Students at Prince Charles School are benefiting from the Partnerships Assisting Local Schools program, initiated to help children become productive adults by using mentoring as a tool to develop educational and social skills. The program has produced positive results at the school.
Mentoring program provides building blocks to success
Sandra Davis
Published Friday January 5th, 2007
Appeared on page C1
Editor's Note: What follows is the second in a series of six articles reporting on a local initiative that uses mentoring as a tool to tackle poverty and illiteracy in Saint John.
For those who haven't heard about the good work volunteers associated with the Partnerships Assisting Local Schools (PALS) program are doing at Prince Charles School, read these teasers:
Since PALS' inception six years ago, 50 per cent more alumni of the Union Street school are graduating from high school.
Families that, in the past, would never have dreamed of sending their children to this inner-city school are instead, singing its praises.
And on the social front, vandalism at the mall next door has all but disappeared.
Not bad - not bad at all.
Prince Charles is the flagship for PALS, and is the template for how schools and corporations can team up and help pave the way for children to become productive adults.
Since 140 employees from J.D. Irving, Limited employees teamed up with the kindergarten to Grade 8 school six years ago, more students are finishing their education, says principal Don Britten, who has been tracking the progress of his former students during their high school years.
A half dozen years ago, only 40 per cent of Prince Charles students were graduating from high school; today, that has increased to 60 per cent.
On top of that, says vice-principal Lynn Rector, over the past two years, three or four families in the neighbourhood that would normally not have considered sending their children to what once was perceived as a tough, have-not school have decided it's the right place for them after all.
"It's made it a more homogeneous mix," says Rector.
Prince Charles serves the city centre where up to 48 per cent of families are poor, according to Statistics Canada. Of the school's 200 students, 60 to 80 show up for a free breakfast that's served every day to any student who wants it, no questions asked.
"They enjoy their breakfast here. They're looking for that contact with the volunteers who send them off to the morning to their classes, happy and just feeling good about their day," says Rector. "They come to the office looking for their mentors. They just light up when they see them. They put a dance in their step and away they go."
Before J.D. Irving, Limited joined forces with the school, there was a mere handful of volunteers helping out, said Rector. "There were four from the church (Calvary Temple) who came to do breakfast a couple mornings a week and that would have been it," she said.
"Today, there are people in and out all the time, reading with children," she says. "You notice the difference in their literacy and math skills."
Every week, nearly 40 children take advantage of one-on-one sessions with reading tutors.
"Gradually, literacy skills have improved and children are willing to work at it," said Rector. "Before, they'd just say 'it's too hard.' We now have children who are trying and persevering. Students who were planning not to finish school are going on and planning to finish school. That's a real difference. Children are talking in terms of 'when I finish school,' instead of 'if I finish school.' "
Rector doesn't have specific numbers but says that, during provincial testing, more students are falling within the 'appropriate' range for their literacy skills.
"It isn't that it's not still an area that needs growth, but before we probably never would have had any 'strong' performance, and now we will have a few 'strong' performance, more in the 'appropriate' development area and fewer with 'need improvement', " she said.
J.D. Irving volunteers help with the 40-member Chess Club and with cooking and serving breakfast, as well as preparing learning materials, coaching, helping to publish the school newspaper, PCS Flash and teach children how to knit. They man the library, provide work-placement opportunities at JDI, help out on ski trips, take tours to the Irving Nature Park and lend a hand with the float in the Christmas parade.
Lunch is also served to the children every day at school. It's free one day a week and the cost is under $2 on other days. Students who can't afford the small fee have other options nearby, like the Saint John Boys and Girls Club whose volunteers feed hungry children lunch daily.
On a winter's day, J.D. Irving volunteer Shawna Fenton and nine-year-old Mikayla Brookins read a book together, volunteers Bonnie Taylor and Patti Stevens create Christmas cards with Kelly Earle, 10, and Michaela Burge, 9.
At the same time, JDI's Marilyn Hebert is arriving to spend some time with a couple of youngsters just to talk, or maybe colour or draw. Her mission is help make the girls, who are 10 and 11, feel good about themselves.
The relationship is teaching the children to give back, too.
Art students painted Christmas designs on the JDI
windows, and members of the school's Leadership Committee unloaded trucks at the Community Food Basket and stocked the shelves of the Charlotte Street operation. Some even opt to work around the school during their summer vacation.
Prince Edward Square is also benefiting from the partnership, says mall manager Stan Baird, whose sons attended Prince Charles and are the family's fourth generation to settle in the community.
"I know the neighbourhood," says Baird. "I knew the problems of the past and I don't see that today. I see boys and girls planting flowers, I see them picking up garbage during recess and playing properly. We have no problems whatsoever with graffiti or vandalism from the students of Prince Charles. We used to..."
Before PALS, the school had a hard time forming a school/parent advisory committee, says Bev MacDonald, education director for District 8. Today, the school has a fully functioning group of parents helping support the school.
"By seeing the mentors come and go and seeing the type of things they do, the whole atmosphere has changed," says MacDonald. "Prince Charles is now, truly, a community school. The children, the families, the teachers and the community at large are involved in supporting the growth and education of all of these children."
MacDonald recalls the day she was approached by J. K. Irving about PALS, an initiative of the Business Community Anti-Poverty Initiative (BCAPI) to help poor children succeed in school. The hope is that, by providing positive role models and additional resources, attitudes will change and the poverty cycle will be broken.
Because JDI's head office is a stone's throw from the school, employees saw the need as they passed by every day. The fit was a natural one.
"They said, 'we're right here in their backyard and we want to do something at Prince Charles School. Can you help us?' " MacDonald recalls that first meeting.
Today, the partnerships that have been formed go well beyond mentoring, says MacDonald.
"These people are feeding kids. They do clothing drives in their corporations. They coach, they sit down and read with children, or just be their friend."
Tomorrow: Reports on what's happening with the Partnerships Assisting Local Schools program at three other city schools.
