Promote Awareness with Young People About Employment
In the spring of 2019, the team at the Portage residential centre in Lac Écho was able to successfully complete two partnerships intended to help young people at the centre. Portage first partnered with Carrefour Jeunesse-Emploi Rivière-du-Nord to implement a guidance program allowing about fifteen residents aged between 13 and 17 to experience a day in a professional environment they were interested in. The goal of this initiative was to arouse their professional inquisitiveness and help them discover themselves.
So, after a few meetings with a guidance counselor, adolescents at Lac Écho had the opportunity to spend a day in a professional environment of their choosing. They worked as interns with, among others, a filmmaking crew, a street worker, a sex therapist, an interior designer, a barber, and with the coordinator of the Philippe Bond show. They also had the opportunity to experience the following environments: bodywork, animal shelter, biology laboratory and woodworking. This memorable day was a most valuable experience for them, as testified by this resident:
I loved my internship with Julie who was very open minded, answered all my questions and guided me. I immediately felt welcomed upon arriving on site, I felt liked and right at home. Julie knew how to make me comfortable. The group I attended was very interesting, well developed and allowed me to understand several things. Thank you for this great experience.
Better Equipped to Support Young People
The Lac Écho team also called upon the PANDA des Laurentides association, an organization that offers counselors training on Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), in addition to bringing awareness to problems associated with school dropout.
Indeed, these learning disabilities can cause a young person to drop out of school. Portage’s goal is to reintegrate them into the school system and allow them to continue their education, so such training for counselors is more than justified in helping these young people. Another training will follow in the fall and will focus on dyslexia.
Portage would like to acknowledge the essential support provided by PREL: Partenaires pour la réussite educative dans les Laurentides (Partners for Educational Success in the Laurentians) in the implementation and above all, the success, of both initiatives as well as the financial support provided by PREL’s concerted initiatives for school perseverance.
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