By Renée Rietveld
The creation of a new after-school homework club in the Somerset community of Mechanicsville will benefit more than just students who are looking for some extra help. “It was recognized as a high needs area,” says Eileen Dooley, vice-president of community services for United Way/Centraide Ottawa, a co-sponsor of the project. “There are a lot of new Canadian immigrants, low-income families and single parent families in this area that are struggling.”
Some of these families live in a nearby emergency family shelter.
Desiree Rapoch, who runs the Somerset West Community Health Centre’s program, says it will be more than a place where kids can get homework help. It will also be a quiet escape.
“For a lot of these kids, especially the ones in the shelter, they don’t even have the physical space to lay out their homework and get it done,” she says “So this provides that space for them.”
Dooley says she hopes the club will also become a meeting point for children and parents who would otherwise have trouble finding links to the community. She says newly immigrated parents often aren’t familiar with the Canadian school system, which can make it difficult for them when trying to help their children with schoolwork.
“A really important part of being Canadian is our school system,” says Dooley. “And so is immigration — it is fuelling our labour force growth and population growth. There is a tremendous need for these kinds of bridging programs in our community.”
The Mechanicsville homework club will be held after school on weekdays at the Laroche Park Field House off Bayview Road.
School supplies will be donated by Rogers Communications, and they will have access to computers and the Internet — a great luxury for those who cannot afford computers in their homes.
The need for homework help is not a new phenomenon, as an increasing amount of school-aged children who struggle with demanding school curriculums.
Guidance counsellor Susan Gardner has seen the negative effects of homework on her students at Fisher Park Public School. She says that, as a general rule, the amount of homework children should be doing each night can be calculated by multiplying 20 minutes times the child’s year of schooling.
By this standard, a child in Grade 3 should be doing roughly an hour of homework each night.
Gardner says this can be problematic, as parents are often too tired or busy after coming home from work to devote that kind of extra attention to their children’s schoolwork.
Add to that bustling classrooms, often with more than 30 spirited pupils per teacher — and Gardner says it can be very hard for students to concentrate.
“That’s why these homework clubs are so important because it helps them to form good habits. It also gives them a nice quiet place to do work where they are given individual attention,” she says.
The project is being sponsored by Rogers in partnership with United Way/Centraide Ottawa.
Three other locations in Ottawa have been chosen in Vanier, Osgoode and Barrhaven. Rogers is donating $5,000 to each community, and plans to open another four homework clubs in 2007.
Rapoch says they hope to have the Laroche Park homework club up and running by the beginning of April.