth. But beyond that, we need to make a larger, long-term investment in public education to ensure that every school is equipped to meet the needs of an increasingly complex student population.
And to make sure that schools are a place where everyone can succeed.
OUTRO
[Noreen] This has been Peace Out Poverty, a podcast by GenNEXT. This episode was hosted by Noreen Remtulla and Andrew Mason. It was written by Tokunbo Adegbuyi. Interviews were done by Rebecca Price and Tokunbo Adegbuyi. This episode was produced by Castria.
This is our last episode of this season, and we’ve had so much fun putting this show together. Thank you so much for listening and exploring this space with us. We’re taking a break for a little while, and will return with season 2 of Peace Out Poverty later this year. We hope you’re looking forward to it as much as we are.
GenNEXT is a volunteer committee of United Way of the Alberta Capital Region. If you’d like to learn more or find out how you can be a part of the plan to end poverty, visit MyUnitedWay.ca.