Boys & Girls Clubs of Canada - Homework Help

THANK YOU for your support of Boys and Girls Clubs of Canada (BGCC)! Because of you, BGCC is able to help youth like Dionne, a youth member of our Toronto Kiwanis Club, achieve their academic goals. As a result of the support provided by Boys and Girls Clubs – and a grade 10 scholarship Dionne received – she has just finished her first year of college and is excited to now be giving back to support other kids.

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“Getting a laptop in Grade 10 was the biggest burden off me. We didn’t have a computer at home and having it really made a big difference for me.”

As Dionne begins her second year in Humber College’s Child and Youth Care program, she shares that the Best Buy Grade 10 Scholarship helped her do well in high school because she could stop worrying about how she’d afford a post-secondary education.

“Getting that computer and knowing I had first my year’s tuition locked down two years in advance was the beginning of so many good opportunities. Many doors have since opened for me.”

In partnership with Boys and Girls Clubs of Canada, Best Buy Canada awards Grade 10 scholarships in a 3-step program designed to help students see post-secondary education as an achievable goal when thinking about life after high school. Dionne received a $750 Best Buy gift card to purchase a laptop in Grade 10 and then $250 in Grade 12 to help pay for post-secondary application fees. When she started college last year, the scholarship paid $4,000 to her selected college for tuition and expenses.

She says she chose child and youth work after learning about mentoring and leadership through her involvement at the Toronto Kiwanis Boys and Girls Club, where she’s been a member since the young age of 5. “My older brother worked as a leader at the Boys and Girls Club. When I saw the connections he made with the kids, I said, ‘I want to be like that. I want people to look up to me, too.’”

Having recently completed her training, Dionne is excited to begin working in the Club’s after-school program three days a week, while also attending to her full second-year course load at Humber. More than anything, she’s looking forward to her internship with a community service agency where she’ll be working with youth seeking support in shelters. Of her future, Dionne says: “I want to focus my career on youth — like helping kids post-incarceration get back on their feet and find the right path.”

With a clear handle on how to make her dream of education come true, Dionne is focused on her future prospects and dreams. After initially receiving the Best Buy scholarship, she has gone on to earn an 80% average during her first year’s studies, as well as other scholarships. She expects to have all of her tuition costs covered until the completion of her course of study.

Of her experiences to date, Dionne summarizes with a confident smile “It was a lot of work and so different from high school. But I am good at time management and I love the challenges.”

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What do you think? Are you interested in more information about how you can support Boys and Girls Clubs of Canada? Please get in touch with me at pwalker@bgccan.com or 1-844-477-7272 x232

Thanks to our wonderful donors and national partners, we are helping kids every day through programs like Power Up!

The Power Up! program allows children aged six to 12 to try new things, develop important life and learning skills and most importantly, have fun!

For many of us, reading and writing are basic skills we take for granted. But for some young people, literacy and comprehension can be a real challenge.

Fortunately, help is available at Boys and Girls Clubs, where children and youth get the extra support they need to succeed academically through the dynamic academic enrichment program, Power Up!

Supported by Fidelity Investments for over 10 years, Power Up! provides the tools and environment necessary for young people to develop positive study habits, set and achieve academic goals and receive homework help from volunteer tutors and mentors.

The program’s impact on the young people in Thunder Bay (ON), for example, has been huge.

“We have seen a significant increase in children’s reading and writing skills…. Their confidence level goes up when they are able to tell us they can read a book from start to finish or even do something as simple as recite their phone number,”

Boys and Girls Club of Thunder Bay’s Program Director Lee-Ann Skirving said.

“We had one child in Grade 5 who had extreme difficulty with reading, writing and comprehension. He was very ashamed and did not want us (Club staff) to know. We have worked hard with him to strengthen these skills and now he is in Grade 9 and able to write his own resume to get into the workforce. I believe Power Up! made a real difference in the life of this particular youth and continues to do so for many more.”

It’s a similar story across the country.

For Dieppe Boys and Girls Club (NB), the introduction of Power Up! enhanced the learning modules already in place, by helping children to set and achieve goals, said staff member Ray LeBlanc.

“We know that this program works because the children like the activities, they are learning—even if they don’t always know it.”

Boys and Girls Club of Charlottetown (PE) Interim Director Jessica Mackenzie said the Power Up! program enabled the Club to run a free mentoring and tutoring program called “Boost” for youth who needed assistance with their homework and reading.

“The program provided one-on-one support weekly for up to 40 children and was extremely well-received,” said Jessica. “We saw growth in each child participating, especially in their attitudes toward homework and school in general. The volunteers were so excited to share the improvements of the children as the program went on.”

Club member Alex, 10, said he loved coming to the Club to complete his homework.

“Sometimes, I am a slower learner and it takes me a long time to get it done at home—so here (at the Club) I can get it done, get help and I don’t feel as frustrated,” he said. “I am happier at school because I have done it too.”

THANK YOU for your support of programs that provide homework help to children and youth across Canada!