Ron Suzuki of RC Vancouver Sunrise, introduced our speaker, Mitra Tshan from Britannia School. Ron mentioned that Mitra recently shared that when she graduated from high school she received a scholarship from RC Burnaby. She’s known the generosity of Rotary for a long time. Ron is always asking, well when she retires…
Mitra is a one woman village, known mainly through basketball. She took Britannia senior girls to provincials with very successful results. Through Britannia community programs she works with, Mitra has virtually touched hundreds of families in the community. The way she engages and empowers local youth is amazing. She’s a great model.
Mitra shared that she has walked alongside Ron along the way for the last 20 years. Their shared passion of working with youth on the downtown east side has bonded them.
Trying to fit what Mitra does is sometimes quite confusing as she wears a lot of different hats in the community. A lot of her work is related to her job within Britannia, the only high school on Vancouver’s east side, however her roles extend much further into the community.
The impact Rotarians have had on her community during the pandemic brought to mind for her a quote from Sun Tzu, “In the Midst of chaos, there is also opportunity.” Rotary was very generous in helping with these programs:
- Strathcona Hoop-a-thon: Scholarship Winners
- Britannia Secondary: Adopt-a-School Tech Campaign
- Strathcona Hoop-a-thon: Girls who LEAP (Lead to Empower & Act with Purpose)
- Don Kavanagh Memorial: Britannia Basketball
Scholarship Winners:
Eight students received scholarships this year from the hoop-a-thon! All very deserving students receiving help with the next step in their education, post secondary. The presentation ceremony was a very socially distanced presentation outdoors at Strathcona Park. Mitra has since checked in with most of the recipients – all on-line and settling in.
Adopt-a-School Tech Campaign:
When pandemic hit there were 30 7-year old iPads and 30 laptops in the system for 750 students. As an inner city school technology wasn’t high on the list of priorities. Things such as food security and social crisis were much more of a necessity to focus on. With the pandemic and being forced to go into remote learning they were presented with a huge problem: how to get the students logged on with the right technology so they could continue their education. A lot of the families did not even have Wi-Fi at home. It was very challenging to even begin to tackle the problem. The Minister of Education stated that 93% of the province had the ability to go to remote learning – well, this was certainly not the case for Britannia. They had to do some quick outside the box thinking. During that time, our Rotary Club was one of the first to step in and ask, “how can we help?” For that they are extremely thankful.
Have never known a time when the school and the community centre closed at the same time. A good majority of the students rely on the school to feed them, elementary students get fed multiple times a day every day. It was impossible to deliver food to everyone. They moved to a grocery gift card program so families could shop for themselves. Challenging to switch to a new system.
Needed to figure out how not to leave students behind in education. Close to $53,000 was raised, and with a great deal negotiated with Best Buy, were able to purchase 180 laptops and 2 charging carts. The equipment was put on loan until June with summer school kids able to keep their equipment throughout. A bonus, that after the pandemic is done they will have 5-6 sets on portable charging carts available to all teachers; something they’ve never had before. Extremely grateful to their 3 major funders who stepped in so readily and helped out.
Girls Who Leap (Lead to Empower & Act with Purpose), a registered non-profit:
Were in partnership with the City of Vancouver, when operating as a program. The community centre shut down with the pandemic hence they wouldn’t be able to run any in-person programs. As we all know routine is important, especially for teenagers. Wanted to make sure the youth had schedules; so they’ve been running almost daily providing leadership and mentorship programs with wrap around services to support family. It is 100% volunteer-run, an amazing group of 30+ mentors and elders. The program includes weekly life skill sessions, monthly community outreach, and seasonal “power” weekends.
The youth range in age from grade 6 to 12. The older kids mentor the younger ones, connecting in a way that prepares them when they attend high school. Amazing to see the impact they youth have on each other. Wanting to be guides to the younger kids. Moving into high school can be scary – a lot of positive results from the youth to youth connections.
In the spring when the pandemic hit, they moved to daily ZOOM meetings. Didn’t want the kids to miss out and ensured the gaps were filled. Homework club, a couple of alumnus in university ran the club. Still doing fitness, having discipline to get on line and feel good physically – a few partnerships with Vcr Basketball Assoc for example. Every day between 3-6 there would be some sort of connectiveness.
In the summer, they decided that some in-person programming was needed. They purchased appropriate insurance and did workshops and activities.
Power weekend was scheduled at Zajac Ranch – one of the workshops planned was “anti-racism”, very timely as it turns out providing help for them to navigate what is happening globally now. Really important to work on active witnessing and understand where all this takes them. This is just an example of the amazing workshops teaching these youth real world skills.
Busy weekly schedule. Will add new things as the social requirements open up. Limiting numbers to 10-15 youth per session so need to have multiple sessions to accommodate all the youth registered.
Don Kavanagh Memorial, boys’ basketball:
The boys’ team didn’t have enough uniforms and they were already approx. $2K in the hole. About 90% of kids are not able to pay the $30 fee. Referee costs have increased so much now, it is difficult to make the payments. When Gerry offered for the Rotary Club and specifically the Don Kavanagh Memorial funds to help, it was fantastic.
They encourage the boys to work hard giving back to the community on an on-going basis, Their outdoor basketball camps focus on skill development bundled with off-court sessions (e.g., guest speakers on resiliency, how to turn basketball into a job, alumni sharing journey of breaking out of the cycle of poverty). Their girls have seen some success with almost 20 of them moved on to play post-secondary basketball to fund further education. Still working on this with the boys to improve success.
Gerry delivered crests for the boys uniforms with the Rotary logo and Don Kavanagh’s name on it.
The current school year 2020-21:
The school ran with a Day 1 - Day 2 system – a bit of a disaster April to June. They are now changing to a different format: four quarters. Every 10 weeks the students would switch two classes ensuring they complete the whole program by the end of the school year. ½ the day in person and ½ the day remote to ensure numbers are limited and cleaning time is incorporated. Flex time allows lab and cafeteria lunch time. Don’t know yet how well it will work, it’s only day 2.
Support needed moving forward.
Rotaractors would love to be more involved. Volunteerism is a challenge – because of COVID not allowed outside folks in the building. Will need to put some thought into this. It is important to put faces behind donations.
Ron & Mitra have started a Strathcona Rotaract Club. Provides a structured way for the youth to stay involved in volunteerism.
Teachers trying to navigate teaching both remote and in-class students simultaneously is challenging – classrooms do not have projectors. Trying to find funding for projectors now with rolling carts so they can be shared.
If you have any projects that can support Britannia and their wider community, contact Mitra.
