Our brand-new Think Big Space at Centre Lasallien helps give young people the tools they need to achieve their dreams.
When my mother left Haiti, she left behind everything she knew, with the hope of a better future for her children. I’m a child from St-Michel, one of the most diverse neighbourhoods in the country where over half of the residents are from immigrant families, like mine. Every day I tell myself that I have the privilege, as the director of the Centre Lasallien community centre, to give back to this neighbourhood that I love so much.
St-Michel’s youth can count on 60 dedicated educators who accompany them in becoming engaged, open-minded, proactive and responsible citizens. Likewise, the centre is just one of the many local organizations that provide a safety net for families here. In a neighbourhood that has its fair share of challenges, educators and community organizations continue to work miracles to provide young people with the tools they need to succeed.
And the needs are real. These families live in one of the most economically disadvantaged neighbourhoods in Canada, where statistics show one in three children only eats one meal a day. Moreover, 40 per cent of adults don’t have a high school diploma, and the unemployment rate is double the Montreal average.
Fortunately, the Centre Lasallien is at the heart of an educational city: More than 6,000 students attend one of eight educational institutions located within a radius of 1.5 kilometres. School retention and dropping-in are at the heart of our actions and reflected in our programming. We’ve worked hard developing a project specifically aimed at curbing dropout rates. Since 2016, more than 100 young people have gone through the program: 90 per cent went back to school, and 10 per cent have now entered the job market.
We work hard to bridge the gap between the classroom and the outside world, offering young people a positive way to spend their free time by cultivating their curiosity and desire to learn. Through various programs, the centre’s educators connect young people with different technologies and career paths.
We recently announced the opening of our brand-new Think Big Space, in collaboration with Amazon Web Services. This educational hub gives young people, educators and residents access to a wealth of programming and state-of-the-art equipment where they can learn to code and program, and about robotics and a range of activities in the fields of science, technology, engineering, arts and math.
When we launched this new space, the principal from a neighbouring high school said it “meets needs that we, in school, are unable to meet, no matter how hard we work.” We’ve done our utmost to captivate young people’s curiosity in these fields, and ultimately contribute to equipping St-Michel’s youth with technology skills.
Today, a child who doesn’t know how to code is like a child who couldn’t read a few years ago. The demand for digital talent will continue to increase, as artificial intelligence continues to make its way into a variety of jobs.
So if we want the young people of St-Michel to reach their full potential and dream of becoming engineers, astronauts or scientists, we need to let them experience technologies they might work with one day and give them the tools they need to achieve their dreams.
This is precisely what this new space offers: the opportunity to think big.
When I look at the centre’s youth, I see myself at their age, still uncertain about today and even more so about the future. Our entire team here makes it their daily mission that each child discovers their passion today and carries it out into the future.
We’re profoundly convinced that by focusing on our youth, with the support of everyone in the neighbourhood, St-Michel will help shape our province’s next generation of great thinkers and builders.
Paul Evra is the executive director of the socio-educational Centre Lasallien.