Downtown Youth Tutoring Program

The Cause

Our idea is to create a free homework support program for low-income and BIPOC youth in downtown Calgary. We know how hard it is for parents especially those from an immigrant or refugee background to have the financial security to provide homework support for their kids. Often times these kids are learning English as a second language and have to learn a whole new vocabulary but also try to keep up in the school system. This has been seen as especially difficult for older children who enter junior high or high school but with a much lower education level from their home country. We would hire university students and retired teachers to help provide the homework classes and also hold the tutoring sessions at a transit accessible location in downtown Calgary. If funding allows, we will hold a second session in the North East community of Calgary as well. The parents and children would not be required to pay for this program. We will also use the opportunity to provide English training and financial and health care literacy workshops for the parents as well.

This homework program would be held once or twice a week and would allow a drop in format. Many kids cannot necessary make it at all the same time however we will have "floating" tutors who are well versed in different subjects to be there and ready to support when needed. We will also use some of the funding to purchase healthy snacks and beverages of the youth.

We will advertise this program among immigrant serving agencies that have let us know that this would be a much needed program but they do not currently have the capacity to run.

What the end result will be kids that are more confident in their learning abilities, parents that are relieved that their kids have access to extra homework support (many parents feel ashamed and guilty they cannot provide extra curricular education support for their kids due to their income level and also the fact that they do not have time or capacity to help their kids either).

We hope to build a community and hope that as the youth age they will be able to mentor and help as volunteers or one day tutors themselves.

This is a program that currently does not exist in downtown Calgary. We will be applying for other funding as well to sustain.

Funding will be used to pay for space rental, hiring tutors, snacks for kids. We have adequate insurance for this project. This is a great news story and as the potential to be an innovative project.

Who Will it Benefit?

This will benefit low-income youth from ages 8-17 that live near or around downtown calgary.

We have the ability to help up to 25 youth an evening.

We hope to do two evenings a week. during the school year.

This will also benefit the parents of the children as we aim to host financial literacy and English classes as well as healthcare literacy classes.