Children 6 to 12: Tutors change lives

Children 6 to 12: Tutors change lives

Reena knows all about the difficulties of going to school when English is a second language. “My parents spoke Gujarati, so I didn’t really have the opportunity to get help with homework,” she remembers.

Now she’s is standing in front of a group of excited kids from Maywood elementary school in Burnaby. Most of the students – like her – are either immigrants or live in families where English is not the first language.

Reena and two other tutors are taking part in the Friends of Simon Tutoring Project, organized by Simon Fraser University’s Faculty of Education, and running since the summer of 2006.

United Way of the Lower Mainland helped to develop the program to support at risk children and continues to fund it.

Friends of Simon recruits, prepares and assigns university students as literacy tutors throughout Metro Vancouver. They are helping children that often need extra help in language and literacy development.

Ten-year-old Malik is one of the children being helped. He’s an outgoing boy who’s been coming to the after-class activity for six months.

“We play different games and get to go outside,” he says, with a big grin. Malik was just 6 ½ when he first came to Canada, and his native language is Turkish.

United Way of the Lower Mainland invests in research to identify what children need for their healthy development during middle childhood. We’re helping kids by funding out-of-school programs and educational programs for parents.